Hon. Mick de Brenni
MEMBER FOR SPRINGWOOD
Record of Proceedings, 26 June 2026
Deputy Speaker, with your indulgence, I would firstly like to wish my beautiful bride, Kristie, a happy 22nd wedding anniversary. I love you more than ever, and I am very sorry I cannot be with you today.
Budgets reveal priorities. They reveal what a government values. They reveal whether election promises were genuine commitments or simply slogans designed to win votes.
This budget reveals a government that promised Queenslanders one thing before the election and delivered something completely different afterwards.
Queenslanders were promised cost-of-living relief for as long as they needed it.
They were promised no cuts to public services.
They were promised infrastructure delivery.
They were promised no new stadium.
Instead, they have received delays, broken promises and a government that is taking more from Queenslanders while giving less back.
I believe that Queenslanders are now discovering the difference between campaigning and governing.
The Crisafulli government was very good at campaigning, but this budget shows the LNP is struggling with governing.
The Premier promised Queenslanders that reports of Public Service cuts were completely untrue—not my words, his words—
yet Queenslanders have seen public servants shown the door, services reduced and expertise lost.
This defining feature of this government has become simple: one thing before the election and something completely different afterwards.
Nowhere is that clearer than in this budget.
Queensland families looking for help with the cost of living will find very little relief here.
People in the community I serve tell me their household budgets will now be under increased pressure.
Meanwhile, this government continues to collect more and more revenue from Queenslanders.
Stamp duty revenue has increased and royalties are increasing by billions, yet Queenslanders are not seeing that return through meaningful cost-of-living support.
This government is taking more from Queenslanders, making more from Queenslanders and giving less back.
At the same time this government is taking $4.9 billion in funding for critical health, transport and infrastructure projects and pushing it back—meaning projects are delayed—communities are left waiting and opportunities are missed.
That is not what Queenslanders were promised.
The consequences are being felt in communities like the ones I represent.
Residents across Logan and the southern Redlands know exactly what the infrastructure delays are going to mean for them:
they sit longer in traffic, and that costs;
they spend less time with their families, and that is not fair;
they travel on roads that need upgrading, and that is just dangerous;
and they continue waiting for projects that should already be underway.
That is what the LNP has delivered for them.
Labor secured a $1 billion down payment to finish the M1 between Daisy Hill and the Logan Motorway.
We secured the funding, we got the project moving and we did the work, yet today the community is still waiting for certainty, waiting for timeframes, waiting for answers and waiting for the government to explain where the project sits in its priorities.
That is what the LNP has delivered on this—nothing.
The same applies to Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road.
Labor funded the planning because we recognised the need, yet local residents say they cannot see in this budget any funding to progress the project.
The same story is repeated at Mount Cotton Road.
The budget mentions an upgrade at the Valley Way intersection, but where is the scope, where is the funding detail, where is the construction timetable and where was the community consultation?
Most importantly, why has the government failed to progress the project the community actually overwhelmingly supported:
the upgrade to the intersection of Mount Cotton Road and Double Jump Road—
an intersection where lives have been lost, an intersection that has already undergone planning and consultation and an intersection local residents know needs action?
In fact, the southern Redlands have been left out in the cold in this budget.
There is no metro funding.
There is no mention of the stage 2 upgrade to Cleveland-Redland Bay Road, even though Labor had it shovel-ready.
There is no mention of the new mental health facility at Redland Hospital.
No funding amounts nor timelines for the car park within the Weinam Creek Priority Development Area can be found.
The LNP budget delivers nothing locals can see, especially in the southern Redlands.
Too often this government talks about infrastructure while delaying the very projects communities need.
The same can be said for community safety.
Before the election, the LNP promised safer communities.
Instead, locals have seen a government which had to be dragged kicking and screaming into keeping local police beats open.
In Springwood, more than 1,850 people signed a petition not asking for something new or extravagant but simply asking the LNP government not to take something away from them.
Think about that.
The community had to fight to stop a police facility from disappearing.
Even now, one facility remains closed and overall staffing in our police beats is down 75 per cent.
That is not strengthening community safety; that is retreating from it.
That is why locals do not feel safer.
The Logan district is one of the busiest policing districts in Queensland.
The Springwood Police Station serves more than 40,000 residents. Those police need our support.
Our communities need visible policing.
That is why I will continue fighting for additional police officers, upgraded police beats and security cameras at Underwood Park, Homestead Park and Usher Park and at key road intersections.
These do not show up as priorities in this budget.
The same lack of priority can be seen in emergency services.
As Logan and the southern Redlands continue to grow, demand for our firefighters continues to grow too.
The Mount Cotton Road fire station needs an aerial appliance because it could and would save lives, and it would already have saved lives.
That should be enough, but it is not enough for this self-obsessed Premier.
Community infrastructure tells a similar story.
