Political bastardry could wipe out flood victims' rights with the stroke of a pen

Premier Campbell Newman has a
 lot of thinking to do over any
 class action against
 the State  Government.

It would take just the stroke of a pen by Queensland Premier Campbell Newman to wipe out the legal rights of possibly more than 10,000 flood victims in the devastating Brisbane River floods of January 2011.

Leading lawyers Maurice Blackburn in conjunction with litigation funders IMF (Australia) are examining the possibility of a class action against the State over the release of water from Wivenhoe Dam from Saturday 8 January 2011 which the Floods Commission found was in breach of the Dam Operating Manual.

This was three days before the devastating floods hit Ipswich and Brisbane.

Three Seqwater engineers were referred to the CMC by the Floods Commission for investigation of their role in the operation of the dam during the crisis.

It has now emerged that the State Government has the legal power to retrospectively wipe out the rights of all class action claimants.

This possibility has come as a complete shock to local flood victims.

With his overwhelming majority in the Queensland Parliament and his timid and compliant backbenchers, LNP Premier Campbell Newman could prove himself worse than Victoria's former Premier Jeff Kennett if he were to even contemplate this option.

Greater Goodna Flood Group spokesman Paul Tully - himself a flood victim - has called on Premier Newman to give a "rolled-gold 100 percent guarantee" that the State Government will not legislate in any way to deny or restrict the legal rights of flood victims.

"Campbell Newman has a duty to all flood victims to completely rule out this possibility so that no further trauma is caused to southeast Queensland's flood victims.

"If the LNP dared to contemplate this course of action, it would be the worst legal abuse and denial of natural justice by any government in Australia since the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788," Paul Tully said.

17.6.12