After a solid 2024, here’s what’s in store for Brisbane in 2025

A local and state election, the opening of the Queen’s Wharf precinct, the launch of the Metro network, three new bridges – Brisbane’s “ins and outs” list was solid last year.

But, as is the case with most resolutions, not everything manifested for 2024 came to fruition. There were political swings and misses, projects delivered and further delayed, and fresh doubt over plans for Brisbane Olympic venues.

With 2024 behind us and 2025 underway, it’s time to look at what could be heading in for Brisbane this year, and what could be on the way out.

And remember, it’s still early.

The antidote to resolutions, ins and outs are a manifestation of what you want to see more of in the new year, and what you want to leave behind. Credit: Courtney Kruk

Ins:

The Metro

The Brisbane Metro’s network of high-capacity electric buses launched in October – or so we thought.

A month after “launching” on the 169 route between Eight Mile Plains and the University of Queensland, services came to a stop, with council declaring they had always planned to begin with a four-week trial to collect data and customer feedback before a full rollout.

So now it’s back in again. Council has announced that the first stage of Metro services will commence on January 28, with new school services and the former Route 66 relaunching as M2.

The Metro will also have 50¢ fares, which no-one expected to come in 2024 but are now permanent.

More from Queen’s Wharf precinct

The $4 billion Queen’s Wharf precinct began its staged opening in August, with the initial unveiling including the new casino, Sky Deck, The Star Grand Hotel, a number of restaurants and bars, and public spaces along the riverfront.

The food and drink precinct is largely where hospitality openings will continue in 2025. Less is known about the remaining two luxury hotels, The Dorsett and Rosewood, and the luxury retail precinct.

The hotels were delayed by two years in 2022. There’s currently no indication of when they will welcome guests.

The same can be said of the Queen’s Wharf luxury retail precinct. In April, the precinct’s former anchor tenant DFS launched legal action against Destination Brisbane Consortium claiming it had engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct. A counterclaim was lodged by DBC in August.

The first stage of the Queen’s Wharf precinct opened in August, but there are still more restaurants, bars, two hotels and a retail precinct to come.

For now, Queen’s Wharf remains without an anchor tenant or opening date for its retail component.

Watch this space.

A concrete plan for Olympic venues

Planning for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been a debacle, insofar as venues are concerned, and it looks set to continue into the new year.

Despite the Labor government handing down the results of its 60-day review into Olympic venues in March, leaving the Gabba rebuild behind (and swerving a new stadium at Victoria Park) in favour of a touch up of the old QEII Stadium, there’s currently another review underway.

The LNP government’s 100-day review of 2032 Games planning is due in March (2025), but those hoping to see certain recommendations overturned might still be disappointed.

During the campaign, Premier David Crisafulli pledged not to build a new stadium if elected.

Outs:

Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister?

Brisbane residents were at the ballot boxes twice last year, voting in the council election in March and state election in October. They’ll return to the booths in May (or earlier) with the rest of the nation for the upcoming federal election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has started the year with a pre-election campaign blitz across three crucial states, including Queensland.

The polls have Albanese trailing opposition leader Peter Dutton, with the latest Resolve Political Monitor conducted for this masthead showing the Coalition had 51 per cent support in two-party terms, ahead of Labor on 49 per cent (assuming preferences flowed as they did at the previous election).

David Crisafulli and Peter Dutton at the October 4 campaign stop.Credit: Cameron Atfield

With Queenslanders having just elected an LNP state government, the main consequence of a federal conservative swing would be the prospect of a better deal from Canberra.

But there is also contention between the state and federal party’s stance on energy policies.

Dutton has put forward plans to build 14 nuclear reactors across the country by the mid-2040s with an estimated bill of more than $331 billion. Crisafulli has previously said he would not support nuclear energy in the state until it had bipartisan backing federally, and repeatedly said during the campaign it was “not part of our plan”.

Youth crime

Before Crisafulli was elected, data showed youth crime rates in Queensland had fallen to near-record lows. Despite this, the LNP campaign vowed to respond to a “crisis,” through laws promising harsher punishment for children, which passed through parliament late last year.

With kids now able to be sentenced as adults for a range of crimes, by the LNP’s metric we should see a (further?) decline in youth crime rates in 2025. But deterrence and prevention is not what politicians have been preparing for.

In light of delays to the 76-bed juvenile prison at Wacol, the LNP has extended funding for the Caboolture watch house to house children until the end of the year to relieve capacity issues in youth detention facilities.

Keeping kids locked up in watch houses is not to be taken lightly. These facilities have been heavily criticised as violating human rights and putting children at risk.

More bridges across Brisbane

Were we too spoiled with bridges in 2024?

The year saw three new bridges enter Brisbane’s realm: the Breakfast Creek Green Bridge/Yowoggera in February; the privately funded Neville Bonner Bridge in August; and the Kangaroo Point Bridge in December.

The excitement of the Kangaroo Point connection was slightly dampened when Brisbane City Council announced it would only fund one more “green bridge” from an initial list of five.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner then asked for federal funding to build a bridge from Toowong to West End, having abandoned plans for a St Lucia link “due to rising costs, lower-than-expected revenue and changing community expectations”.

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