The Gabba: Drew Hutton
The new ward, The Gabba, takes in the suburbs of South Brisbane, West End, Highgate Hill, Woolloongabba, Kangaroo Point and parts of East Brisbane.
See the ECQ site for more details.
I have been a campaigner almost all my adult life and have blended my communitarian philosophy and outlook with a commitment to universal values such as human rights and environmental justice.
At the same time as I was a high school teacher and then a college lecturer in the sixties, seventies and early eighties I was also involved in the anti-Vietnam War campaign, campaigns against uranium mining and for nuclear disarmament and support for Indigenous land rights struggles. I was a teacher educator in the seventies and eighties and influenced the content of social science curricula and championed peace and environmental education in schools as well as more democratic school environments and teaching practices.
Over the last two-and-a-half decades I have been a key organiser or spokesperson for campaigns against freeways, the improper storage and transport of hazardous waste, against evictions of poorer residents in inner-city suburbs and other urban development issues and for nuclear disarmament and public transport. I fought against the authoritarianism and corruption of the Bjelke-Petersen government during the seventies and eighties. My work against pollution resulted in a 1994 Criminal Justice Commission inquiry into toxic waste dumping in Queensland, an inquiry which highlighted massive problems and led to pressure on the Goss Government to introduce an excellent piece of legislation - the Environmental Protection Act. Since then I have been active on many environmental campaigns such as land clearing and the environmental management of mining and have continued my interest in peace issues with my activities during the war against Iraq. I have been the main spokesperson for the Queensland Greens since 1991.
I have also been a resident of West End for the last 22 years and have been very active on local issues. While many Brisbane residents were looking forward to Expo 88, I was actively campaigning against the evictions of poorer tenants from areas surrounding the Southbank site. My most recent involvements have in the campaign to stop the Hale Street Link, a project that will bring much more traffic and air pollution into the suburbs of West End, South Brisbane and Dutton Park and the North-South Bypass Tunnel which will increase air pollution in the Woolloongabba area and increase the number of cars on all of Brisbane’s roads.
I am running in this election because I am angry with the way both Labor and Liberal parties are treating their constituents, especially those in the inner city. Like many in this ward, I accept the need for more intensive residential development in suburbs close to the city centre but I deplore the poor planning and lack of commitment to community consultation that ensure that bad decisions for the city like the Hale Street Link and the North-South Bypass Tunnel become daily nightmares for the people of this ward. As far as I am concerned there should be no local development without local leadership.
Both Labor and Liberal are far too dependent on donations from developers, with the community coming off second-best when key planning decisions are made. The Greens are committed to complete transparency on this issue and will not take donations from developers.
When Brisbane should be showing international leadership in such areas as the provision of public transport and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Council members vote for measures like the TransApex program that will put more cars on the road, thereby increasing the city’s greenhouse emissions. Rather than grasping some of the challenges and opportunities that go with reducing our ecological footprint, the Council is mired in last century thinking. The Greens will show the sort of leadership and vision on issues such as public transport, cycling and pedestrianisation, action on climate change, provision of affordable housing and sustainable water policy that is currently missing from Council.
I am also concerned that Council’s TransApex program is endangering the city’s financial situation. This crisis won’t hit us this year but will start biting in 2010 when payments for big projects like the NSBT and the Hale Street Link come due. The Greens are opposed to cavalier financial adventures like these and want to chart a direction for city transport that is far more financially responsible and emphasises public transport and cycling.
