Brisbane council election: Lord mayoral rivals commit to independent policy audit

All three Brisbane lord mayoral candidates have committed to having their policy costings independently audited ahead of polling day.

Brisbane lord mayoral candidates Jonathan Sriranganathan (Greens), Tracey Price (Labor) and incumbent Adrian Schrinner (LNP). Picture: John Gass

• Opinion: Will debate have impact?

The Greens are yet to start the process of having their election policy costings independently audited, while Labor and the LNP are well advanced, having engaged auditors weeks ago.

Questions over potential rate rises, price tags placed on campaign promises, and each candidate’s views on the Olympics came to the fore during Brisbane’s lord mayoral debate on Thursday.

All three candidates committed on stage on Thursday to having their campaign promises externally audited and releasing the financial statements before the March 16 election day.

The Greens’ Jonathan Sriranganathan said he had already published his costings on his website, but asked Labor’s Tracey Price on stage who her party had engaged to audit their costings, before adding that he was “happy to look into it”.

Mr Sriranganathan provided further clarification after the debate.

“The audit process simply involves an accountant adding up a party’s cost estimates and confirming that the party has added them correctly; the audit process doesn’t have the capacity to interrogate in detail whether a party’s cost estimates are realistic,” he said.

All candidates were asked to commit to keeping rate rises at or below the rate of inflation.

Ms Price simply answered “yes”.

Mr Sriranganathan said there was “a lack of transparent information” from the LNP council about current revenue sources, but did give a commitment.

“Before we ever consider putting up residents’ rates, we would first look at other revenue sources such as making commercial and larger business sources pay their fare share in rates, increasing infrastructure charges for developers, and slashing spending on wasteful road-widening projects,” he said.

The Lord Mayor was more cautious in his response. He would not give the commitment asked of him, instead referring to his financial performance so far.

“That’s what we’ve done over the past five years in my time as lord mayor, we didn’t make that commitment in the previous election, but we did it anyway,” he said.

“We will do everything possible to keep rates low.

“We don’t know what future shocks are coming … there could be another flood next year.”

The candidates were tight-lipped on their views on the Olympics, with all three dodging repeated questions about their preferences for where the 2032 main stadium should be.

Mr Schrinner sensationally withdrew his support for the $2.7bn Gabba rebuild in December, which ultimately led to the state government pulling back on its commitment and launching a review into Games’ infrastructure.

LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner. Picture: John Gass

The Lord Mayor refused to reveal where he wants the centrepiece based, instead saying he wants an option that saved ratepayers and taxpayers money.

Ms Price gave a longwinded answer which offered no locations, while Mr Sriranganathan reinforced a long-held Greens policy opposing the Gabba rebuild.

Mr Sriranganathan said the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in Nathan “seems to be the least bad option” while offering the Auto Mall site near the Brisbane Airport if the state government insists on building a new stadium.

In what was a civilised debate, a change from three months of name-calling and hyperbolic criticism of each other’s announcements, there were few flash points or interjections.

The only tense moments came between the Lord Mayor and Mr Sriranganathan.

The first came when Mr Schrinner used his first question to list Mr Sriranganathan’s controversial stances – accusing him of creating division by calling police “racist”, attacking landlords and developers, and justifying breaking and entering in certain situations.

But the Greens candidate clapped back: “It’s disappointing the first question ends up just being a series of political attacks rather than a measured political debate.”

Labor candidate Tracey Price. Picture: John Gass

“I don’t think it is divisive to say hey, some people are struggling right now. I don’t think it’s divisive to say, hey, we need to take stronger action on climate change.”

Mr Sriranganathan also became animated when discussing the city’s future housing strategy and the council’s decision to allow higher residential developments under the Kurilpa plan.

“We believe in urban consolidation and putting it where the infrastructure is. That’s the right way and sensible and sustainable way to house more people. Concentrating it is a better answer,” Mr Schrinner opened with.

“I disagree,” Ms Price responded.

“We need a variation of housing across our city. We need to build housing around transport corridors, education facilities and shops to create localised jobs and localised infrastructure.”

It was then Mr Sriranganathan’s turn.

“The most frustrating thing is that a fair chunk of the city still thinks it is a good idea to house more people in the most flood-prone parts of the inner-city,” he said.

“That is madness, wake up Brisbane.

“We want to spread density around, we want it close to public transport hubs, that doesn’t mean every single suburban backstreet. We want to review the whole City Plan.”

Greens candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan. Picture: John Gass