December 2021 Newsletter

Christmas Office Closure

The Committee for Brisbane office will close at COB on Friday 17 December and reopen on Monday 10 January.

We wish all Members and friends a safe and happy festive season and thank you for your support throughout the year, with special thanks to:

Event venue partner: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre
Legal advice: McCullough Robertson Lawyers
Bookkeeping and our office host: BDO
Graphic design and website support: Portfolio Creative Design
Media advice and management: Three Plus

And to our Members and friends who opened their doors during COVID and safely hosted meetings and forums for us this year:

Accenture
Aurecon
BDO
Deloitte
Dexus (The Grove)
HopgoodGanim Lawyers
McCullough Robertson Lawyers
Metro Arts
News Corp
Populous
PwC
Queensland University of Technology
The University of Queensland
Transurban
Urbis

Brisbane 2050 - what could we be?

About 100 of Brisbane’s biggest and boldest thinkers attended a briefing last week to learn about and register their interest in helping to reimagine Brisbane’s inner city (a 2022 project).

The Committee for Brisbane, Planning Institute of Australia, Australian Institute of Architects and Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, with research support from The University of Queensland, launched a collaboration to “reimagine the inner city” (defined as the CBD, Fortitude Valley, Spring Hill, South Brisbane and Woolloongabba).

The project will explore the future, or futures, for Brisbane’s inner city to 2050 and consider what strategies and actions could be put in place to ensure the city centre recovers its vibrancy and continues to play its role as the city’s economic heart, focussing on five key themes:

Connectivity
Creativity
Equity
Enterprise
Sustainability

The project has been created to generate a positive and proactive response to the Committee’s annual Inner City Vitality Report, the fourth edition of which was released in early November, that has painted a pretty bleak picture of our inner city economy for the past couple of years.

With the support of baseline research being conducted by The University of Queensland, the project will access and analyse data to provide a sound platform to inform decision-making.

Planning Institute of Australia State Manager, Queensland and NT, Matt Collins, said the project’s objective was to encourage blue-sky thinking about the inner city’s future.

“Using the significant skills and experience of our collective memberships, we want this collaboration to reimagine Brisbane’s inner city over the next 30 years and produce new work that considers megatrends and issues and sets out future directions for Brisbane,” Mr Collins said.

Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter President, Dr Michael Lavery, said the project also proposed to positively influence city-making leading into the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics, while responding to the opportunities and challenges of COVID-19 for city centres.

“Importantly, the reimagining project will look to propose a group of transformational, city-building projects to help reshape and revitalise our inner city,” Dr Lavery said.

Australian Institute of Landscape Architects Queensland President, Tessa Leggo, said the project partners wanted to facilitate a cross discipline, no-agendas review of Brisbane’s inner city.

“We’re excited to invite Expressions of Interest from specialists and big thinkers from across our memberships to share their expertise and views, to reimagine what Brisbane city can be,” Ms Leggo said.

The reimagining project is scheduled to start in early 2022 and deliver its outcomes by mid-2022, including providing a submission as part of Brisbane City Council’s City Centre Master Plan review.

To register your interest in participating in the project, please email: reimagining@committeeforbrisbane.org.au

Thank you Populous for hosting the Briefing.

Talking Olympics and Paralympics with Minister Hinchliffe

The Committee’s Advisory Council recently met with the Honourable Stirling Hinchliffe MP, Minister for Tourism, Innovation and Sport and Minister Assisting the Premier on Olympics and Paralympics Sport and Engagement.

The Minister spoke about Parliament’s recent passing of the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Bill, that will establish the critical Organising Committee to fund and run the 2032 Games, and shared his view that there will be a number of legacies from the Games:

Economic: job creation, capacity building
Environmental: climate positive outcomes
Social: the single biggest opportunity for reconciliation and a pathway to Treaty
Sport: multiple opportunities for SEQ in the lead up to the Games and beyond

Advisory Council members discussed opportunities for SEQ for new sports hubs and centres of excellence – and the role that industry might play – as well as the economic opportunities for the region from a carbon positive Games.

