Comments from the original post on [email protected]:

there have been a series of lies from our Lord Mayor and his council over this. Starting by blaming the pedestrian path closure on ex-cyclone Alfred, and then saying they needed a couple of days for inspections before it could be opened. We know now that the closure had nothing to do with Alfred, and was in fact damage that they’ve known about since at least 2016.

We haven’t been given any timeline for when it will reopen, so our best guess is not until next year.

they claim it’s impossible to close a lane because one lane wouldn’t be wide enough, so they would need two. If that were true, then fine; the answer is to do that, close two lanes. There’d still be 4 for cars. But it’s not true. In fact, while the pedestrian paths on the bridge are wider than what would be left of one lane after water-filled safety barriers are installed, the paths on the on-ramps up to the bridge are already narrower than that.

they lied to the press and public by claiming the protests are linked to the Greens, that they’re related to Extinction Rebellion, and that they’re illegal. None are true. Every protest has gone through the accepted process of declaring intent. Instead, BCC & QPS have wasted their resources fighting the protests in court with multiple expensive Silks, against the self-repped organisers. And they lie, inventing nonsensical security risks, in order to get the court to block the protest.

(the protest pictured here is a different one to the one that BCC and QPS lied to get blocked. A weekend march through the CBD streets that make up the official detour. Instead of the originally-planned peak-hour block of the Story Bridge)

For context, “silks” is a term used by lawyers in Australia to refer to experienced barristers who can command the highest prices.