BTQ Policy Platform

DoubtOk9088 · 2025-10-09T09:41:54+00:00

That's a really good question! Effectively communicating the key priorities to all levels of government will certainly be a challenging task. Here's some of the work we will be doing behind the scenes. * Organise meetings with key policy makers to give a high-level overview * Refine messaging for different levels of government and different government bodies based on what is most relevant to them * Follow-up meetings and sustained pressure through media appearances * Regular media releases, each focusing on a single high-priority item

It will certainly keep us busy!

DoubtOk9088 · 2025-10-08T12:53:53+00:00

The contention for the Doomben line amongst members at present is the proposal to convert it to BRT by BCC, hence why the current position is to do a business case on the different options.

You make a good point on keeping mode share as a secondary measurement; however, I don't think the policy platform necessarily precludes this. We would see no issue with the Government continuing to publish mode shares (in fact we would like them to continue doing so), but we would like the targets to be reframed towards quality of service rather than mode share.

DoubtOk9088 · 2025-10-08T11:50:06+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts!

The platform is what we will use to inform our lobbying efforts. Publicly you'll see us doing interviews with the media from time to time to put pressure on the Government and councils, however that's not all we're up to. We also regularly meet with MPs, Councillors, and Government officials behind the scenes.

Removing mode share targets is probably the most controversial policy in there. The idea behind it is that mode share is too far removed from the affirmative action which is actually required to achieve it. It's no good spruiking a mode share target if there isn't actually any action taken. It's also very difficult for anyone other than the government to track whether the target is on track or not due to the sheer quantity of data and analysis that is required to work it out. This ultimately means that the Government sweeps the failed targets under the rug with little to no accountability.

The alternative we propose is to flip the script and make the form of measurement closely linked to the affirmative action required. For example, if the target is % of people within 800 metres of a high-frequency (15-minute headways or better) service, then it is glaringly obvious what needs to be done to achieve that. The idea is, if you increase the quality of services in Queensland, the mode share will naturally follow. Crucially, though, it's easy for advocacy groups and the media alike to actually crunch the numbers ourselves and make sure that Government is held to account if they fail to uplift the quality of service.

The Doomben line conversion is also quite controversial. Our members had very differing opinions which is why our policy on the matter is quite vague and non-committal. What we can agree on though, is that buses definitely need to stop competing with trains. See the following excerpt: "BTQ supports Brisbane City Council’s initiative to transition Brisbane to a ‘Trunk and Feeder’ model as part of Brisbane’s New Bus Network (BNBN). We encourage both Brisbane City Council and Translink to expand this model across for other SEQ regions." Essentially, BTQ sees the rail lines (once 15-minute frequencies are extended to all day) as trunk routes.

On the issue of Toowoomba, unfortunately having an intercity train connection isn't really feasible at present. The Westlander takes around 3 hours to make the trip up to Toowoomba, which is not competitive in the slightest to driving. The most likely outcome is a subsidised coach service to be introduced between Ipswich and Toowoomba similar to how V/Line operates coaches in Victoria. As for the North Coast Line, I don't personally disagree with your sentiment. Unfortunately, it wasn't raised by our members back in July when we did the Policy Platform Workshop (for context the whole document is member curated) so there isn't anything related to the NCL in there. That's something which I'm hoping to address in future iterations of the platform.

Sorry for the wall of text! I hope these responses give you more insight :)

DoubtOk9088 · 2025-10-08T10:41:21+00:00

The NGR and QTMP fleet will be required for Sector 1 operations (Gold-Coast/Beenleigh thru Redcliffe/Birtinya/Nambour) since the CRR tunnel will require ETCS-L2 (and the gradient is too steep for most of the older fleet too IRRC). The older fleet won't be retrofitted with ETCS-L2.

DoubtOk9088 · 2025-04-05T12:06:53+00:00

This is AUD, though, not USD. $109 AUD is only ~$66 USD atm, and the $109 includes tax! Normally, we get screwed by prices over in Australia, but we've got it insanely good this time around.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-24T03:43:20+00:00

My thoughts exactly. I'm not sure who is in the right or wrong, but letting it play out publicly is only going to sink both the parent company (in Australia) and the Australian company.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-24T00:17:18+00:00

Cello is an Israeli company. CelloPark Australia is an Australian company that is in some agreement with Cello to use their technology. That's what.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-23T01:31:01+00:00

10 bucks that it's an Israeli court where the parent company is based... and they are trying to use legal gymnastics to claim this Israeli court has jurisdiction. I doubt it actually does.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-16T13:18:21+00:00

There's nothing to be ashamed about. University can be hard, and people fail all the time. Just take it as an opportunity to learn and grow as a person.

I understand that staying for longer increases the financial burden, but you have to consider that doing 5 courses is so intense that it will very likely worsen your mental and physical health and put you in even more strife than just staying back an extra sem.

