The Dreyfus Files - The Age
The Queensland government has done the right thing in announcing a commission of inquiry into the state's devastating floods.
It is particularly useful that the inquiry, to be headed by an experienced Court of Appeal judge, Justice Cate Holmes, will deliver an interim report in August and a final report in 12 months. Queenslanders and people across Australia are seeking answers about the massive impact of the floods, the tragic loss of life and damage to property.
The inquiry will not get in the way of the most important immediate task, which is helping survivors and communities to recover from the disaster. That help includes emergency assistance to households, recovery assistance for families, income support for people who lose employment, and assistance for businesses and funding to rebuild infrastructure. We can expect the Commonwealth to provide billions of dollars for these different forms of recovery assistance.
But the inquiry can start preparing for public hearings and collecting the necessary information for public consideration. As the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission into the Black Saturday fires did, I expect this inquiry into the Queensland floods will play a useful part in community recovery, by providing a public forum for people to raise questions and get answers.
Some of those questions will be about planning, especially the spread and form of development and infrastructure on flood plains, which are directly raised by the broad terms of reference. The commission is directed to look at ''all aspects of land use planning through local and regional planning systems to minimise infrastructure and property impacts from floods''. The commission is required, in the widest possible terms, to make recommendations ''to improve the preparation and planning for future flood threats and risks, in particular the prevention of loss of life''.
Questions have been raised about release strategies for the Wivenhoe Dam, warning systems, and a host of immediate matters. The commission will look at these too, but the land use planning and infrastructure issues are much more fundamental.
A starting point will be the use of flood predictions and mapping. Reference to past flood levels is not sufficient for areas that have been developed and built over – like Southbank in Brisbane's city centre – where flow paths have been altered.
I hope the inquiry will look at:
- Whether construction should be prevented altogether in some flood and inundation prone areas, and if building is to be allowed in flood-prone areas, should buildings be required to take a particular form, or be built with residential floors above certain heights?
- Where people are rebuilding or replacing buildings damaged by floods, should there be restrictions on the form of rebuilding?
- Should governments buy back particularly flood-prone land or take other action to prevent building in such areas?
- Should energy companies pay closer attention to flood risks to ensure important community infrastructure, such as electricity substations, continues to function when there is flooding?
These and many related questions will no doubt be addressed by the commission, and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh deserves praise for quickly establishing this inquiry.
