Steven Miles warned Redlands Mayor of housing policy takeover, release of prime Straddie land

Redland mayor Karen Williams has spoken of a ‘dark time’ before she crashed her council car drunk but then launched into an attack on Deputy Premier over his decision to take control of her housing strategy.

Redland City Council mayor Karen Williams has spoken of a “dark time” before she crashed her council car drink driving.

Ms Williams was speaking on morning radio about her frustration over the Deputy Minister Steven Miles’ move to take control of her council’s housing strategy, claiming he did not give her fair warning, before she was asked about her drunken car crash.

“It was a dark time,” she said before going on to say she would not allow it to define her and would not allow her city to be used as a pawn in a housing crisis.

Mr Miles said he had no choice but to step in and take control of Redland City Council’s housing strategy after the council refused to update the policy in line with the latest population figures.

Mr Miles was speaking after today’s roundtable meeting, which was a preliminary forum before next month’s housing summit, which will set out goals for dealing with the state’s accommodation shortage.

He said he asked Mr Williams “numerous times” to update the policy and issued her two warnings, one a year ago and another in June.

He said he also spoke with her on the phone on Wednesday after Redland City Council requested the Planning Minister delay a housing land release policy for North Stradbroke Island, now known as Minjerriba.

Under state government rules, consented to last year, 25 lots of land on the island will be transferred to the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation, which oversees native title.

The minister exercised his ministerial powers on Thursday, taking control of updating Redland’s housing policy in an effort to end a bitter four-year battle with the council.

In a radio interview on Friday morning, Ms Williams said she understood that the state had a housing crisis but building houses with no infrastructure would not solve that problem and Redlands was not to blame.

She said she was disappointed Mr Miles did not tell her he planned to swoop when the pair talked on the phone on Wednesday and said her council had been singled out even though it had met all criteria set out by the state and was approving, on average, 900 dwellings a year.

However, she refused to answer questions about her mental health and a “dark time” and why she was three times over the limit when she crashed a council car.

She said members of the community and her family were driving her to work now that she had lost her licence after being three times over the legal limit and getting a six-month suspension.

The mayor gave an insight into the tense state-council relationship when she slammed the minister for giving the media details of his plans to swoop on the council housing policy before the council.

She said Redland was meeting its housing quotas ahead of Logan and Moreton Bay Regional Council and said Redland had been singled out by the state government because it was a small council.

“Between now and 2041, we are required to accommodate 17,000 new homes and as far as our land supply goes, the state has a report for regional areas ... and we’re coming second in meeting our requirements behind Ipswich,” she said.

“The housing strategy is not a regulatory or a legislative requirement - we have a planning scheme that was signed off by the state in 2018 and none of these issues were raised at the time.

“Why was Redlands singled out for a statewide housing crisis?”

In a letter to Redland chief executive Andrew Chesterman, Mr Miles said he had no alternative but to take over the council’s housing planning as its current policy was based on 2006 population data and did not provide for housing diversity.

Along with releasing prime beachfront land on North Stradbroke Island, the new Redland housing strategy will also update policy on acreage blocks in Thornlands, land on southern Moreton Bay islands, and how to patrol short-term leases such as AirBNB, will be the focus of the new state-led policy.

Straddie Chamber of Commerce president Colin Battersby said the island was dealing with a rental crisis with seasonal workers unable to find permanent accommodation and he called for any new strategy to take into consideration tourist areas.

The state allocated $200 million in its budget to crack open developers’ land banks to fix the housing crisis.

“There have been no real planning processes in place for land release on Straddie and now the minister will have to take responsibility and be upfront with who gets what land and how it can be used,” Mr Battersby said.

“It’s a long bow to compare Point Lookout with Capalaba in terms of the Redland city plan and both those residential suburbs are still subjected to the same planning laws.

“We cannot have a one-size fit all housing strategy for places such as Amity, Dunwich and Point Lookout which all have different planning needs — as do mainland suburbs.

“The minister now has an obligation to administer planning rules across the entire city which will mean he will have to crack down on illegal land clearing on the island.”

Redland City Council is in litigation with QYAC over alleged illegal land clearing on the island.

It was likely the new housing strategy would also set out guidelines for controlling and monitoring AirBNB, which had affected rental stock on Minjerriba.

Capalaba MP Don Brown said the state government was likely to finance the policy overhaul which he hoped would end land banking and address the city’s rental crisis.

Capalaba MP Don Brown said Redland council needed help to update its housing policy.

“The council’s housing strategy is totally inadequate and so out of date it does not even include the retail precinct at Victoria Point,” he said.

“We can’t sit back and do nothing while there is a rental crisis, which is forcing hundreds of people out of this bayside area because there is no supply and a vacancy rate of .4 per cent.

“The council cannot continue to count spare blocks of land on Russell and Macleay islands as the city’s land supply.

“There has been a housing explosion on the southern Moreton Bay islands with no infrastructure, despite the mayor’s promise to seal the roads, which has not happened.”

The new strategy will also focus on opening up large tracts of acreage land for housing and ensuring a variety of dwellings were on offer including social housing.

Redland City Council has walked away from a $60 million sewerage plant deal with Lendlease, which is overseeing the Shoreline estate at Redland Bay.

Unlocking land at southern Thornlands, where the council has had a 10-year battle with landowners after it barred subdividing blocks under 10,000 sqm, will also be a focus.

Landowner Mike O’Brien said he hoped a new strategy would allow land in southern Thornlands to be subdivided and condemned the council’s restrictive 10,000 sqm policy.

“Opening up that land will go a long way to redressing the housing crisis in the area and it should have been done 10 years ago before other greenfield sites were released in Redland Bay.”

The ministerial takeover also came after the council this month walked away from a $60 million private sewerage treatment plant project which developer Lendlease planned to build in southern Redland Bay to service its 3000-lot Shoreline estate.

The council was to take control of the plant after it was built and limited the number of houses at Shoreline to 200 before town sewerage was installed.

Ms Williams defended her council’s strategy and said Redland had achieved all housing targets set by the state, which had also signed off on the city’s town plan in 2018 and the current Redlands Housing Strategy for policy up to 2031.

“Council has significantly progressed a new local plan for a new emerging community at South West Victoria Point and is working with the Queensland government in progressing a Priority Growth Area located in Southern Redland Bay,” she said.