Frustrated mayors in southeast Queensland, whose regions are bearing the brunt of population growth, will spend the next two days pressing the case for extra funding for public transport, roads and basic services before the state budget
Some council areas have fewer bus services than a decade ago, and major housing developers are shying away from brownfields because there are no services connecting blocks of land with basic sewer and electricity.
A delegation of mayors from Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Logan, Toowoomba, Redlands, Scenic Rim, Sunshine Coast and Noosa will petition MPs this week, arguing their councils need extra annual funding for roads, buses and rail services. and sewer, gas and electricity.
A total of 900,000 new homes will be needed in south-east Queensland to accommodate an additional 2.2 million people by 2046.Credit: Brook Mitchell
Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who chairs the Southeast Queensland Council of Mayors, stressed that mayors wanted to help find solutions, not demand money.
But Schrinner said councils simply would not be able to meet the population growth targets set by the State Government in December last year without additional funding for infrastructure.
Brisbane's population is projected to be 1.72 million by 2046, by which time south-east Queensland will have more than 6 million residents.
The fastest growing region will still be Ipswich, which will need an extra 195,100 homes by 2046.
But Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has previously said funding for her region's transport infrastructure will drop by 6% in 2021-22.
The State budget will be delivered on Tuesday, June 11.
