Brisbane City Council could not be trusted to assess its Mt Coot-tha zip line, the Labor opposition claimed as it called for an independent assessment.
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Opposition councillor Steve Griffiths moved an urgency motion on Tuesday to call on the LNP council administration to commit to an urgent external, independent assessment of the zip-line, citing concerns residents would not get a fair go.
The development application for the zip-line was submitted by the council, to the council, for assessment by council officers on Monday.
The motion followed a community meeting about the zip-line on Monday night, which hundreds of residents attended.
Cr Griffiths said residents were concerned because there had never been an application lodged by the council that had been refused.
“They [the residents] also believe it’s urgent because their local councillors, Cr (Julian) Simmonds, Cr (Kate) Richards and Cr (Matthew) Bourke are not interested in representing them and aren’t interested in attending public meetings," he said.
“They believe it's urgent because council’s advertising campaign makes out that the zip-line has already happened and has already been approved.
“They are confused that the administration is going about deceiving people and they believe its urgent because the DA was only lodged yesterday [Monday] and we should have a commitment to a fair process.
“Residents want us to do better. They are concerned, I say they are concerned about perceived corruption in local government and we, Brisbane City Council, need to be above this.”
The urgency motion was not supported with seven non-administration councillors voting in favour and 19 LNP councillors against.
Lord mayor Graham Quirk later said his council had an electoral mandate to proceed with the plan.
“There was nothing hidden in relation to it. It was out there as a commitment,” he said.
“The people of Brisbane had the opportunity to have their say on that matter at that time as well.
“The assessment process is the assessment process. There have been 17 detailed reports, the information of which is all available on PD Online for people to view and to take into account that information when they’re lodging submissions.
“We will make it very public when the submission period comes up around that proposal.”
The proposed Mt Coot-tha zip-line features a canopy zip line of 1.2 kilometres and a separate 1.1-kilometre scenic zip line from the summit of Mt Coot-tha into the Brisbane Botanic Gardens.
There was $717,000 allocated in this year’s budget for the zip line and a further $423,000 in the forward estimates for 2019-20.
