State government candidate promises and policies on flood
15 October 2024
It’s that time again! The state government elections are set for the 26 October 2024.
For residents living in Kurilpa, the South Brisbane candidates are:
Marita Parkinson (Liberal National Party)
Barbara O'Shea (Labor Party)
Richard Henderson (One Nation Party)
Amy MacMahon (The Greens)
In lieu of an in-person forum, the West End Community Association (WECA) collaborated with local organisations to pose questions to the candidates from the three major parties.
Other groups included Kurilpa Futures, the West End Community House, Growing Forward, the West End Football Club, and teams from the Laura Street Festival, Kurilpa Derby Team, and West End Film Festival.
Resilient Kurilpa put one question to the candidates to understand what they plan to do about floods:
Queensland is the most disaster-prone state in Australia. What actions will you take to reduce (not just manage) the impacts of floods in South Brisbane?
Response from Amy McMahon (The Greens)
The Greens will tackle climate change, which is driving more frequent, more extreme and less predictable flooding in Queensland. We will stop new coal and gas mines opening, invest in 100% public renewables and establish new industries in green manufacturing. Labor has opened 38 new coal mines since 2015, and Labor and the LNP want to open up a further 37. A summary of the Greens’ work on climate action is here.
In addition to taking action to mitigate climate change, we are also committed to reducing the impacts of floods in South Brisbane. This will include banning new development on flood-prone sites, expanding the Resilient Homes Fund to include body corporate dwellings, and funding appropriate disaster management warning, evacuation and recovery systems. We have also been advocating for apartments to be included as recipients for the Resilient Homes Fund, given the huge impact on many apartment buildings in West End and Kangaroo Point. See one of our questions to the Minister on this here.
We have been assisting the community in building resilience in response to floods and other natural disasters. We mobilised volunteers to help with clean up in the wake of the 2022 floods. We ran a forum to provide information and assistance to people with disability to build disaster preparedness, details here.
We have also consistently lobbied the Minister for Energy and Public Works to flood-proof South Brisbane’s electricity infrastructure. This never occurred before the Greens held South Brisbane. I am looking forward to continuing this work, to help prepare the neighbourhood for future floods. I hope to continue to help support groups like Resilient Kurilpa, who are doing great work to build community resilience, particularly among people who live in apartments.
Response from Marita Parkinson (Liberal National Party)
The state electorate of South Brisbane is largely surrounded by the Brisbane River. Flooding has previously occurred when the Brisbane River reaches capacity after extensive rain causing excess water to flow over the banks. It has also occurred when the excess water backs up through the drainage system as backflow during excessive inundation.
Correcting the issues relies more on engineering expertise rather than political or individual opinions. Political leaders have a duty to explore solutions that will have the best outcomes for residents. Complex problems require solutions based on advice from educated specialists in the particular field. In other words, get the right people involved in solving the issue to prevent further damage rather than relying on persuasive opinions based on emotion, or for political gain.
Response from Barbara O’Shea (Labor Party)
No response to question. General response to request by WECA:
As I mentioned to you in our previous correspondence, I have been completely focussed on listening and speaking directly with residents across South Brisbane since I was announced as the Labor candidate in May.
With limited resources and a small team of part-time volunteers from the community, we have focussed on a grassroots campaign with all our efforts concentrated on door knocking and directly engaging with our residents to best understand their issues and concerns. I have personally door knocked 9 000 homes and over 16 000 with the help of our volunteers.
The questions provided by the community groups in your email are very important issues for our electorate and have formed part of many discussions that I have had with members of our community over the past six months.
Given the short time frame for responding by midday on Friday 11 October, and with voting commencing on Monday, I regret that I am unable to provide the considered responses these important questions deserve in the time frame provided.
Find all other questions from local organisations and the candidates answers here.