Settle the politics and get on with the metro job

Say what you like about Campbell Newman and Peter Beattie, but when the former ran city hall and the latter ran Queensland, things got done in the state capital.

Say what you like about Campbell Newman and Peter Beattie, but when the former ran city hall and the latter ran Queensland, things got done in the state capital.

Today we have learned Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has accused the Palaszczuk Government of withholding millions of dollars in crucial federal funds ear marked for the council’s Brisbane Metro project.

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Cr Schrinner cleverly used the spectre of another administrative quagmire developing by likening the alleged delay in metro funding to the long, tortuous route that was the Adani Coal Mine approvals process.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has blasted the State Government over delays to the Metro project. Picture: AAP Image/Claudia Baxter

Cr Schrinner also revealed the Metro had to be modified after the State Government told the council it would have to scrap the planned Cultural Centre Station, planned to be built under the Brisbane Convention Centre.

That modification came despite the council holding more than 200 meetings with State Government officials to discuss details of the project.

“It is clear to me right now that this project is on a go slow for purely political reasons,’’ Cr Schrinner said.

State Transport Minister Mark Bailey has hit back saying the Queensland Government supported Metro “in principle’’, but would not be rushed to suit Cr Schrinner’s election timetable, which includes a local government poll in March,

Political tensions are inevitable between the Brsbane City Council and the State Government, sometimes even when a political party controls both.

Balancing politics with practicalities was one of the hallmarks of Premier Beattie’s and Lord Mayor Newman’s political careers, despite coming from opposite sides of the aisle. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

But many Brisbane residents will remember in the early years of this century how former Labor Premier Peter Beattie and Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newman artfully balanced politics with practicalities, and kept things ticking over in the city.

They did so by an effective working relationship built on mutal trust, swift and effective comumunication and a shared desire to get things done.

Brisbane Metro route map. The Cultural Centre station is at the centre of a war of words between the State Government and Brisbane City Council. Picture: File.

The Busway under King George Square, the North-South Tunnel and Hale Sreet Link and the mutual co-operation which led to the Airport Link all sprang out of the Beatte/Newman era.

It is hoped the skirmishing between George Street and city hall is just that _ skirmishing.

Because rate payers won’t benefit from an all out war.

Both sides should settle this matter quickly, and leave petty politics out it.

ends.