PM says Qld trying to ‘weaponise’ flood, as insurers call for disaster deals

The Insurance Council of Australia has called for disaster resilience funding deals between states and territories to flow after the Commonwealth agreed to a landmark $741 million flood package with the Queensland government.

The federal government had initially decided not to contribute funding to the proposal, under which 7000 flood-affected south-east Queensland homes could be upgraded or bought back.

But after swift and broad backlash, along with pressure from within his party, the government changed tack — although Prime Minister Scott Morrison then accused the state of trying to “weaponise” the flood and flagged a shift in funding arrangements.

Insurance council chief executive Andrew Hall, who supported the state’s joint funding plea and released a report in February urging governments nationwide to boost shared disaster resilience funding to $2 billion over five years, welcomed the commitment.

“We hope it’s the first of a series of announcements to split funding with states and territories on measures to better protect communities and homes from the impacts of extreme weather,” Mr Hall said.

“And we support comments by the Prime Minister for other states and territories to do more to improve community resilience in their own jurisdictions.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison dries a flood-damaged court in Brisbane in early March. Credit: Getty

Speaking from the hard-hit suburb of Goodna on Thursday morning, Queensland’s acting premier Cameron Dick said there had “never been a package like this ever put together in Australian history”.

“As soon as we finalise the guidelines with the federal government, we want to get that money out the door ... but we want to get it right,” Mr Dick said.

Campaigning in NSW on Thursday, Mr Morrison said the Commonwealth was “picking up the slack” of Queensland in its delivery or commitment of $1.3 billion from the $1.9 billion in cross-government funding for the recovery, and doubled down on comments it was a state responsibility.

Damage assessments by Queensland fire and reconstruction authorities across the state’s south-east in the weeks following the floods deemed almost 4400 residential and commercial properties uninhabitable. About 2600 of the homes were within the Brisbane City Council area.

Queensland Reconstruction Authority chief executive Brendan Moon said his agency would help develop guidelines for the program.

He also pointed to the two-year wait for most residents in heavily affected areas to return home after the 2011 flood.

“This is the importance of this package: it gives people confidence that their recovery and their reconstruction will be supported, but importantly, it will deal with ... the risk of living on the flood plain, which most Australian capital cities reside on as well,” Mr Moon said.

All three levels of government in Queensland contributed to a joint buyback scheme in the wake of the 1974 floods.

The insurance lobby’s Building a more resilient Australia report, pitched at the “next Australian government”, urged a lift in federal government extreme weather resilience investment to at least $200 million annually over the next five years, matched by state and territory governments.

The program would include flood-proofing properties and cyclone-proofing homes, along with establishing an early warning systems and levees.

A total of $726 million of the money was earmarked for work in Queensland. The nationwide investment was estimated to save governments and households more than $19 billion by 2050.

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