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Filed under: Citizen Journalism, Comments, Cyclone Yasi, Natural Disasters, Queensland Floods

7 comments

FLOODS, cyclones and bushfires have torn apart people’s lives and communities in recent weeks, but it’s their legacy that could be even more painful.

The pain is just beginning for 86 yr old Tully resident Maria Domandi. Image: Stuart McEvoy

Hearts went out to the victims of the Queensland floods in particular, galvanising a wave of support around the country and raising hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.

At the same time, floods and bushfires spanning the eastern states through to the west spread the suffering.

Then Cyclone Yasi smashed into the north Queensland coast last week and continued to head inland, adding another page to the whirlwind of damage.

While sympathy again has been evident for the victims of Yasi, another trend of disaster overload seems to be emerging in many online forums.

What is increasingly obvious is that everyone is going to have to pay for the recovery from these disasters in one way or another, even those living thousands of kilometres from the destruction zones.

Much of the disaster debate has centred on the Federal Government’s proposed flood levy, aimed at assisting to rebuild Queensland’s infrastructure.

While many were prepared to donate to support the flood victims, their sense of generosity dried up when it came to the idea of paying a compulsory levy to help rebuild public assets.

As Phil pointed out in a comment to ABC Online: “Why should we contribute to government infrastructure in a state that is not accountable to me? The issue is that different state governments don’t set up a contingency fund like a good business but instead know they can just slug a captive population of taxpayers - and let’s pick on the rich.”

Prime Minister Gillard’s announcement of who will be exempt from paying the levy, including income earners below the $50,000 threshold and those directly affected by the floods and Yasi, only split opinion further.

Brissy wrote to The Courier-Mail: “The rate that these exemptions are going, there won’t be anyone else left to pay the levy.”

Political personas have also come under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Yasi and flood disasters.

While Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been widely hailed for her no-nonsense authority and humanity during the dual Queensland crises, the shine has failed to rub off on Prime Minister Gillard, whose flying visit to the cyclone-hit communities in north Queensland did little to deflect a perception by some of her “wooden” appearance during the disasters.

As Sggme commented on Yahoo7: “She is trying to copy Anna Bligh. Trouble is Anna Bligh does care, whereas Gillard does not.”

Some of the traditional media also copped a battering for their coverage of Cyclone Yasi.

In one case, a breakfast TV presenter castigated people in Cairns for venturing out into a park during the cyclone while he was hosting the show from the same location.

In a sign of the increasing role of citizen journalism, social media came to the fore in informing the world about Yasi. In many cases, forums such as Twitter and Facebook supplied breaking leads on the cyclone’s progress and damage trail that the other media, with their reporters embedded in hotels and on the street corner outside their suites, could never hope to compete with.

The phenomenon of cittizen journalism also bore fruit on the Punch with this piece, courtesy of Magnetic Island resident and regular Punch reader and commenter David Pierce.

Peter Lawson of Sale criticised the traditional media’s coverage in a comment on the Herald Sun: “Why does the media treat this cyclone like any bad news. They think they’re doing us a favour by sending their number one reporters into the area in gumboots, holding an umbrella making out like they’re in the war zone! It’s contrived rubbish.”

The flood waters may have subsided in Queensland and Yasi may have come and gone, but the pain left behind by these disasters will be felt by all Australians for many months or even years.

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7 comments

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- Hugo says:
  
  06:23am | 07/02/11
  
  I find it a little incongruous that those who actually make most use the state owned assets will not have to pay for their repair.
  
  Reply
- dovif says:
  
  06:44am | 07/02/11
  
  Since it was a Qld government stuff up for not insuring their own assets, why should the incompetant Qld government not be paying for it in their budget.
  
  Why should the Gillard’s government be raising taxes so we can bail out another ALP stuff up. They should just take it out of the Qld GST revenue that get paid to Qld each year.
  
  What these 2 government have shown us is that they cannot manage a budget, they do not protect their own assets and relies on raising taxes everytime something goes wrong…. if they stuff up the budget, introduce a new tax (Mining tax). If they stuff up insurance, introduce another new tax (Flood Levy)
  
  Just wonder what new taxes they will come up with next to fund their excessive and poorly managed spending
  
  Reply
Reg says:

08:37am | 07/02/11

@ divif. “What these 2 government have shown us is that they cannot manage a budget, they do not protect their own assets and relies on raising taxes everytime something goes wrong….”

