Transcription of Brisbane's Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner advising that Council services are being delivered as usual
I’m Adrian Schrinner, Lord Mayor of Brisbane.
I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the situation here in our city, as we prepare for the challenges ahead.
At my direction, Council’s Local Disaster Coordination Centre has now been activated.
This coordination centre has served us well in the past, including during the 2011 Flood.
Having said this, right now, Council services continue to be delivered as usual.
Firstly, I can inform you that household waste, green waste and recycling collection services all remain in effect and there are no plans for this to change in the near future.
Council’s Call Centre remains open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Our CitySafe Cameras and our traffic management systems are all fully-functioning and will continue to operate throughout the crisis.
Our buses, ferries and CityCats all are running to standard timetables and, in addition to nightly sterilisation of all our buses and ferries, I’ve asked for the State Government to consider not allowing cash fares to be collected, to help reduce the risk to our bus drivers.
As a city, we continue to receive expert advice from the Australian and Queensland governments.
However, in light of the ban on mass gatherings, we can inform you that some city events have had to be cancelled, including:
- the March and April Lord Mayor’s City Hall Concerts
- some of the upcoming events at Riverstage
- school bookings at the Planetarium, this week and next week
- Tour de Brisbane
- the Buddha Birthday Festival
- the Botanica event at the City Botanic Garden; and also
- to help protect our mostly-senior volunteers, we’ve also temporarily suspended volunteer-run programs, including the Brisbane Greeters, the cruise ship greet program and our Visitor Information Centre.
For up-to-date health advice, you can visit www.health.gov.au or call the Commonwealth Government Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 020 080.
The Brisbane City Council website will report all major event cancellations as they occur and you can access that information at www.brisbane.qld.gov.au.
As the leader of Australia’s largest council, I want to assure you that we are 100% focussed on preparing for the impacts and challenges ahead.
I will continue to keep you updated as this situation evolves.