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| Historic photo of the Royal Mail Hotel, 92 Brisbane Terrace Goodna surrounded by floodwaters, possibly taken during the 1955 Brisbane River flood. |
Labor has tried to deflect parliamentary attacks on the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry by drawing attention to Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman's role in last summer's disaster.
The LNP's parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney used parliament today to question how the commission missed key evidence that was picked up by media and which led to an extra 10 days of hearings.
He also questioned how the inquiry could "not be regarded as a total farce" after deputy commissioner and dam expert Phil Cummins was asked to step aside amid conflict-of-interest allegations.
The four engineers who operated Wivenhoe Dam during last year's floods have been accused of moving to a higher water release strategy later than stated, creating a fictitious final report for Seqwater and misleading the floods inquiry.
Some suggest that if more water had been released earlier, the dam would have coped better with the deluge that caused the Brisbane River to break its banks in the following days.
Premier Anna Bligh defended the inquiry.
When media reports drew the commission's attention to alleged discrepancies in the timing of water strategies at the dam, it had acted, she said.
"If they ... had failed to further examine the evidence, I think they could rightly be criticised," the premier told reporters in Brisbane.
"But they did what I think is the right thing.
"What we saw in parliament this morning was a disgraceful attempt by the Liberal and National parties to undermine the commission of inquiry."
In parliament, Labor went on the counter-attack over last January's flood disaster.
Ms Bligh said LNP parliamentary leader Jeff Seeney had issued a media statements in the past, calling on the government to hold more water in Wivenhoe Dam.
Furthermore, she accused the Brisbane City Council - then led by Mr Newman - of trying to release less water from the dam than engineers recommended on the Monday before the flood peaked in Brisbane.
Evidence submitted to the inquiry by dam engineer, John Tibaldi, stated that the Flood Operations Centre "attempted to accommodate" the council's concerns for five hours.
However, counter-evidence had also been heard that any decision on gate releases that day had been made prior to any conversation with the council.
Water Utilities Minister Stephen Robertson, who fronted the flood inquiry last week, was ejected from parliament for 10 minutes after becoming heated over the issue.
He angrily questioned the LNP across the chamber why Mr Newman would allow the council to advocate strongly for flood engineers to reduce the outflows from the dams.
Mr Newman said the allegations about council were untrue.
"This is the Labor Party seeking to throw the mud that I indicated yesterday would be coming my way," Mr Newman told reporters in Townsville.
Ms Bligh also said Commissioner Justice Cate Holmes was the only one responsible for the findings of the inquiry, and Mr Cummins' sidelining would not affect the outcome.
Talks over river flows
The inquiry has been looking at the timing of more rapid water releases from Wivenhoe in the lead up to Brisbane and Ipswich’s inundation in January 2010, and whether the state agency Seqwater submitted a misleading report on the activation of specific release strategies.
Seqwater engineer John Tibaldi last year told the inquiry about talks with Brisbane City Council on January 10, about three days before the eventual Brisbane River flood peak.
Mr Tibaldi said the official dam manual specified a maximum flow rate for non-damaging urban floods was 4000 cubic metres per second at Moggill, but the council called the flood operations centre at 12.45am on January 10 “and asserted the upper limit was in fact lower than that”.
In a statement to the inquiry, he said he participated in a conference call with the council about the issue at 9.38am that day.
“I did not think we could ignore it. For five hours after this call, we attempted to accommodate BCC’s concerns by maintaining the flow at Moggill at or below 3500m3/s, in accordance with Strategy W3 that requires protecting urban areas from inundation. However, by 2.30pm we decided that it was no longer possible to limit the flows to this level and we proceeded on that basis.”
In April last year, Campbell Newman’s successor as lord mayor, Graham Quirk, said the decision on how much water to release and when was “'totally” the role of Seqwater and argued it was “complete nonsense” to suggest the council instructed operators not to release water.
“Were there discussions with council officers? Yes,” Cr Quirk said at the time.
“There were absolutely no discussions with the lord mayor of the day, Campbell Newman, and no discussions with the CEO. They simply sought advice.”
Bligh Government staffers point out Mr Newman’s media adviser was one of the recipients of a January 10 email stating the council had persuaded Seqwater to review its release strategy in light of concerns over the impact of a 4000 cubic metre per second flood through Brisbane.
LNP staffers point to transcripts from Wivenhoe Dam engineer Terry Malone’s flood inquiry appearance in April 2011 in which he said the 9.38am conversation with a council staffer on that day was professional but the decision about looming water releases was in fact made prior to the discussion.
In the inquiry's August 1 interim report, Justice Holmes said she did not believe there was “anything untoward” in the way in which engineers made their “short-lived attempt” to keep flows to 3500 cubic metres a second, saying they were acting towards a goal of protecting urban areas from inundation.
