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| Anna Bligh receives the flood report from Commissioner Cate Holmes at Parliament House Brisbane |
THREE dam engineers will be referred to the Crimes and Misconduct Commission regarding their handling of the Wivenhoe Dam following the release of the flood inquiry's final report.
The engineers have also been found to have breached the dam manual.
The year-long inquiry's final report was handed down at 11am at State Parliament.
The flood inquiry's finding adds weight to a class action being considered by Maurice Blackburn lawyers.
Premier Anna Bligh told a press conference she welcomed the report and promised to implement it "lock, stock and barrel" if re-elected at the March 24 election.
Justice Catherine Holmes has found the engineers did breach the dam manual which she also found was "ambiguous, unclear and difficult to use".
The Premier acknowledged the final report exposes the Queensland Government to an enormous damages claim.
Lawyers have said any breach of the manual could be grounds for a class action against the Government, as the operator of the dam.
Ms Bligh acknowledged the legal threat but said a breach of the dam's manual did not prove Seqwater, the government-owned operator of the dam, was liable for damage to thousands of homes and businesses.
"It opens the possibility of legal action but it does not, of itself, establish liability," she said after receiving the report.
She said she expected the entity to treat all potential claimants fairly and to attempt to resolve any disputes firstly by mediation.
Seqwater has its own commercial insurance that would be expected to cover any claims, she said.
The Premier said the report found no evidence that any Bligh Government minister, or herself, had failed in their duties.
But asked about Ms Holmes’s finding about government “inertia” toward lowering Wivenhoe levels, Ms Bligh said pre-flood advice was against dropping the dam to 75 per cent capacity.
She admitted that, in hindsight, lowering Wivenhoe may have made a difference.
At 2.30pm, LNP Leader Campbell Newman said an LNP government would also implement all of the inquiry's recommendations.
He also admitted the report raised legal questions regarding the operation of the dam and said if he became Premier he would have to deal with them.
"Seq water equals the Queensland Government," Mr Newman said. "The Premier can't pretend otherwise."
Mr Newman said he respected the finding of the commissioner in relation to the three dam engineers but stressed they deserved natural justice.
An LNP government would also match the Premier's commitment to give councils $40 million to help implement some of the recommendations.
The flood inquiry heard allegations earlier this year the dam engineers did not follow the dam manual on water releases which may have compounded the flooding that hit Ipswich and Brisbane in January last year.
The engineers were also accused in the inquiry of colluding to cover up their mistakes by creating a fraudulent official report.
The CMC will examine the allegations.
The three engineers are Terry Malone, John Tibaldi and Rob Ayre who all denied the allegations while under cross examination.
The momentum for a multi-billion dollar class action against the State Government has already begun with the official finding the Wivenhoe Dam manual was breached.
Commissioner Cate Holmes in her preface says: "The Commission has found non-compliance with the manual under which the dam was to be operated.
"What should not be overlooked is that the manual itself is ambiguous, unclear and difficult to use and was not based on the best, most current research and information."
Justice Holmes also makes it clear the State Government did not do enough to act when heavy rainfall was predicted.
She found that to predict the enormous rain fall that fell in those critical few days leading to the January 14 peak of the Brisbane River was beyond "human capacity of prediction."
"What is concerning though is the apparent inertia of the government when the possibility was raised."
An Ipswich councillor who lives in Goodna and lost his home in the floods has already released a press release saying the class action is now a real possibility.
"Today's report suggests Wivenhoe Dam could have been better managed, laying the basis for a multi-billion dollar negligence claim against the dam operators and the government," says councillor Paul Tully.
"The report confirms the dam operating manual was breached by flood engineers."
Cr Tully said large-scale flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich could have been avoided.
"I have been saying for 12 months the dam was mismanaged during the four critical days leading up to the flood on 11 January.
"I am encouraging all flood victims to sign up for a class action to force the government to the negotiating table or face an expensive legal battle in court."
Meanwhile, three of the four dam engineers who oversaw dam operations face a grilling before the corruption watch dog, the CMC.
Commissioner Cate Holmes makes it clear the inquiry itself has found no wrongdoing of Terry Malone, John Tibaldi and Rob Ayre who were all directly accused in the inquiry of mismanaging the dam, lying about it to the inquiry and confecting a fraudulent report to cover their tracks.
"The Commission makes no finding as to whether the evidence before it establishes any offence or official misconduct."
Justice Holmes said it was not the inquiry's role to investigate criminal offences or official misconduct."
But she recommended he CMC investigate the conduct of the three men relating to "preparation of documents surrounding the January 2011 flood event including the January 17 brief to the Minister, the March 2 2011 flood event report and statements provided to the commission as well as oral testimony given to the commission.
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