LG Focus catches up with Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery this month.
What is your proudest career accomplishment?
I pride myself on being a Mayor who leads collaboratively to build relationships both internally and externally of council, to support us all working together as team Moreton Bay. I have enjoyed watching our current team of councillors grow in to a respectful team whose primary focus is to deliver positive outcomes for our community, while also being able to respect differences of opinion.
Successfully maintaining a healthy financial position for council with consistently decreasing levels of debt has been has been my proudest achievement for Moreton Bay through these last few turbulent years while contending with a global pandemic, devastating floods in 2022, and rising costs of construction.
Some of my key initiatives that we implemented early in this term of council have delivered for Moreton Bay, the first ever Regional Economic Development Strategy, and the first ever Leaders Forum bringing together all 27 elected members across our region from all three levels of government for encouraging discussions about the Moreton Bay Region. We have also confirmed an Olympic venue for The Mill Precinct in Petrie, and are continuing to achieve increasing investment attractive to our region, contributing to a growing local economy.
And finally, as Mayor of Moreton Bay, it would be remiss of me to not mention that our region is now home to the newest NRL team, the mighty Dolphins. Achieved with collective and ongoing advocacy, stakeholder engagement and partnerships, this will help to put Moreton Bay on the national map.
What makes your city/region special?
Ask any local and they’ll tell you that our natural beauty, lifestyle and affordability are unmatched. We’re close to the capital, close to beaches, close to mountains, and yet a young family can still afford a house here. We want to keep it that way, which is why we’re committed to ‘Going Green As We Grow’.
That means embracing sustainable technologies to support our booming population and also protecting an increasing amount of land from development, so that while we build houses for people we are also protecting habitat to house native wildlife. In fact, we’re aiming to keep 75 per cent of our region’s landmass as green space and 42 per cent of that area is to have native vegetation. We will literally become the lungs of SEQ by containing our urban footprint to 25 per cent of our region. This mission was inspired by overwhelming feedback from local residents about the importance of protecting native habitats in the face of surging population growth.
Fortunately we can look to our neighbours to learn from their mistakes and mimic their successes.
Our polycentric city plan will make Moreton Bay a city distinct from all others in SEQ. The plan will see a strategic deviation away from the traditional CBD model of a city, to create a network of linked business and residential areas surrounded by greenspace.
What are the key planning challenges facing your community?
Planning and building the critical infrastructure needed to support our rapidly growing region. We are one of the fastest growing council areas in Australia, with 11,000 people per year moving to our region.
As well as balancing the community expectation of preserving the character and aesthetic of the many villages and townships around our region in the face of our rapid population growth.
What are your key priorities for the upcoming review of the South East Queensland Regional Plan?
It’s very simple, it’s all about roads and transport in Moreton Bay. We don’t need more studies, we need action. Especially before Caboolture West comes online and 70,000 more people move here. By adding a second crossing over the North Pine River we would rectify this crippling chokepoint in South East Queensland’s road network, that not only impacts the daily commute of locals but is actually creating a productivity issue for our state in terms of transport and logistics. Currently you’d need a miracle to get through the Bald Hills, Murrumba Downs, North Lakes and Deception Bay interchange without traffic. And we all know the problem with the Bruce Highway, especially at the interchanges near Burpengary, Morayfield and Caboolture. Additionally, our region is bisected by the north coast railway line (Sunshine Coast to Brisbane) which has seven open level crossings on key east-west traffic routes and a multitude of bridges and underpasses, none of which have been designed to accommodate the level of movement being forecast.
That means before the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, Moreton Bay needs:
* The Bruce Highway Western Arterial Road
* Add a second crossing over the North Pine River.
* Replace seven railway level crossings with overpass infrastructure.
* Second access for The Mill precinct on to Dohles Rocks Rd.
If you could send one message to the planners of Queensland/Australia, what would it be?
Think outside the box, and look around the globe. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, but we do need to consider what modern Australia will look like. How will we move? How will we live? And if we’re ambitious, let’s dare to ask how can we push the boundaries of subtropical design standards to make cities like Singapore and Rio sit up and look to us an international leader. Other Olympic cities like London and Paris and Beijing were already established global destinations with recognisable brands, let’s use this decade to transform SEQ into a destination that will sit alongside these luminaries and define a new brand for our region. Let’s make sure visitors to SEQ leave overawed.
