Brisbane City Councillors Head Shots
Democracy and Community in West End
An interview with Councillor Jonathon Jonathan Sri
Earlier this year, the Greens claimed their first victory in Queensland’s local government elections with their candidate Jonathan Sri, 28, musician, poet, and law graduate, who won the inner Brisbane ward of The Gabba. The Greens won 31.7% of the ward’s vote, up from 17.7% in 2012. Although Sri’s vote fell behind the LNP’s 35.8%, he won the ward with the help of ALP preferences. Sri is no stranger to the electorate. He ran for the Greens for the seat of South Brisbane during the 2015 state election against current Qld Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, where he won nearly 22% of the primary vote.
Sri’s victory can be attributed to the more than 200 volunteers who assisted with his campaign. Many of the volunteers were motivated by the rapid urban development that is rapidly changing the unique bohemian character that identifies The Gabba ward’s suburbs of West End, South Brisbane, Highgate Hill and Woolloongabba. Sri’s election campaign put the spotlight on housing affordability and urban transport, two issues of especial concern to the ward’s younger residents. Many young people live in sharehouses, a rite of passage to adulthood for the students enrolled at nearby tertiary institutions, and a necessity for low-income workers that keep the city functioning. Former West End resident and lecturer at UQ’s School of Communication & Arts, Dr Kitty Van Vuuren, recently caught up with Cr Sri to reflect on his first month in office.
In the first month after being sworn in as a councillor, the mainstream media have already labelled Cr Jonathan Sri, Brisbane City Council’s first Green Councillor, as ‘combative’ and ‘controversial’. Sri won The Gabba ward with the help of ALP preferences, but he faces an overwhelming LNP majority in Council Chambers. So, just how can a single Greens councillor make a difference?
Sri asserts that “none of the policies I’ve been pushing and none of the stances I’ve taken are particularly extreme or controversial. It’s just that our current political landscape is very homogenous and unadventurous when it comes to policy-making.”
He admits that his approach “seems a bit unconventional,” but points out that direct action and broad-based social campaigns are common practices in other democracies.
‘Unconventional’ is one way to put it, but Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, wasted no time to suggest that Sri’s approach encourages ‘illegal’ protest, and that a councillor has a responsibility to be a lawmaker, not a lawbreaker.
“I think it’s a shallow response to a complex issue. As an elected representative I do have some responsibility to uphold the rule of law, but I was elected to change the law, to change the system. I made no bones about that during my election campaign. I don’t think anyone who voted for me could reasonably feel surprised with the strategic approach I’ve taken,” he said.
Sri points out that laws are not written in a vacuum, but are written to preserve the interests of the people who are in control of the system.
“I guess on some level direct action does challenge established laws, but it’s important to recognize that the laws which govern our society have been written by a subset of people who benefit from the current system.”
“So for me, if the laws don’t represent the democratic will of the people and they don’t uphold the long-term interest of society, then those laws are illegitimate.”
Sri is currently working on the Right to the City campaign, based on the idea that ordinary residents deserve a say in how the city evolves. A key value underpinning the campaign is the idea that decisions about urban planning and development should not simply depend on property rights, and that all citizens who are part of the city (including renters and those on low incomes) have the right to influence how their city is shaped.
”Previously in Brisbane a sustainable development campaign has been too easily framed as wealthy owner-occupiers who are just NIMBY’s and trying to protect their own property values. We have shifted that discourse to be about housing affordability and renters’ rights, and so a whole generation of people who don’t own any land and don’t really have a long-term stake in the community in that sense, are now stepping up and saying ‘yeah we do want affordable housing and we do want better rights for renters’.”
“So for me, if the laws don’t represent the democratic will of the people and they don’t uphold the long-term interest of society, then those laws are illegitimate.”
Sri is currently working on the Right to the City campaign, based on the idea that ordinary residents deserve a say in how the city evolves. A key value underpinning the campaign is the idea that decisions about urban planning and development should not simply depend on property rights, and that all citizens who are part of the city (including renters and those on low incomes) have the right to influence how their city is shaped.
”Previously in Brisbane a sustainable development campaign has been too easily framed as wealthy owner-occupiers who are just NIMBY’s and trying to protect their own property values. We have shifted that discourse to be about housing affordability and renters’ rights, and so a whole generation of people who don’t own any land and don’t really have a long-term stake in the community in that sense, are now stepping up and saying ‘yeah we do want affordable housing and we do want better rights for renters’.”
Part of Sri’s sustainability agenda is to increase the number of dedicated bike lanes. Brisbane’s topography and climate are amenable to cycling and walking, but the city lags behind Sydney and Melbourne in promoting safer cycling infrastructure.
“The fact that we still have such a car-centric approach to urban planning and traffic management is just unimaginative, it’s regressive,” he said.
Sri believes that being the only Green in Council Chambers can be an advantage to achieving more sustainable planning. He claims that Council is concerned about the political backlash expected from reclaiming street parking to put in bike lanes.
“It puts me in a situation where I can play the diplomat and look for areas where my priorities might line up with the LNP administration, and basically convince them that what I’m proposing might be a good idea,”
“I’ve been able to say to the LNP, ‘look I think people voted me in because they care about cycle safety, so I’m willing to wear a bit of the flak from the people who are annoyed about losing a bit of street parking’, because the long-term goal is to make cycling safer and therefore get more people on their bikes.”
While open to political alignment, Sri strongly supports broad-based community campaigns to achieve positive outcomes for residents. His ward office is a hive of activity with the comings and goings of supporters, from within as well as outside the ward. As part of his political agenda, Sri aims to support a collectively oriented culture.
“We do have a moral responsibility, and it is in our own long term self-interest to look out for other people, and recognise that particularly in cities, our fates as residents are all inextricably linked. So I think it’s silly and naïve to say that we shouldn’t collaborate and think collectively, particularly on things like urban planning. The way that that’s been left up to the free market is just ridiculous.”
With a federal election set for July 2, Cr Sri is well aware that his style of representation may influence the Greens’ federal electoral success.
“I’m very conscious that how I conduct myself will reflect on the Greens throughout Queensland. It’s a huge honour and privilege as well, because it means to some extent we get to shape the direction of the Greens in Queensland.”
“I’d like to think that I’m a responsive and responsible representative. One thing we have demonstrated is that even a lone Greens Councilor can get issues onto the agenda and can put a lot of pressure on the system to change.”
“What’s exciting about the way that we’ve gone about it is that we’ve put together a policy agenda that is relatively radical in the current system, and we’ve stuck to it.”
“You need not abandon who you are and you can stay true to yourself and push for change to the system. That excites me and that excites a lot of Greens supporters.”
Brisbane City Councillors Head Shots
