Anyone who has moved around our city or other parts of our flood-hit state would know that as taxpayers we face huge repair costs for our road system alone following the summer floods.
Which means the state government will be looking for any source of moolah it can lay its hands on to foot the bill. Which now must surely make those who were opposed to the sale of QR National say: “I told you so.”
This column has previously questioned why a government would dispose of a public asset returning several hundred million dollars a year just to obtain a one-off bucket of cash. Even allowing for almost $2.5 billion in borrowings, QR National was still turning a quid each year.
Certainly, in either public or private hands, the organisation would sustain revenue losses caused by flood-related disruptions to mining activity and the damage to its own lines and other facilities. But in the long term, it would still be kicking big bucks into the public purse and helping to pay of the now inevitable borrowings the government will have to incur to foot the state’s repair bill. By the way, paying down borrowings and interest costs was one of the main reasons the government gave for flogging off QR National in the first place.
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Speaking of the now sold-off QR National, you would think it might have been possible for the government to earmark some of the sale proceeds to build a covering for the 30 metre walkway to Central Station from the Ann and Edward streets intersection?
It’s one of the most-used entries to Central Station but has never had any cover to protect rail commuters and others since the entrance was built in the 1970s. Of course now with a flood bill to meet, such a triviality will probably fall further down the priority list.
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It is now routine for governments including the Queensland Government, to appoint a non-government identity to head recovery efforts following natural disasters.
Readers would recall the appointment of General Peter Cosgrove following Cyclone Larry in 2006 and building industry figure John Gaskin led the special recovery taskforce following floods in the Mackay region in early 2008. A few weeks ago Premier Anna Bligh announced Major General Mick Slater would head the latest floods recovery task force after damaging inundations in regional Queensland.
To my mind it has always seemed odd that governments need to recruit outsiders for such a job. In Queensland’s case, we as taxpayers foot the bill for the fat salaries of dozens of senior emergency services and other bureaucrats. Yet when a crisis hits, an outsider must do the job.
Why do we pay the bureaucrats if they are not up to the job?
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Many Queenslanders would have felt for Premier Anna Bligh as she choked back tears and spoke with a wavering voice at one of her many regular flood briefings for the media.
And most Queenslanders also would know that had he still been premier, Peter Beattie would have displayed similar emotion. The only difference would be that if Beattie had still had the state’s top job he would have ended his tearful remarks by saying: “If any of the cameras missed that, I can do it again.”
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One final comment on the Premier. I heard her at one media conference at the flood’s peak lamenting the loss of the floating RiverWalk in front of New Farm. “Much loved” is how I think she described it.
Considering the ongoing hassles and maintenance costs its design caused over recent years – and the enormous amount of money that will be needed from government coffers to do all sorts of infrastructure repair work – I think we can safely say that Brisbanites will be missing their “much loved” walkway for a long, long time to come.
