A Greens lord mayoral candidate has pledged a $40 million plan which will see Brisbane City Council “pay the rent” through grants to Indigenous organisations.
Former councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan launched his bid for the top job on Sunday, taking on incumbent LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Labor’s Tracey Price at the March 16 mayoral election.
Speaking at his campaign launch at Musgrave Park, Mr Sriranganathan said the Greens, who have nominated candidates in all 26 wards, are running “because we are interested in system change”.
“I think people are starting to recognise that the Greens are a serious alternative to Labor and the Liberals,” he said.
In a radical move, Mr Sriranganathan pledged a formal agreement with First Nations people which would see about $40 million – about one per cent of city revenue – put towards grants for Indigenous-run organisations.
“I want to spread this idea of ‘paying the rent’ throughout my campaign,” he said.
In a video of the Greens’ launch party shared on Facebook, Mr Sriranganathan said the struggle for First Nations justice and sovereignty needs “to be central to our political projects”.
“I’m really keen to encourage all of us who are connected to the Greens and to these political movements to … think deeply about what it means to participate in systems which are complacent in the ongoing oppression of First Nations people. It’s a difficult tension to navigate and we need to be honest about that tension rather than pretend it doesn’t exist.”
As part of his campaign, Mr Sriranganathan, who lives on a houseboat, is prioritising housing affordability through a number of initiatives, including the Greens’ plan to crack down on Airbnb-style short-term rental accommodation.
“I believe that housing should not be treated as a speculative commodity to make profit from,” he said in a statement on the Queensland Greens website.
“I want to transform our political and economic systems so that we can put the long-term needs of the wider community ahead of the short-term financial interests of big business and major property developers.”
Mr Sriranganathan earlier stressed Brisbane’s need for change in an interview with ABC Radio Brisbane in August.
“We’re definitely the underdog. But I think if enough underdogs in the city got together and got active, we could make some pretty big changes,” he said.
“There are a lot of people out there who … might not agree with every single thing we say and every single Greens policy, but they have an appetite for positive change.”