Descriptions of Lismore’s flood levees as lemons by the Big Scrub Environment Centre [BSEC] nearly twenty years ago have proven true, according to one of the founding members.
BSEC foundation secretary Dr John Corkill OAM says calls from the likes of new Lismore City Council Mayor Steve Krieg and Nationals Page MP Kevin Hogan for federal funds to build more, higher flood levees in Lismore are ‘completely out of line’.
‘Millions of dollars have been spent on building and repairing the existing levee on the Wilson’s River’s east bank at Lismore, and other engineering works to manipulate the floodplain downstream,’ said the Northern Rivers environmentalist.
‘But it is now starkly clear that these “works” have not worked, that all these public funds have been wasted, and many people adversely affected by this narrow “engineering” approach,’ said Dr Corkill.
BSEC levee warnings 18 years ago fell on deaf ears
Dr Corkill said BSEC had made an extensive submission opposing the construction of levees around Lismore in 1994, warning then flood mitigation authority the Richmond River County Council [RRCC] of several failures in its plans.
The county council had failed to consider climate change impacts, BSEC said, and the possibility of higher floods.
The RCCC was creating a ‘false sense of security’ about the level of protection the levee gave households and businesses in the Lismore basin, said Dr Corkill.
How many mil for new levees?
‘A new levee for the CBD would need to be five times the existing barrier’s height,’ Dr Corkill said, and ‘the levees elsewhere would have to be built from scratch’. He said budget forecasts nearly 30 years ago showed costs of more than $22 million.
‘The evidence of [ex-Cyclone] Debbie and this “rain bomb” flood shows that building levees is a failed strategy and a public policy folly’, said Dr Corkill. ‘For the Lismore Mayor and Page MP to announce they want more public funds for “more of the same”, is quite simply staggering’.
Dr Corkill criticized Lismore’s new mayor for ‘overstepping his authority’, and ‘ignoring proper process under existing law’.
‘Decisions on post-flood mitigation response are for the current flood mitigation authority, the Rous County Council. The Lismore City Council, like all councils on the Rous County Council, had only two members,’ said Dr Corkill, ‘and the Mayor is not a delegate’.
Mayor accused of pecuniary interest in Lismore CBD recovery
Dr Corkill said it was ‘highly inappropriate’ for Cr Krieg to be advocating for, or seeking to determine the direction of, any public funding for the flood mitigation response in the CBD owing to his ‘business interests’.
‘Like all CBD business-owning councillors, the mayor has a direct pecuniary interest.’
Cr Krieg had to fully declare his financial interests, not participate in the debate and absent himself from the vote on all matters for decision by Council ‘where millions of dollars of public funds investment would, or may, benefit’ him personally, said Dr Corkill.
‘That’s the law, and the mayor ought to know that.’
Dr Corkill said the mayor needed to learn what his ‘actual responsibilities’ were, including to ‘the whole of Lismore, not just the CBD’.
Page MP told to stay out of levee talk
Federal Page MP Kevin Hogan’s comments were also ‘flawed’ and ‘deeply problematic’, acccording to Dr Corkill.
‘Under current law, flood mitigation is not a federal government responsibility,’ he said, ‘so it’s clearly not Mr Hogan’s call either’.
‘This “more of the same” failed strategy usurps Rous County Council’s role, pre-empts any rational assessment of future flood mitigation options, and compromises community input into decisions about flood mitigation, and spending of public funds, by the lawful public authority,’ Dr Corkill said.
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