The Palaszczuk Government is calling on the Morrison Government to urgently prioritise investment in Queensland’s flood warning infrastructure network, as the state recovers from repeated flooding events this disaster season.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles today announced that the Palaszczuk Government would share half the cost of the ongoing operations, maintenance and asset replacement of the flood warning system if the Commonwealth government invested to the upgrade the network.
“It is essential we upgrade more than 870 of the Bureau’s gauges from manual to automatic to ensure accurate, timely and consistent flood warning information is being provided to the Bureau and to our local communities.
“That is why I have written to Senator Bridget McKenzie today, seeking priority funding to upgrade Queensland’s rain gauge and warning network as part of the 2022-23 Federal Budget.
“The rain and river gauge network is critical to informing Bureau of Meteorology flood warnings issued to communities during flood events,” Mr Miles said.
“More than 80 per cent of Commonwealth owned gauges in Queensland are manually read gauges. With the scale of flood events experienced by Queenslanders, it is vital that Morrison Government invest in technological improvements in our flood warning infrastructure.
“Queensland is undoubtedly the most disaster prone of all the states and already this disaster season we’re reeling from the effects of six disaster events which have flooded much of the state.
“When the Morrison Government called for grant applications as part of the first round of its National Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program in 2020-21, Queensland’s application for $14 million in funding to improve the state’s flood warning infrastructure network was declined. This funding would have gone towards infrastructure in the South East corner of the state, which has now experienced a flooding event comparable in scale to 2011.
“The Australian Government has announced a $4 billion Emergency Response Fund to build resilience and reduce the risk of future natural disasters. But as at 31 December 2021, only $50 million had been allocated nationally from the ERF and investment returns had seen the ERF grow to $4.8 billion.
The Bureau of Meteorology, through its recent scoping study, identified options to address the shortfalls in the current network, including a Commonwealth investment of $161 million for capital uplift of the network.
“The Palaszczuk Government is committed to working with the Commonwealth Government to ensure Queensland has an appropriate flood warning infrastructure network in place, but we need the Federal Government to invest in an upgraded system.”
