Report: QLD Wouldn’t Have A Housing Crisis If The NIMBY Corruption Watchdog Didn’t Block The World’s Tallest Building In Brisbane

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

In case you don’t know, the leading cause of Australia’s critical under-supply of housing in our cities is the whinging neighbours.

Whether it’s Sydney’s Woollahra Train Station refurbishment in Sydney, or Brisbane’s unsuccessful Olympic plans in Woolloongabba – entitled NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) play a major role in the housing crisis.

But it’s not new.

In April 1986, Queensland was at the back end of 18 years under an National Party-led State Government.

This kind of rural dominance in Queensland politics allowed imaginations to run wild, and legal protocols to be blatantly ignored. It’s the same government that built the Gold Coast overnight – and encouraged unregulated foreign investment into North Queensland resort towns like Cairns and Hamilton Island.

It was a time when Brisbane was transforming from a country town into a roaring metropolis – all because the state government was so corrupt that they didn’t really give a fuck about the inner-city lefties thought.

But even back then, with very little regard for heritage laws or even the most basic environmental impact reports, the Queensland Government was at the mercy of NIMBY movement.

The most tragic victim of NIMBYISM was the then Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson’s failed plans to build the world’s tallest building on the corner of Edward and Turbot streets.

This is extremely dodgy project was rushed through cabinet, and Brisbane became very close to building a $300 million skyscraper. with retail space and endless residential dwelings.

Opponents said the project did not comply with planning regulations and was described as “grossly oversized” at 330 metres tall, which would have made it the biggest man made structure in the world at the time – even taller than the World Trade Centre..

Unfortunately, the NIMBYs won, after exposing that the Premier had engaged in extreme corruption by taking payment from Asian developers, causing his own party to oust him as leader – ending nearly two decades of unbridled progress.

With Queensland now in the midst of a housing crisis due to a lack of high-density urban dwellings, the LNP should hang their head in shame for not championing Sir Joh’s vision to build the world’s tallest building for no reason.