Our Advisory Committee comprises:

Steve Wilson AM, Chairman, Racing Queensland (Chair)
Eddie Scuderi, Partner, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
David Carter, Group CEO, RACQ
Delvene Cockatoo-Collins, Quandamooka woman and artist, Minjerribah
Ian Frazer AC, CEO and Director of Research, Translational Research Centre
Harvey Lister AM, Chairman and Chief Executive, ASM Global (Asia Pacific)
Jason Scott, Managing Director Queensland and Regional Media, News Corp Australia
Sue Johnson, Group Executive Queensland, Transurban
Julieanne Alroe, Professional Non-Executive Director
Kate Jones, Commissioner, ARL
Li Cunxin AO, Artistic Director, Queensland Ballet
Peter Varghese AO, Chancellor, University of Queensland
Raynuha Sinnathamby, Managing Director, Springfield City Group
Tracy Stockwell OAM, Deputy Chair, Swimming Australia Ltd
Trevor St Baker AO, Founder and Co-chair, St Baker Energy Innovation Fund

Reconciliation Action Plan underway

The Committee for Brisbane has commenced a process to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) by registering with Reconciliation Australia and formally advising our intent to commence a Reflect RAP (the first level of a RAP).

The project is being led by a RAP Work Group, a sub-committee of our First Nations Advisory Group. We are scheduled to complete the Reflect RAP by mid-August 2022.

There will be engagement with CFB members throughout the process, commencing in March 2022 (at this stage), to ensure the CFB RAP is consistent with those of CFB Members and encompasses Members’ expectations of the Committee’s engagement with First Nations’ people.

The Committee is also consulting with its peers in the Committees for Cities and Regions network across Australia.

Our First Nations Advisory Group was established in August 2021 to provide:

strategic guidance in the development and oversight of a Reconciliation Action Plan for CFB and potentially for some of its members; and
strategic advice and guidance on other CFB matters as requested by the CFB Management Committee.

It is hoped that the Committee (both directly and through the RAP) can work to increase knowledge and understanding of First Nations’ cultures in the region.

The RAP Work Group comprises:

Cameron Costello, Deputy Chair, Queensland Tourism Industry Council
Bridget Garay, Senior Managing Producer – First Nations, Queensland Music Festival
Cody Meakin OAM, Director – Corporate Support and Housing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service Brisbane
Shannon Ruska, Brisbane Traditional Owner; Managing Director, Tribal Experiences
Brian Wyborn, Director, Senior Wealth Advisory, JB Were
David Hertweck, Management Committee Member, Committee for Brisbane
Barton Green, CEO, Committee for Brisbane
Julian Page, Policy and Research Manager, Committee for Brisbane

Smart Region projects for 2022

Following the successful mid-year launch of the Committee’s SEQ – Australia’s First Data Community Paper, a Steering Committee has been established to drive priority projects in 2022.

The Steering Committee will hold a planning session in mid-February 2022 to draft project plans for three priority initiatives identified at a recent workshop:

Digital Twin for SEQ
Data Exchange
Smart Infrastructure Policy for Queensland

The projects are joint initiatives of the Committee for Brisbane and the Smart Cities Council (ANZ) and are being led by a Steering Committee that comprises:

Adam Beck, Executive Director, Smart Cities Council
Aden Gutman, Infrastructure and Planning Coordinator, COM(SEQ)
Aldo Gutierrez, Director, Data Analytics, McGrath-Nicol
Barton Green, CEO, Committee for Brisbane
Bob Bidwell, Director, Stradbroke Infrastructure Advisory
Clara Owen, National Director Asset Management, Arcadis
Daniel Dudarec, Senior Digital Project Manager, DBM Vircon
Fahim Khondaker, Partner, Data Analytics & Insights, BDO
Ian Hatton, Principal Smart City, Complete Urban
Julian Page, Policy and Research Manager, Committee for Brisbane
Kris Carver, Group CEO, ENTAG
Luke Abercrombie, Head of Technology, Transurban
Maria Chiozzi, Consultant, PCSG
Merrick Spain, CEO, Civic Analytica
Sophie Walker, Executive Manager, Community and Stakeholder Engagement Qld, NBN Co
Wilma James, Director Business Development, Data61, CSIRO

New Members

The Committee recently welcomed 11 new Members, one upgraded Member and five Affiliates.

Corporate Leader

QUT (upgrade from Corporate Member)

Corporate Member

Stantec
Moore Australia

Enterprise Member

Queensland Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub

Associate

Fiona Gaske
Mark Thomson
Liz Golding
Virginia Freebody
David Freer
Sid Gupta
Alice Carpin
Michael Major

Affiliate

Suburban Futures
Fashion Council Queensland
Interactive Games and Entertainment Association
Children’s Hospital Foundation
Health & Wellbeing Queensland

Download PDF

Newsletter Archive