Former premier urges City Hall to take flood complaints seriously
Former premier Campbell Newman has weighed in on another controversial issue, this one not too far removed from his other former life as Brisbane lord mayor.
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FORMER premier Campbell Newman last night said he believed the $5.4 billion Airportlink project had worsened flooding in Brisbane’s Kedron Brook and Eagle Junction Creek catchments.
And he said Brisbane City Council and the State Government should not “capriciously” dismiss residents’ complaints.
Comment: More families raise alarm about flash flooding levels after Airport Link
“If the work wasn’t done right and the flooding was exacerbated, these people may need to be compensated,” he said.
“My heart goes out to them.”
At least 70 families in low-lying Clayfield and nearby suburbs said flash-flood heights soared dramatically after the twin-tunnels project was completed by the Bligh government in 2012.
A Clayfield residents’ action group commissioned an independent study that confirmed vital Airportlink flood mitigation works, including the widening of Schulz Canal and the excavation of tens of thousands of cubic metres of earth, were not completed.
Action group president Cameron Russell said alarm bells rang when his Milman St home in Clayfield was swamped after a three-hour downpour in 2015, a year after he purchased the property.
He said he was “amazed” when councillor David McLachlan confirmed the 2015 floodwaters were higher than those recorded in Brisbane’s catastrophic 1974 flood.
Mr Newman said the people deserved a fair go.
“Governments shouldn’t capriciously ignore people who have been harmed in this way,” he said.
He said the council should lobby the Government, which built the tunnel, to conduct a hydrological study, or the council should do one itself.
The council had a good track record in flood management, Mr Newman said, and he hoped that would continue.
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