Brisbane was robbed in the liveable cities index, but still outshone Sydney on Origin night

Brisbane has yet again been robbed in the top 10 list of most liveable cities in the world, losing out to Melbourne and Sydney.

But while the southern capitals might like to believe their own hype, no place in Australia compares with the atmosphere in the Cauldron – aka Suncorp Stadium – on Wednesday night when the Maroons utterly trounced NSW in Game II of the State of Origin.

Brisbane is the world’s 16th most liveable city, according to the EIU’s Global Liveability Index.Credit: Felicity Caldwell

But I digress.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Global Liveability Index, released Thursday, said improved healthcare scores - affected by COVID waves in the 2022 rankings - helped Melbourne move from 10th to third worldwide in 2023, while Sydney jumped from 13th to fourth.

Brisbane was relegated to the 16th in 2023, with the future Olympic city bettering its dismal rating of 27th place in 2022, which came after a brief period in the sun in 2021 when Queensland’s performance in managing COVID-19 helped Brisbane into 10th place, just behind Melbourne.

In even more confusing news to Queenslanders, Brisbane’s rating of 16th means it slipped behind even Perth and Adelaide (ranked equal 12th, up from 32nd and 30th, respectively).

In areas of stability (95 out of 100), healthcare (100) and education (100), Brisbane equalled Sydney and Melbourne, but was marked down on culture and environment, getting a score of 93.5 versus Melbourne’s 95.8 and Sydney’s 94.4.

Environment? Brisbane had a maximum winter’s day of 20 degrees on Tuesday.

The weather monitoring station at Melbourne Airport topped 9.4 degrees while Sydney Olympic Park’s temperature range was 2.7 to 17.5 degrees.

I could enter into some petty argument about coffee and the cultural scene in Brisbane, but I don’t feel like sparking that fight.

Infrastructure is where Brisbane really fell behind the Victorian and NSW capitals, scoring just 89.3 to Melbourne and Sydney’s 100.

I agree, more must be done to improve Brisbane’s infrastructure to make it a liveable city on a global scale, and work is ongoing on projects such as Cross River Rail, new green bridges and the transformation of Victoria Park.

But let me just point to peak-hour traffic congestion in Sydney and Melbourne and we can agree: they’re not perfect either.

If Brisbane is not up to scratch with either city, then why will Queensland gain the most residents fleeing other states in coming years, with more than 20,000 set to cross the border annually?

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said people were voting with their feet, which made Brisbane the fastest-growing capital city in Australia.

“I absolutely agree that Melbourne and Sydney are far more leave-able than Brisbane, but when it comes to liveability Brisbane has no rivals,” he said.

“Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly hasn’t been to Brisbane.”

In case you were wondering, Austria’s capital Vienna can retain its bragging rights as the world’s most liveable city.

But ask anyone waking up in Brisbane today whether it’s the best city in the world. How great does it feel to be a Queenslander?