As the second anniversary of the January 2011 Brisbane River flood rapidly approaches, it's time for the Queensland Premier Campbell Newman to acknowledge the legitimacy of any claims for compensation and to act honourably in the matter.
It is also time for him to formally announce that in the event of a class action claim that the State Government will act as a model litigant in the matter and not resort to legal chicanery and pedantic trickery to resist legitimate claims.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers in conjunction with litigation funder IMF (Australia) is believed to be on the threshold of announcing a class action against Seqwater - the operator of the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams - and/or the State Government for the failure of the Wivenhoe Dam engineers to comply with the Dam Operating Manual from 8:00am on Saturday 8 January 2011 prior to the flood which devastated Ipswich, Goodna and Brisbane 3 days later.
The Floods Commission of Inquiry specifically found the Manual had been breached from that time and that had the dam been differently managed, flooding in the Brisbane River would have been lower. How much lower was not determined.
Since then, a lot of mutual backslapping by engineers in Australia and the United States has seen part of this learned profession come together like Super Glue.
Meanwhile, the efforts by Maurice Blackburn and IMF (Australia) have seen over a million dollars spent with the world's best flood engineers and hydrologists to undertake detailed Brisbane River flood modelling based on different professional approach to the management of the impending flood in January 2011.
If those investigations reveal the flood could have been lowered or eliminated, former Premier Anna Bligh and former Water Utilities Minister Stephen Roberston will have a lot to answer for.
In those circumstances, a class action would seem like a statistical certainty at this stage with similar claims by insurance companies who were forced to pay out on an avoidable flood.
Because of the change of government in 2012, it would be the Newman LNP government forced to carry the can for the previous government's mistakes.
Premier Newman would be well aware that carrying the can for the Labor Party's management of Wivenhoe Dam during the January 2011 flood crisis could make him a working class hero, rather than an ogre if he tries to resist the claims of the battlers - and his own supporters - of Ipswich, Goodna and Brisbane.
16.12.12
