We won’t prolong dam claim, says Annastacia Palaszczuk

Annastacia Palaszczuk indicates her government won’t appeal the Brisbane floods class action verdict.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Southport on Wednesday. Picture: Jerad Williams

Annastacia Palaszczuk has given the strongest indication yet the Queensland government will not appeal against last week’s 2011 Brisbane floods class action verdict, saying she doesn’t want the plight of victims to “drag on’’.

Despite the cash-strapped government facing a potentially enormous compensation bill for the nearly 7000 participants, the Queensland Premier told The Australian many victims just “want closure” and would have the state’s response on Friday. Ms Palaszczuk made the comments as Seqwater bosses on Wednesday met with top Treasury officials in Brisbane.

READ MORE: Queensland 2011 flood victims win class action worth hundreds of millions | Editorial: Justice at last for flood victims

It follows the NSW Supreme Court ruling last Friday in favour of southeast Queensland flood victims whose homes and businesses were swamped in January 2011 after Wivenhoe Dam was ­operated negligently.

Compensation could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and the state has 28 days to consider whether to lodge an appeal.

In an interview with The Australian, Ms Palaszczuk said officials were now analysing the 1550-page verdict and an announce­ment would be made by Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath.

“I don’t want it to go on any longer unnecessarily,’’ she said. “I think there is a lot of people out there who want closure as well.’’

Asked if her comments indicated the government would not ­appeal, Ms Palaszczuk said she could not comment specifically but added: “You’ll get an answer by the end of the week.”

NSW Supreme Court judge Robert Beech-Jones found the operation of Wivenhoe Dam was negligent in the lead-up to the ­deluge, with dam operators failing to take into account rainfall forecasts. This failure contributed to the downstream flooding of parts of Ipswich and Brisbane.

While government-owned dam operators Seqwater and SunWater have insurance to cover the as-yet-unspecified court-ordered damages, the state of Queensland does not have the insurance.

Flood victims and the state opposition called on the government to not appeal the decision. Deputy Liberal National Party leader Tim Mander said there was “moral ­obligation” on the government to end the misery of flood victims.

Ms D’Ath expects to receive preliminary legal ­advice this week.

The class action suit was filed after findings by the royal ­commission-style inquiry run by Queensland’s now Chief Justice, Catherine Holmes.

Justice Holmes ruled in her final report that there had been a cover-up. Engineers had offered a bogus explanation of their performance at key stages of the flood to give a perception the dam had been operated in accordance with its strict operating manual.

The findings followed revelations in The Australian about the existence of documents, found by flood victim John Craigie, that gave a different account of the dam’s operation than what was ­initially presented at the inquiry.

The class action verdict was handed down on the same day the government announced an inquiry into the Paradise Dam, near Bundaberg. For months, the government refused to explain the release of 105,000ML of water from the dam because of unspecified safety issues, or release reports that led to the decision in the ­middle of a drought.

The inquiry and release of several reports followed complaints from the community and an investigation by The Weekend Australian, which revealed design and structural problems and delays by the government and dam operator SunWater in taking action.