National Disaster

Update 6:05am : Cyclone Yasi has been downgraded to a category three storm, but remains dangerous. The “very destructive” core, with gusts up to 205 km/h, is continuing to move inland west of Cardwell towards the Georgetown area. The full extent of the damage isn’t known yet but the communities of Mission Beach, Tully and Innisfail, 50km north of ground zero, are the worst hit. There have been no reported deaths or injuries so far. Read more as news.com.au live updates.

Political grandstanding over the Government’s proposed Queensland levy will look extremely silly, if not downright nasty, after the brute force of cyclone Yasi blows some perspective into the debate.

Anything which might delay, limit or compromise the reconstruction of lives and vital economic production in Queensland will be isolated, highlighted, and no doubt condemned.

If a cyclone can have a silver lining - even one as catastrophic as Yasi - this is it. It will blow away the political smoke and flummery and concentrate the minds on all sides.

Continue reading "Yasi set to blow some perspective into levy debate" »

Update 6:05am : Cyclone Yasi has been downgraded to a category three storm, but remains dangerous. The “very destructive” core, with gusts up to 205 km/h, is continuing to move inland west of Cardwell towards the Georgetown area. The full extent of the damage isn’t known yet but the communities of Mission Beach, Tully and Innisfail, 50km north of ground zero, are the worst hit. There have been no reported deaths or injuries so far. Read more as news.com.au live updates.

Queensland, already suffering from the floods, is now taking another hit - and this one has been described as “more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations”. Join news.com.au’s live blog here:

Or go to news.com.au for the latest updates on Yasi’s approach, the projected path, and news from the ground.

Feel free to share any thoughts or words of support for Queensland here.

Julia Gillard can’t be too happy with the way her flood reconstruction package has been received. But then, who welcomes a new tax?

Talk-back callers complained about paying twice, even though very few will and in any event, donations to victims - a different thing from the levy which is for rebuilding roads and rail and ports and the like - are mostly tax deductible.

One paper featured a mystifyingly indignant Brisbane resident who, as a low income-earner, stands to gain from the reconstruction effort while being exempt from paying the levy herself. She went on to suggest her partner, a tradesman, could be liable for ``thousands’’ in extra tax. This is unlikely unless he earns upwards of $300,000 which is the level of income you’d need to be slugged that hard by the levy.

Continue reading "The Government’s goodwill bank is in deficit" »

The resounding response to the flood levy has been: We want to donate of our own free will, not be forced to cough up. We pay enough f(#*&*king taxes. We want to know where all our money went.

By all that’s unholy, Australians hate paying taxes.

Clearly, it hurts when you see your payslip and feel the plasma-shaped hole left by the taxman. More seriously, the “working poor” phenomenon is real, and some people are finding it much, much harder to meet their everyday living expenses.

Continue reading "Get angry. Then get over it." »

Julia Gillard faces her biggest political test since becoming Prime Minister to win the approval of parliament for the $5.6 billion flood rescue package.

And she be may forced to negotiate a permanent Natural Disaster Fund if she wants to win the backing of key rural Independent MPs and the Greens. NSW rural MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott are demanding a long-term solution to fund the regular bushfires and floods that ravage rural communities across Australia.

The Greens - who are likely to back the flood rescue plan - also said they are opposed to climate program cuts announced as part of a raft of savings measures. But at least one Independent MP - Queenslander Bob Katter - said he loves the levy and will support it when it comes before Parliament.

Continue reading "The uphill battle to the levy" »

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has appealed to emotion and a sense of nationhood to sell her flood rescue package, which will include a year-long levy. Someone on $60,000 will pay under $1 a week, while someone earning $100,000 a year will pay just under $5 a week..

In a measured speech to the national Press Club, Ms Gillard described Australia as a nation grieving in the wake of a tragedy, and announced that people affected by the floods will not pay the levy, which will raise $1.8 billion.

Read what Leo Shanahan said about a levy here, and Penbo’s take here. What’s your take?

Continue reading "A levy? A tax? A necessary evil?" »

The massive losses from the floods that are impacting Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria has raised issues about the adequacy of insurance coverage, particularly flood coverage and the way such disasters should be funded.

There are many examples of disaster insurance arrangements that different countries have in place covering flood, earthquakes and other disasters. 

In Australia a proposal for such a national disaster insurance scheme was developed in the 1970s following the Brisbane Floods and Cyclone Tracy - but it was never implemented.

Continue reading "Do politicians have the guts for disaster insurance?" »