Statement from Anne Boccabella – Greens Candidate for Central:
Like many of my age and the younger generation leaving posts to the Regent Facebook group, I have fond memories of the Regent. I recall in my childhood ice cream dripping all over me as I sat enthralled watching my first pantomime. It was in the Regent that I saw the Show on Ice, and almost everyone of a certain age will still be able to imagine the spectacle of Reg Livermore flying through the air as ‘Betty Blockbuster’. I have a close personal tie to the theatre and the cultural history it has provided to Brisbane. Through my business, I designed and built the very first Aroma’s coffee shop in the entrance. The dark woods and brass fittings still survive to this day, providing a setting where drinking a coffee becomes an experience to savour. Today, the Regent provides a piece in the jigsaw of our history as a growing subtropical city. It is a touchstone on who we are and where we have come from.
However, the Baroque wonderland of the Regent is now seen to be expendable. I wonder how many Brisbanites and Queenslanders have a vision for Queens Street Mall with a 38 storey building towering, cheek by jowl, with the charming low scale buildings synonymous with early Brisbane? This has rightfully angered the people of Brisbane who expect their elected officials to be proactive in protecting their history. What need could this building possibly fulfil and at what cost would its construction be at? It seems that the people of Brisbane will be denied any effective input into the decision making process that will see the demise of our personal history. The threat to the Regent is a clear failure of a duty of care by Hinchcliife and the Lord Mayor in not actively seeking to identify and protect our cultural treasures before developers put plans on the desk. How can it be that it this has slipped through the cracks?
I have fought long and hard to ensure council values and preserves our heritage. The battles to save our cultural touchstones commenced soon after David Hinchcliffe came to office. He started small, with the proposed ‘function centre’ in lieu of the New Farm Park kiosk. In this battle with David Hinchcliffe, I succeeded in getting him to back down and leave our park alone. From there, he introduced the catastrophe that was once the New Farm Twin Cinemas. He is now entertaining a proposal to knock over the Regent Theatre yet preserve token elements to be savoured by students of architecture searching for glimpses of other eras. It is apparent that our heritage, the charm that makes Brisbane so special plays no part in Hinchcliffe’s vision for the central ward.
I have a vision for the Queens St Mall to remain at a human scale with the Regent Theatre at the heart of it, serving its stately role in both a business and cultural sense for generations to come. The Regent Theatre must remain in tact, and can easily be incorporated into a development whilst respecting its unique place in Queensland. A visionary development may completely envelope the theatre in an open expanse, such as the Coors Shot Tower within the Melbourne Central Development, or it may acknowledge the presence of the theatre in its own right and offer a sympathetic development beside it. . Either way, there is no reason why a commercially viable development cannot embrace the cultural heritage of the Regent.
From March 15, if elected as councillor for Central Ward, I will initiate an audit on all of our cultural significant buildings and places. This would rationalise the multiplicity of heritage listings to ensure that our heritage is truly protected and not just a mirage. I would seek to replicate many of the requirements of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act such as respect and recognition of knowledge, culture and historic practices into Cityplan, strengthening our ability to not only preserve our history, but to reaffirm our links with our history. But this is not to frustrate developers, rather to provide certainty and stability. It will right a wrong that council has allowed to occur time and again.
I recognise that petitions do not have any influence in matters of planning and development law, and will not waste the time of passionate Brisbanites with trivialities. Instead, I will deliver on my commitments when in council to put an end to the constant erosion of our cultural heritage. Not only can I do more, I will do it better to ensure the Regent remains one of our iconic places.
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