28 August 2023
Hon. Steven Miles
Minister, State Development
PO Box 15009
City East, QLD 4002
RE: The Gabba and Raymond Park Re-development
Dear Premier, Deputy Premier, and the Queensland Cabinet,
I am writing to you, for the senior members of the Queensland Government, to make a personable plea after listening to this 12-minute film, Rethink TheGabba…
In Jim Stevens’ evocative film, delve deep into the struggles of the community most impacted by the Gabba redevelopment. As the government railroads a plan causing significant disruption to the local fabric, hear firsthand from East Brisbane State School parents, Raymond Park residents, and local businesses. Their voices resonate with resilience, unity, and a clear message: this fight isn’t over.
Donate: https://chuffed.org/project/z6blr2q0nljy
Learn more: https://www.rethinkthegabba.org/
Rethink TheGabba
…as well as making three submissions to the Queensland Government in my role as President, The Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum Inc (SBSF). My personal plea is for senior members of the Queensland Government to come to their senses. What I mean is Queensland Government senior members need to understand that their policy position on urban development is flawed, and I do not mean flawed at the side, I mean fundamentally flawed at its heart, such that the educationalists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers can see the stupidity in your policy position.[1] I do not say that word lightly. When governments become so ethically ‘criminal’ – not in the allowance of law, but by arrogant behaviour – that it cannot hear and accept the truth in the voluminous voice of the communities raged against it, it cannot be anything but intellectually stupidity (cognitive corruption).
The Gabba and Kangaroo Point Community has the wide and full backing of Southern Brisbane in their outrage against this governmental stupidity, in the very least. Furthermore, if every member of Brisbane, and Queensland, thought in the tight critical thinking form of Communicative rationality (Habermas, 1979)[2], they would have to, each, agree that Government members are not thinking in the best form of rationality, and even worse, not representing the people of Queensland intelligently.
I make this plea not as a person who does not know what they are talking about, as powerful decision-makers are so prone to be arrogantly dismissive. And I remind you that you have dismissed the advice of your own departments on this issue of urban development. I personally have had a career of more than 30 years[3] in urban sociology, urban philosophy, and urban histories.[4] I have seen governments in ruin, come and go in such arrogance, during that time…
…My plea is that each senior member of the government to come to their sense. Abandon your current policy position and current planning on the 2032 Olympic Games re-development. You do not even have the public support of the Australian Olympic Committee chief executive, Matt Carroll.[5]
Yours sincerely
Neville Buch
Historian, MPHA (Qld), Ph.D. (History) UQ., Grad. Dip. Arts (Philosophy) Melb., Grad. Dip. (Education) UQ.
References
[1] Clear evidence of the educationalists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers seeing the stupidity in current Queensland government policy positioning by demonstrating the reasoning in the following, from G. H. Smith’s The Theory of the State (1895) to my own work over the last decade (selected publications):
Aronovici, C. (1920). Americanization: Its Meaning and Function. American Journal of Sociology, 25(6), 695–730. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2764130
Barnes, H. E. (1917). Sociology Before Comte: A Summary of Doctrines and an Introduction to the Literature. American Journal of Sociology, 23(2), 174–247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2763534
Barnes, H. E. (1919). Two Representative Contributions of Sociology to Political Theory: The Doctrines of William Graham Sumner and Lester Frank Ward. American Journal of Sociology, 25(2), 150–170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2763558
Buch, Neville (2012), Co-authored with Dr Jonathan Richards. Reports on the Pre-Released 1982 Queensland Cabinet Minutes. Queensland State Archives. November 2012.
Buch, Neville (2015). Under the Skin — Human Passion & Reason in War & Peace. Q ANZAC 100 Fellows Event. State Library of Queensland. 8 September 2015.
Buch, Neville (2018). Small is Big: Scaling the Map for Brisbane Persons and Institutions 1825-2000. ‘The Scale of History’ AHA Conference, Australian National University, 4 July 2018
Buch, Neville (2019). “A prophet is without honour only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household”: Local History and Global Learning – A Historical Mapping of Brisbane Thinkers and Their Local Environment 1859-1959. Local Communities, Global Networks Conference. Australian Historical Association Conference, University of Southern Queensland, 11 July 2019.
Buch, Neville (2019). The Australian Literary Setting of the ‘Queensland Character’ and Mid-Twentieth Century Philosophy: The Philosophical Development of Jack McKinney and the Problem of Knowledge 1935-1975. Revolutions & Evolutions in Intellectual History Conference. International Society for Intellectual History, University of Queensland, 6 June 2019.
Buch, Neville (2019). Before and After 1989: The Conceptual Schemas, Christian Education, and Queensland Society. ACHEA Conference, State Library of Queensland, 1 August 2019.
Buch, Neville (2019).Mapping Local Educated Society 1859-2009: Landscape and Culture in the Mapping Brisbane Education Project, Port Macquarie Campus, Charles Stuart University, 21 November 2019.
Buch, Neville (2021).Finding Peace from the Culture-History War: A Historiographical Message for the Times. Academia Letters, Article 1916. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1916
Buch, Neville (2021).The Intellectual Ethos of Charles Strong in Queensland 1855-1917, in Marion Maddox, Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism, 1885–1917, University of Melbourne Press
Buch, Neville (2021), with Kath Feeney, Afternoons, ABC Local (ABC Brisbane), 10 September 2021, 14 minutes. On myth and history of the Brisbane Southside-Northside divide, sides of the Brisbane River, suburbs, and the 11 Brisbane regions.