It’s a matter of the peaks of productivity compared with the troughs of destruction. Same old story. There is no such thing as absolute protection against failure or against so much income that a government squats on it, uncertain how to invest it. (JWH)

Have you any idea how much International insurance might cost to cover an area that has a record of attracting cyclones and being devastated by them? Tully is such an area. Come to think of it, so is the area from Cairns South to Gladstone. ~ 60% of the Queensland East coast.

Perhaps you’d suggest the whole area be evacuated every year between November and April, the proven extremes of the cyclone season. The cyclone season that is essential in supplying adequate rain-fall to the far most decentralized state in Australia. The state that makes a disproportionately large contribution to Commonwealth coffers and from which all Australians reap the benefit.

Now is the time for all Australians to contribute to the restoration of the concentrated areas of damage because without a doubt, the improved productivity of the rest of Queensland will soon repay the transient cost of doing so.
- Gregg says:
  
  10:56am | 07/02/11
  
  This will no doubt go politically viral very quickly Marcus when people with incomes and roofs over their heads, able to store and prepare a cup of tea let alone food, a dry bed to sleep in and a keyboard to type at have no vision at all for the suffering of those like Maria Domandi.
  
  Let us hope she has family that can care for her.
  
  The Premiers flood appeal and infrastructure levying are two very different things as is the reaction on the latter.
  I do not know that governments will ever insure things like roadways, rail, bridges and perhaps power authorities may attempt to insure power line towers etc. but be it Queensland, WA, tASMANIA or whichever state or territory and it is about all of them that will have been affected by flooding in some way, people need to think on a national scale when it comes to infrastructure for primary producers produce for all of us be it through what we consume or what is exported for income to both governments and employees.
  
  How it gets funded is the main reaction of most people and even Julia Gillard has admitted on more than one occasion that there is still budget fat to be sliced off and the NBN borrowing s are conveniently not in theory part of the budget but I’d have a wager that return on that money invested in infrastructure other than the NBN would be a lot higher.
  
  There is a lot of concern that this government in having been unable to effectively oversee some massive spending will fail miserably again and it would seem if they cannot address priorities, they are not off to a great start.
  
  And you are right too Marcus that the pain will be lingeriing well past this cyclone/wet season that is barely just started as a lot of the infrastructure repairs/rebuilding work necessary is not something that can be leaped into without adequate planning, design and organisations setting up to house and employ people locally, it going to be a long rough rocky road for many and not least people like Maria and others with housing demolished for many individuals will be without financing even if tradespeople are available.
  
  There are going to be thousands of homeless people who may have made great contributions to our communities for many years and it is hoped the government will be doing as much for them as they appear prepared to do for people using people smugglers to get here.
  And yes, the government will need to cut other expenditure for both.
  
  Reply
- FarmerJoe says:
  
  11:59am | 07/02/11
  
  The pain will definitely persist well beyond this summer’s disasters: it is extremely short-sighted of a government at either level to ignore the cost to business. Yes there has been a small amount of assistance to home dwellers but absolutely none to any business that has lost massive income.
  
  10 years of drought does not show up well on media coverage but a raging flood or wild cyclone is excellent media grabbing stuff.
  
  To lose crops worth billions of dollars after 10 years of long drought is NOT the fault of farmers, in spite of Bob Brown’s propaganda. The losses suffered by Australia’s primary producers will be passed on to the wider community. Loss of employment on farms and the lack of money to spend on farm inputs will impact on our regional towns quicker than it will be felt in the self-centred cities.
  
  But higher food prices do not get passed on to the farmer. Colesworths simply pocket the gap, using a disaster to increase their profit line. Wheat prices to farmers have consistently fallen since October but the retail price of bread will gradually rise this year.
  
  So yes, the pain will go on but let’s be clear about who is causing the longevity of the pain. The responsibility rests with governments to assist businesses to get back on their feet and keep that employment going. It is also the responsibility of government to ensure profiteering by the 2 major supermarkets is minimised.
  
  Reply
- Mikko says:
  
  04:12pm | 07/02/11
  
  The floods and Cyclone Yasi have also focussed attention on the need to upgrade infrastructure to a much higher standard rather than a quick patch job which will be full of holes the next time it rains. This applies particularly to the flood and accident-prone Highway One, leading to calls from many in regional Australia, including me, to “Forget the NBN super highway, build a real one instead”. See http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/43692.html
  
  Reply
- mary monica roche says:
  
  07:20pm | 07/02/11
  
  Your comment
  :is there any more disasters and pain to come?
  wait for March 26 2011!!
  
  Reply

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