This government talks about strong communities, but strong communities are built through investment.
They are built by volunteers, parents, sporting clubs and community organisations working together, and governments should be supporting that effort.
Instead, hardworking local volunteers are being left waiting because this LNP government clearly does not care about them.
The budget references projects, including a new hall at Shailer Park State High School and upgrades for Cornubia Park Netball Association.
Today they held their sports day and the students had to compete in the rain because the hall has not been delivered.
In the budget there is no clear funding envelope, no construction timetable and no certainty for the community.
Two years later people are still waiting.
The same question remains: where is the funding for the outside-school-hours-care facility at Kimberley Park State School?
This omission proves how fake the LNP are.
Where is the Mount Cotton State School hall and performing arts centre? That omission proves that the LNP are, once again, taking Mount Cotton for granted.
Where are the Springwood State High School and Springwood Pumas upgrades? Where is the support for a canteen, toilets and the basics of accessible pathways for the Rochedale Rovers?
Where is the help for the Creek Tigers?
Where is the help for the Springwood Suns?
Local sporting clubs are being asked to fend for themselves, while billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money is committed to a stadium Queenslanders were promised would never be built.
You get a stadium on the north side but nothing concrete for your local sporting club.
Then there is housing.
Perhaps nowhere is the gap between promise and performance greater.
Queenslanders were promised action on housing, yet families continue to struggle.
Young people continue to wonder whether they will ever own a home.
Vulnerable Queenslanders continue to wait for support.
When Labor was in government, we built housing—real homes for everyday people.
That is what action looks like.
That is why Labor’s budget reply offers practical solutions that help Queenslanders now while building for the future.
Labor will introduce a portable rental bond scheme.
We will return rental bond interest to renters.
We know that renters are doing it tough. We know that moving house can place enormous pressure on a household budget.
Allowing renters to transfer their bonds between properties and returning the interest earned on those bonds will provide real help to get a foothold.
Labor will also introduce free registration for Queensland apprentices.
Queensland had around 74,000 apprentices and trainees in training last year.
Many rely on vehicles to get to worksites and transport their tools. Free rego for them and their trade supervisor too if they are in a small business will reduce costs, support skills development and help address the workforce shortages holding back housing construction.
Labor has won permanent protection of 50-cent fares.
We have secured the numbers in this parliament to lock 50-cent fares in law—a practical measure that is already helping Queenslanders every day.
It is happening because thousands of Queenslanders signed our petition.
Labor will increase support for Queensland’s multicultural communities through greater investment in festivals, events and community programs because Queensland’s diversity is one of our greatest strengths.
Labor stands against division, whilst the LNP is too weak and too scared of Pauline Hanson.
The true test of a budget is simple: does it make people’s lives better?
Does it help them get home sooner?
Does it make their community safer?
Does it help their local sporting club?
Does it help them find an affordable place to call home?
The answer many people in Logan and the southern Redlands gave me this week was, ‘No, this budget does not.’
They said it is not a budget of delivery; it is a budget of delays.
It is not a budget of investment; it is a budget of sneaky delays.
It is not a budget that meets the needs of growing communities; it is a budget that leaves them waiting.
Labor’s budget reply offers a different path:
support for renters and real solutions on housing affordability;
support for apprentices and tradies;
support for affordable transport; and
support for multicultural communities.
They are practical measures that help Queenslanders now while building for the future.
They are practical measures that bring people together.
They are practical measures that give people who work hard a hand up.
They are measures that put us all on a level starting line and help us succeed. Queenslanders deserve more than slogans.
They deserve more than words that rhyme.
They deserve a government that does what it says.
This budget shows, once again, that the Crisafulli government is all photo-op and no follow-up.
Deputy Speaker, before I conclude my speech, and with your indulgence and that of the House, I want to speak briefly about someone whom many in this place know well.
Darren Cann has been a familiar face in this House for many years.
Our entire Labor team and even those opposite such as the Premier and the Deputy Premier have come to know Darren well.
He has served as a senior adviser to Labor governments and oppositions since the Bligh government.
It is with deep sadness that I share that Darren will soon be moving on, having been offered an undeniable opportunity to expand his horizons and his career.
I have had the great fortune of working closely with Darren during my time in this place, particularly as a leader of the house and now as the Manager of Opposition Business.
His ability to interpret legislation and his deep institutional knowledge of the standing orders and operations of this place are literally unmatched, and that is no reflection, of course, on the Clerk, Mr Laurie.
His talent and contribution to our Labor team, to the democratic institution of the Queensland parliament and to this state will be sorely missed.
I know that he will continue to offer his wisdom as our Labor team takes the fight up to this government, albeit from a less stressful seat away from this place.
On behalf of the state parliamentary Labor Party, all who have worked with him or come to know him, I sincerely thank Darren for his contribution to our state and wish him nothing but the best in his next career move.
