Inner-city bypass condemned
By Jim McIlroy
BRISBANE — "The ALP-controlled Brisbane City Council's planned inner-city bypass will cut a swathe through beautiful Victoria Park and spew traffic out into suburban streets already overloaded in Hamilton and Milton", Democratic Socialist candidate for Central ward Coral Wynter told a Politics in the Pub meeting sponsored by the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre here on March 6.
Wynter is contesting the March 25 Brisbane City Council election along with the Democratic Socialists' Graham Matthews, who is standing in Dutton Park.
"The answer to city traffic problems is a radical transformation of the public transport system which aims to bring people onto buses and trains and out of private motor cars. For a start, bus travel should be made free to pensioners, the unemployed and students, and the bus and train systems should be fully integrated and made more frequent", Wynter told the meeting of election candidates.
ALP councillor for Central ward David Hinchliffe defended the ALP administration's city bypass project, while Liberal candidate Brian Cook tried to sit on the fence.
On the other hand, Cook openly opposed the council's planned safe injecting room for heroin users, while Wynter declared that drug use is a "health issue, not a criminal problem". Illegal drugs should be decriminalised, she said, and a health and social justice plan put in place to tackle the unemployment, poverty and racism which underlie the youth drug crisis.
"The issues of poverty, homelessness and racism are key ones for this election", Wynter said. "We need a comprehensive plan, developed with full community participation, to create thousands of new full-time jobs in the BCC. [The plan would] involve a large-scale program of public works including low-cost housing, traffic calming, bike paths and parks."
Wynter argued, "Direct community control over council decision-making is the key to popular democracy, together with the active involvement of people in campaigns for their rights".
In an election campaign which has so far struggled to ignite any public interest, the issue of the inner-city bypass is one which has begun to stir up controversy in those wards directly affected.
For more information about the Democratic Socialists' campaign, phone (07)3254 0565.