SEQ Council of Mayors overseas trip to Singaporean robot army, French communists

A visit to the control centre of a robot army and meetings with Communist Party politicians were some of the weird highlights of a SEQ mayors fact-finding trip.

(Clockwise from top left) SEQ mayors visited Singapore's Gardens By The Bay, Manchester's MediaCity and SportCity, as well as Adidas stadium in Paris.

The leaders of nine southeast Queensland councils have returned from a fact-finding trip where highlights included a visit to a robot army control centre and meetings with French Communist councillors.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, one of eight mayors and a deputy mayor who visited Singapore, Manchester in Britain and the French capital of Paris, gave Brisbane City Council a detailed rundown of the trip at this week’s Brisbane City Council meeting.

Mr Schrinner, who last year travelled to Switzerland for an Olympic cities meeting and to inspect the Hess factory where Brisbane’s Metro buses were being made, said the latest visit offered valuable insights into how to host the 2032 Games.

The mayors also studied some of the world’s best waste recycling and water storage facilities, the renowned Gardens By The Bay tourist park in Singapore and businesses including a subsidiary of Singtel Optus.

In what he described as an “eye opener’’ of a trip, Mr Schrinner detailed a visit to the control centre for Singapore’s army of cleaning and security robots.

The Marina Bay/Gardens By The Bay area of Singapore. File photo: iStock

“One of the moments that I’ll never forget is they’ve developed a program for cities to manage their fleet of robots,’’ he said.

“They have security robots to patrol areas and they’ve got a software system that manages all of the city’s robots.

“One thing we did discuss with them is that, in Australia, security robots have been beaten up by the public and that was quite surprising to the Singaporeans.’’

There were laughs from the Labor and Greens Opposition councillors when Mr Schrinner talked about meetings with French officials, including some Communist politicians.

“There’s 34 deputy mayors in Paris and the (deputy mayor) that we were meeting had very similar housing policies to the Greens,’’ Mr Schrinner said.

“I was like, sounds very familiar … they have Communist Party councillors there (and) basically they support our vacancy tax, so it was like being in a parallel universe.’’

Adidas Arena in Paris.

He went on to remind the chamber that former Greens Councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan had recently insisted he was not a Communist.

Mr Sriranganathan’s Greens successor in The Gabba ward, Trina Massey, interjected and asked if Mr Schrinner had learned anything about progressive social housing policies like those spruiked by her party.

On a more serious note, Mr Schrinner said the trip had offered valuable insights into state-of-the-art waste-to-energy systems, smart parking and traffic management systems in Singapore.

Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan briefed the mayors on legacy Games infrastructure such as Paris’ Adidas Arena and how to use the Olympics for urban renewal.

Sportcity in Manchester. Image: iStock

The mayors discussed air taxis with Charles de Gaulle Airport officials in Paris, mass transit systems and how Paris managed street cleaning and rubbish collection.

In Manchester, the mayors visited MediaCity and SportCity, which had been built in rundown industrial areas and were now home to the BBC and the famed Manchester football club.

Mr Schrinner said they also discussed the Manchester City Deal and how the English national government had devolved power and funding sources to local governments.

That had allowed Manchester to take over the local transit authority and provide other services.

“They have really used that to gear up their levels of service, to create new funding sources to service their community,’’ he said, opining on how wonderful that would be in Australia.

“That also relieves pressure on the national government because the local government can be self-sustaining.’’

Originally published as SEQ Council of Mayors overseas trip to Singaporean robot army, French communists