Frustrated south-east Queensland mayors, whose regions are bearing the brunt of soaring population growth, will spend the next two days pressing the case for extra funding for public transport, roads and basic services ahead of the state budget.
Some council areas have fewer bus services than a decade ago and major housing developers are walking away from greenfield sites because services linking land blocks to basic sewerage and power are not in place.
A delegation of mayors from Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Logan, Toowoomba, Redlands, the Scenic Rim, the Sunshine Coast and Noosa will petition MPs this week, arguing their councils need extra year-on-year funding for roads, bus and train services, and sewerage, gas and power.
A total of 900,000 new dwellings will be needed in south-east Queensland to accommodate an extra 2.2 million people by 2046.Credit: Brook Mitchell
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who chairs the Council of Mayors for South-East Queensland, stressed mayors wanted to help find solutions, not demand money.
But Schrinner said councils simply could not meet population growth targets set by the state government in December last year without extra infrastructure funding.
Brisbane’s population is predicted to be 1.72 million by 2046, by which time south-east Queensland will have more than 6 million residents.
The fastest-growing region is still tipped to be Ipswich, which will need an extra 195,100 dwellings by 2046.
But Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has previously said her region’s transport infrastructure funding dropped 6 per cent in 2021-22.
The state budget will be delivered on Tuesday, June 11.