Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that Russell, Karragarra, Lamb and Macleay islands were subdivided 50 years ago without “services normally provided In urban areas including sealed roads with concrete kerb and channelling and reticulated sewerage” (eg The Shire of Redland used this standard in its Development Control Plan for the islands QGC No 33 20 February 1988 p906). Now up to 10,000 residents have to put up with sub-standard roads, many of them half-normal width with many yet to be sealed. With the rollout of such poor infrastructure, landowners have collectively seen $346.1 million wiped off the unimproved value of their island land in the last 10 years. This has brought the median unimproved value of an unsewered Russell Island lot below that of the cost of providing reticulated sewerage to that lot. In 2001, the state government offered 60/40 per cent subsidies for sewerage treatment facilities. Yet the islands remain unsewered and there are now heightened risks to public health and surrounding Moreton Bay marine life from overflowing on-site septic systems.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to set up a Commission of Inquiry as to why Redland Shire Council/Redland City Council has failed to provide these islands urban infrastructure to a standard normally provided in other urban areas and to recommend a means to remedy this failure.