Fatal Queensland floods won’t be declared national emergency

Southeast Queensland’s catastrophic floods will not be declared a national emergency, in line with the Premier’s view and following a turnaround from the Prime Minister’s position.

Southeast Queensland’s catastrophic floods will not be declared a national emergency, in line with the Premier’s view but a turnaround from the Prime Minister’s position yesterday.

It is understood the Prime Minister will meet with the Governor-general at 8pm AEDT on Friday night, where the emergency declaration will be signed but only for New South Wales.

This is despite the Scott Morrison, on Thursday afternoon, signalling he would go ahead and include Queensland in the declaration despite Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk saying the time for it had passed.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison inspect a flood affected street in Milton, Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

It is understood the latest decision comes after Mr Morrison had discussions with his cabinet and also the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

At this stage the declaration would help cut some bureaucratic red tape.

While New South Wales’ Dominic Perrottet was welcoming of the idea, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday said the time for that had already passed for Queensland.

Mr Morrison, later on Thursday afternoon and following a phone call with the Premier, confirmed Queensland would be included in the declaration anyway.

But that’s no longer the case.

Floods

Ms Palaszczuk said the Prime Minister had been “very good” in offering Defence assistance where needed.

“So the time for that national emergency was probably a week ago, so we’ve actually gone past that,” she said.

The Prime Minister’s power to declare a national emergency was borne out of the 2019-2020 bushfire crisis.

The Royal Commission into the summer bushfire response found that while states and territories are primarily responsible for responding to and recovery from natural disasters, the disaster outlook was “alarming”.

“States and territories alone may not be able to respond effectively to, or provide immediate relief or recovery from, extreme to catastrophic disasters,” the report stated.