Greens’ new secret weapon in battle against Gabba development

A mother of two children who attend a school set to be relocated to make way for the Gabba Stadium redevelopment will contest the seat of Coorparoo at the upcoming 2024 Brisbane City Council election.

Greens candidate for Coorparoo ward Kath Angus

A mother of two children who attend a school set to be relocated to make way for the Gabba Stadium redevelopment will contest the seat of Coorparoo at the upcoming 2024 Brisbane City Council election.

Kath Angus has been announced as the latest Greens candidate to challenge one of nine LNP seats, with Coorparoo a “key battleground seat” for the party.

Ms Angus, a midwife and former early childhood educator, will anchor her campaign around the Gabba rebuild and relocation of the East Brisbane State School (EBSS), labelling it a “vanity project” of the major parties.

“The Labor state government and LNP-dominated Brisbane City Council are working hand-in-hand to knock down East Brisbane State School and rip up Raymond Park,” she said.

“Living close to EBSS has meant that our two girls could walk or ride to school each day, but if the campus relocates 2km further east to Coorparoo, that means local families would have to spend more time and money driving instead.

“When I think about all the work our P&C has done on projects to improve our school facilities, like fundraising for airconditioning and play spaces, it makes me really sad that it's all just going to be torn up.”

The Greens have refused to support the Brisbane 2032 Games if elected to power next year.

The Party says it would need to swing 1300 votes to win the Coorparoo seat, but are confident voters would support them due to the party’s strong opposition of the Gabba rebuild.

Greens Mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan said the Gabba project was a “deplorable” waste of money and a Greens-led council wouldn’t support it.

“Cricket has now been confirmed as an Olympic sport, so they’re going to waste billions rebuilding the Gabba cricket stadium to host athletics, spend more money bringing some other venue up to standard to host Olympic cricket, and then even more money on a replacement venue for the AFL – it’s ridiculous,” he said.

“With the Paris Olympics demonstrating that we don’t even need to host opening and closing ceremonies in a traditional athletics stadium, you have to wonder whether $3 billion of public funds couldn’t be better spent on public housing and public transport improvements.”

The Coorparoo ward seat is currently held by LNP Councillor and chair of finance and city governance Fiona Cunningham.

Housing is expected to be strong topic among voters, with nearly half of Coorparoo ward residents currently renting.