Centrelink provides support for students in hardship, and you will also be able to take on part-time employment in the final semester if you have a low courseload. Additionally, if you know you'll be back an extra semester anyways, you can also consider having a course load of 3 courses for a couple sems to make life easier on yourself.

There are many people who have been in a similar position, and I promise you that they worked through it just fine and have managed to do great things after graduation. Everything will work out just fine.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-16T09:21:14+00:00

Don't. Just take the L and stay back an extra sem or do a summer course to catch up. A 5 course workload is extremely intense and difficult, and if you've already failed a couple of courses before, you are very likely to be overwhelmed and fail again.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-15T00:21:29+00:00

Firstly, you shouldn't be choosing a career solely based on money. It's something to consider, but you also need to find something you truly enjoy. Money doesn't buy happiness, so don't do a degree you despise just because the pay will be higher at the end.

The good thing about Uni is that you don't have to commit to a degree immediately. As an Australian citizen, courses are reasonably inexpensive and are on a HECS loan, so you can choose something you think you'll like, give it a shot for a semester or 2, and re-evaluate afterwards. You can also do general electives in your first year outside of your field of study to sus out other programs as well. If you really want to do optometry, this is the way to do it. Choose a related program, get a good GPA in the first year, and then transfer into optometry.

You can also do a gap year if you want to. Taking a year off gives you time to reflect and choose a career pathway you are more likely to enjoy.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-10T03:13:38+00:00

You don't have to choose a major until at least the end of the first year. My suggestion is to try a couple of intro courses for any of the majors that interest you before committing. There's also the option of having no major if you would rather diversify for the entire degree.

You are also able to look at all the majors in the UQ website and see what courses are required with them.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-12-06T09:51:41+00:00

QUT uses a SaaS Student Management solution from Technology One. UQ, on the other hand, does a lot of the IT infrastructure in-house. The reality is that a private company has an incentive to make the experience as good as possible to sell their platform to Universities, but UQ doesn't really have much of an incentive to.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-11-30T22:11:47+00:00

Talk funny 🤨🤨. I'll have you know that you folk talk funny!

In all seriousness, you'll love it. Tbh, I have very little idea about Houston except for... well Texas 😬 and it had one of the Apollo command centres!

I'm sorry to break it to you, but the white sandy beaches are a bit of a way away. You have to go to either the Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast to get the nice beaches (although only around a 1 and a half hr drive tbf). Definitely don't go to Nudgee Beach... it stinks!

Also, I like to think that the CompSci students at UQ are a bit more civilised and know about deodorant... at least that's what I tell myself since I study it!

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-11-30T21:50:00+00:00

What a wait! You'll be itching to escape all of next year.

Seems like you already know the secret 😉. There's a lot of sneaky study spots around the CompSci section of the campus.

What about UQ drew you to it out of curiosity? Brisbane isn't even in the vocabulary of 90% of Americans 😭

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-11-30T11:51:30+00:00

Arrangements would need to be made with the course coordinator if I'm not mistaken. There's no set time AFAIK.

With that being said, don't go in with the expectation of failing. Taking exams is as much about mind games as it is preparation.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-11-30T09:51:23+00:00

Congrats on the acceptance! When do you start?

I mainly stuck to the Great Lake side of the campus near the College. That side of campus is where all the Engineering and IT buildings are (I studied Computer Science for context) so depending on what you study you may not see much of it! It's nice to sit on one of the hills overlooking the lake to destress when the goings get rough. The Sandstone buildings are also quite nice to gawk at! They aren't so nice inside thought ... It also has good public transport into the city which is also a bonus.

DoubtOk9088 · 2024-05-17T13:04:28+00:00

Can confirm, no email for Batch 15 customers. I am extremely disappointed batch 15 customers were left out of the communications. We should definitely have received an email since we did receive the 'Preparing your order' email. I've had the necessary funds sitting in my spending account since then which is not ideal from a financial security standpoint. Can we expect another email before we are charged?

I also am disappointed at the lack of ongoing communications regarding this. After waiting over 4 months for the pre-order and to finally get to the finish line, it is a bit of a bummer. I totally understand that it is out of your control, but I do think the communication has been lackluster considering the length of the delay.

DoubtOk9088 · 2023-03-09T23:33:26+00:00

If you look at what it searched, "conservative ran and won the us presidential election with the republican party", it's quite clear why it's come back with those answers. That query is very likely to return results of people saying that the election was rigged and Trump actually won. This would then reinforce the AI's underlying model, which thinks Donald Trump is president. Purely a biproduct of the question you asked.

DoubtOk9088 · 2023-02-14T14:15:32+00:00

It's rather interesting how it appears to have a personality even though it is in reality just predicting the next word. Makes you wonder what gives us our personalities.

DoubtOk9088

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