Floods present painful memories

FOR so many Logan residents, the flooding caused by the rain bomb at the end of March brough back painful memories of too many previous floods.
After 2011, 2013 and 2017, some residents are now facing their fourth major clean up in 11 years.
Understandably, some of them can’t face the thought of going through it all again.
That’s why our Government announced a $741 million jointly-funded plan to break this cycle of flooding.
To allow residents to make their homes more resilient.
To lift them higher above the flood plain.
Or, if they can’t face the prospect of another flood, giving them the option to sell up and move elsewhere.
It’s a nation-leading program, an innovative and common-sense way to address the reality of climate change.
And belatedly, I’m glad to say that the Federal Government has come on board, agreeing to our request to match our funding.
They should have agreed as soon as we made the request. But three weeks later, Scott Morrison wrote back to deny our request.
It was a slap in the face for every family in Logan who’ve had to endured the grief of repeated floods.
I was incensed, and as Acting Premier I let the Prime Minister know – 24 hours later, something happened to Scott Morrison.
Someone must have explained he couldn’t keep treating Queenslanders this way and he did what he should have done from the start and said yes.
We will now work with the Federal Government to finalize the relevant guidelines.
But Queenslanders deserve a Federal Government that does the right thing by them – first time, every time.