‘I won’t let council officers be defamed’ says Quirk

LORD Mayor Graham Quirk has defended his senior staff against suggestions they could be open to corruption when deciding the fate of a controversial aged-care development.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has defended council staff over suggestions “faceless bureaucrats” could be open to corruption.

BRISBANE Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has defended his senior staff against suggestions they could be open to corruption when deciding the fate of the controversial Lota House aged care development at Manly.

During an often passionate public forum dominated by questions over the project, Cr Quirk hit back when a member of the audience claimed allowing “faceless bureaucrats” to make “monumental decisions” under delegated authority was open to abuse.

“There is no transparency and it simply encourages corruption,” the man said as another audience member called “what about Ipswich and Logan?”.

Cr Quirk and members of his Civic Cabinet fielded a string of questions about the multi-million development which residents fear will impact on their “leafy neighbourhood” and way of life.

Village Retirement Group is working with Anglicare to redevelop Lota House - Edwin Marsden Tooth Memorial Home on a prime site overlooking the water.

They claim the development of three six-storey and one seven-story building is already within council’s allowable scale for the site - a suggestion Cr Quirk appeared keen to hose down during Wednesday night’s forum.

He promised the crowd of more than 120 people at Wynnum RSL Club there was a legal process his council was following and it had already written to the developer seeking answers on a range of issues, including its long-term plans to develop the site.

As questions of whether the project should be decided by council staff or elected councillors and whether the facility would be aged care units or simply luxury units, Cr Quirk pointed out the city was falling well short of meeting the requirements of its ageing population.

“ … we are producing, at the moment, about 1000 retirement living and aged care places every year in the city,” he said.

“The demand is for 3500 a year.

“We have an ageing population - that’s the reality - but we are just not meeting the demand.”

But while Cr Quirk was willing to concede he may not share the same view as many in the room, he refused to allow council staff to be attacked.

“There are a myriad of checks and balances that occur within the apparatus that we have,” he said when the suggestion of corruption was raised.

“I would say that if anybody has any information or suspicions of things, there is an appropriate authority they can take it to, to have it dealt with and investigated.

“That authority has been pretty active.

“But I’m not going to sit here and allow the officers to be defamed because I think they do the very best they can on behalf of all of us in the city and they will continue to do that.”