Community comment opening for Moreton Bay City plan

Community consultation over Moreton Bay Regional Council’s goal of being recognised as a city will start on November 14.

Chief executive officer Greg Chemello tabled a letter from Electoral Commission Queensland Commissioner Pat Vidgen at this morning’s Council meeting outlining the next step in the process for the region’s reclassification proposal.

Mr Vidgen said Moreton Bay’s submission to the Change Commission would be published on the ECQ website as soon as possible, with the written submission period to open on Monday, November 14 and close at 5pm on Monday, November 28.

His letter says the written submissions will then be published on the website by Monday, December 12 and ECQ would continue to aim to provide a report to the Minister for Local Government in March or April next year.

Changing timeline

Mr Vidgen had earlier indicated Council would have to wait until early next year for community consultation to begin.

“In my original letter I indicated that the Change Commission required the remainder of 2022 to progress other priorities, including divisional boundary reviews,” he said.

“Further analysis of the Change Commission’s divisional boundary review workload has occurred since I wrote to you.

|“As a result, I now propose to amend the MBRC review timeframes.”|

Announcing the proposal in December, Mayor Peter Flannery said it was critically important that Moreton Bay had a defined brand and identity with new tourism offerings ahead of the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.

“This isn’t about semantics so much as it’s about facts - we are already bigger than Ipswich City, and Logan City, and Redland City,” he said.

“We are the third largest local government in Australia, we have one of the fastest growth rates in the country and within two short decades our population will exceed 700,000 to be bigger than the entire state of Tasmania.

“Moreton Bay City will be committed to more innovation, more space and more collaboration to help businesses think bigger, be bolder and build brighter.”