G20 ‘ghost town’ fears
Concerns that Brisbane CBD will be a ghost town during the G20 leaders’ summit later this month has prompted the council to offer free parking in the CBD across the long weekend.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk told 612 ABC Brisbane the council was actively encouraging people to come into the city and look beyond the inconvenience of temporary road closures.
“We will be having free car parking in both the King George Square and Wickham Terrace car parks on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the G20 [November 14-16], he said.
Cr Quirk said a total of 1,130 car spots and 40 motorcycle spots would be free across the two sites over the three days.
“That is a means of encouraging not only the retailers to open but also the public to come on in.”
The Lord Mayor said Brisbane would host 3,000 international journalists for G20 and the massive promotional opportunity for the city could backfire if the CBD became a ghost town.
“I don’t want it to be, and it can’t be, and this is why people have got to look beyond the weekend,” he said.
“Because we know we’ve got a very friendly, very caring population in our city.
“I want the journos internationally to feel that and they can only do that if people are around.”
Public transport fare cuts take effect
The Lord Mayor’s announcement coincided with a 5 per cent cut to public transport fares across Queensland, which comes into effect today.
The State Government used budget savings after the repeal of the carbon tax to reduce fares.
Transport Minister Scott Emerson announced the cuts in September and said today fares on buses, trains and ferries would not rise until 2016.
“That’s a freeze for 2015, next year and then what we’ve committed to is increases of 2.5 per cent, which is below CPI,” he said.
“They’ll increase in 2016 and 2017 as outlined in the budget.
“But today, the first cut in Queensland history statewide of public transport fares.
“If you’re a Monday to Friday commuter on our public transport system you’re paying less now than what you would have been paying under the previous government, so you’ve seen a real fall in the cost of public transport since we’ve come to office.”
Labor’s Jackie Trad said the fare cuts had to be kept in perspective.
“On our calculation, whether you live at Enoggera, Wynnum, Narangba or Ipswich, what a 5 per cent cut to transport fares means for you is less than a cup of coffee a week,” she said.
“I think that’s a reduction but it’s not quite as much as people were expecting given how much Scott Emerson and Campbell Newman have been trumpeting this.
“There is no doubt that there was a very assertive increase under the former Labor government to not only the hard infrastructure but also the service delivery.
“To offset the cost of that, fares did increase, but now what we’re seeing is a system that is one of the most expensive systems in Australia, and that needs to be addressed I think.