House debates

Monday, 22 October 2018

Statements by Members

Toowoomba: Floods

4:21 pm

Photo of John McVeighJohn McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Just yesterday afternoon Toowoomba endured another significant storm event, with more than 25 millimetres in less than an hour, high winds, trees and branches down causing some damage, and local flooding as well. Mayor Antonio told me on the phone this morning that he's very happy with the performance of the detention basins and other flood mitigation initiatives throughout our city that have been completed since our tragic 2011 floods that saw the loss of life in our city. This is a stark reminder of the need to complete the final part of the flood mitigation jigsaw puzzle: the east creek, at the Kitchener Street intersection, and west creek, adjacent to the PCYC, upgrades on James Street, part of the Warrego Highway through our city. I lobbied the department before this year's budget. We found savings on those Warrego Highway projects elsewhere to fund these final upgrades. I took the Deputy Prime Minister there in April. He publicly agreed then and just recently that it's a priority. He has since confirmed that the federal and state governments have agreed on the project and are ready to announce. He's waiting on Minister Bailey, the state minister. Minister Bailey says he's waiting on the Deputy Prime Minister. The mayor's in the mix as well. I say enough is enough. I say to all of them: if there are any political games, we need to cut them out and get on with it.