January 31

Another interesting day in Moreton Bay Regional Council!  Like most days these days, actually.

Today we made a big leap forward in getting a buy-back scheme for flood-prone properties.  Dale St residents came to Council today, and their presence made a strong and silent case for the scheme.  Their quiet resilience and determination spoke volumes.

And they need to be resilient.  This is the third year in a row Dale St has flooded.  Three years in a row muddy waters have come in under the houses of Dale St, and left a layer of mud on their ground floors.

I have seen four families come and go from one house due to the floods.  It is the fifth time in about four years that one family has had to move out their gear from under their house.

But they cannot go on. They are at the limit of endurance.

Each year they have to put their life on hold as they move out of the way of flood waters. One family had just got their house sorted out two months ago, following the last flood.  Relationships have broken down under the stress.

This is not about houses and property.  This is about ordinary people, and the trauma and stress they are suffering. And that is why I plead with my fellow councillors to do the right thing and adopt the flood buy back scheme.

Can't wait 'til next week ...

Yesterday, I was asked if I minded that the Queensland local government election was being held back one month.

Yesterday, that seemed to be a minor issue, as I was dealing with  the confronting plight of local residents affected by a new round of floods.

I heard about the Queensland election shuffling yesterday at Beachmere, when I was visiting a property that was literally awash. The ground floor underneath this family's Queenslander house was a pool. The pool itself was a brown dam. And the dam was a lake across the property.

All their belongings they couldn't get up from the floors of the shed or underneath the house were under water.  There was the old Jag he is restoring, their mowers, a motorbike.

A lady who lived close by broke into silent tears when she described how their granny flat has just flooded for the third summer in a row.

And this is the essence of the  trauma faced - this flooding keeps happening. There is huge mental stress suffered by individuals as their flood nightmares are re-lived each year.  In the last three summers, their houses have flooded, and the water has hit the previously-rare Q100 mark.

The stress on people facing a continuous cycle of inundation can shatter families and relationships. Kids get agitated or cry whenever it rains. One  Burpengary family told me that they had only got their house in order two months and two weeks ago, following last January's flood.

How can you live a fulfilling life, when your life is built around a cycle of floods that invade your home each year?

So that is why I am unfussed by putting back local government elections, due ultimately to the floods and Flood Commission.  There are bigger issues for me and my local residents.

In fact, I'm quite prepared to fight an election on the question of how we deal with floods.  

After the last floods, I stood up and said the response of our Council was not good enough. Our communication was inadequate, and we had disturbing problems with the creation of our evacuation centres.

I then calld for a Council flood buy back scheme, and an SMS-based warning system for residents.  Council is still considering the flood buy back scheme, but we have a new SMS warning system for floods and severe weather.

This year and last year, I have waded through flood water to visit residents, moved their furniture, listened to them, and hugged them. And this year, I went to bed the other night with a hollow dead heart, thinking about the residents who faced another flood where brown water is lapping inside their walls.

We need to do more. There are areas of Beachmere that have become virtual creek overflow paths within the last three years.  People still do not have faith in the ability of this Council to look after them or protect them.

So holding back an election for four weeks so we can deal with the Flood Commission and a State election is really not important, compared to the huge burden of flood recovery some residents are facing.

In fact, it may be good thing for our whole community if people want to determine how they vote according to who best can handle this annual cycle of flooding.

I know that as our weather continues to alter over coming years, people will be looking to Council, or any government, to protect them from the impact of flooding and storms .