Buch, Neville (2021). Politics in the Age of Uncertainty: Anti-intellectualism, Expertise, and the Technological Agenda in Queensland Politics, 1911-2011, a paper of local-regional relevance, 2021 Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, 21 September 2021.
Buch, Neville (2021). Melbourne, Brisbane Southside, and Urban Development, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/melbourne-brisbane-southside-and-urban-development/
Buch, Neville (2022). Public and applied history in the community education ‘classroom’: The Brisbane Global Experience, Centre for Applied History (CAH) and Tertiary History Educators Association (THEA), Macquarie City Campus, Sydney, 24 June 2022.
Buch, Neville (2022). What Does It Mean for Brisbane as a City? , Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/what-does-it-mean-for-brisbane-as-a-city/
Buch, Neville (2022). Has the History and Philosophy Schools lost it in the New World of Online Learning and Community Education? Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/has-the-history-and-philosophy-schools-loss-it-in-the-new-world-of-online-learning-and-community-education/
Buch, Neville (2022). Acknowledgement of contact to the Lord Mayor: We demand multi-governmental solutions delivered, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/acknowledgement-of-contact-to-the-lord-mayor-we-demand-multi-governmental-solutions-delivered/
Buch, Neville (2022). The Language and Ignorance of the Culture Warrior and Knowledge of Religion & Culture in Late 20th Century Queensland, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/the-language-and-ignorance-of-the-culture-warrior-and-knowledge-of-religion-culture-in-late-20th-century-queensland/
Buch, Neville (2022). C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite, the Old-New Left, and Queensland lived Ideologies, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/c-wright-mills-the-power-elite-the-old-new-left-and-queensland-lived-ideologies/
Buch, Neville (2022). How are we learning? The Intellectual Failure of History and Heritage in Australian Capital Cities, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/how-are-we-learning-the-intellectual-failure-of-history-and-heritage-in-australian-capital-cities/
Buch, Neville (2022). Regarding Our Education Systems Needing Thinking in Contemporaneous Compatibilist Epistemology, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/regarding-our-education-systems-needing-thinking-in-contemporaneous-compatibilist-epistemology/
Buch, Neville (2022). Explaining Neville’s Historiography (Dr Neville Buch ABN 86703686642), Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/explaining-nevilles-historiography-dr-neville-buch-abn-86703686642/
Buch, Neville (2022). The United States Tour: American Educationalist Models in an Australian State 1942-2022, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642),
The United States Tour: American Educationalist Models in an Australian State 1942-2022
Buch, Neville (2023), with Kath Feeney, Afternoons, ABC Local (ABC Brisbane), 25 July 2023, 9.30 minutes. On naming Brisbane.
Buch, Neville (2023). Research Note: Anglo-American Major Belief-Doubt Systems, Dr Neville Buch Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/104984588/Research_Note_Anglo_American_Major_Belief_Doubt_Systems
Buch, Neville (2023). Persons, Ideology, and Cognitive Mapping, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/persons-ideology-and-cognitive-mapping/
Buch, Neville (2023). 2023-04-05 Letter to Mayor. Re. Questions on 2023-2025 Commemorations, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/2023-04-05-letter-to-mayor-re-questions-on-2023-2025-commemorations/
Buch, Neville (2023). Dr Neville Buch’s Philosophy and History, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/dr-neville-buchs-philosophy-and-history/
Buch, Neville (2023). Stupidity of the Market Economy in Higher Education, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/stupidity-of-the-market-economy-in-higher-education/
Buch, Neville (2023). Communication, Critical Thinking, Education, and Research: A Society Captured in the ‘PR’ Outlook, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/communication-critical-thinking-education-and-research-a-society-captured-in-the-pr-outlook/
Buch, Neville (2023). Letter to the Queensland Government and Heritage Council, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/letter-to-the-queensland-government-and-heritage-council/
Buch, Neville (2023). SBSF Submission as Feedback on Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/sbsf-submission-as-feedback-on-kurilpa-sustainable-growth-precinct/
Buch, Neville (2023). Part Three: Urban Rebellion and Community Education, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/part-three-urban-rebellion-and-community-education/
Buch, Neville (2023). The Southern Brisbane Suburban Forum Inc.’s Briefing-Submission on the State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan 2023 Update (SEQRP), Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/the-southern-brisbane-suburban-forum-inc-s-briefing-submission-on-the-state-governments-south-east-queensland-regional-plan-2023-update-seqrp/
Buch, Neville (2023). Conversation out in the community of the Southern Brisbane region, Dr Neville Buch Website (ABN 86703686642), https://drnevillebuch.com/conversation-out-in-the-community-of-the-southern-brisbane-region/
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[2] “Communicative rationality”; see the Wikipedia link, or read Jürgen Habermas (1979). Communication and the Evolution of Society, Beacon Press.
[3] Dr Neville Buch, History Consultancy business website: https://drnevillebuch.com/
[4] Dr Neville Buch’s academic profile in the University of Queensland (UQ) section of academia.edu: https://uq.academia.edu/NevilleBuch
[5] Neil Shefferd. AOC chief executive admits redevelopment of Gabba “not necessary” for Brisbane to host 2032 Olympics. Inside the Games. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1140094/gabba-redevelopment-not-necessary-aoc
Neville Buch