Lack of cooperation Qbn and ACT during flood

Queanbeyan should be annexed by the ACT gov’t.

Stanhope did send $100,000.00 to Pakistan when they had the floods there (thanks for asking us Jon) so I guess the Bogans of Queanbeyan feel like they missed out…..

georgesgenitals said :

new gaol near a residential estate, and sticking your new industrial area right on the border.

Jerra was controversial enough when it was being planned, for exactly that reason. It lets a suburb of out-of-towners in a bellweather electorate suddenly have a say in what the ACT chooses to build in its industrial developments.

Sure, we share a border, but even though Queanbeyan is surrounded by land suited for development, the focus of all recent development planning has been along or near that border for some reason…
Oh, right. All that development on our side brings employment to your side of the border too.

georgesgenitals said :

This works both ways.

Realistically, it’s time both parties stopped being silly and interacted like grown ups.

A start would be making decisions that affect the region and its existing population at a regional population level, instead inside of the current dysfunctional bureaucracy framework.
Chances of that happening? Slim to none, unless everyone plays along.

I resemble that remark.. Not only did we have a million leaks/ponds over those days we didn’t know we had at home (Canb in general) and same at my work, some of our management had to go to Qbn to work (on a day our computers went Y2K on us) in the shop there as their staff couldn’t get to it.

Grumble, grumble.. but it was a shocker, I did feel for them.

WTF?

The ACT Government doesn’t cooperate with the people of the ACT, so what makes you think they’d even bat an eyelid in the direction of Queanbeyan?

ACT and Queanbeyan? Forget about that. The Queanbeyan SES and RFS from around the region can’t even get it right. I think we should listen less to stupid politicians talking to a newspaper and get more news from the people who were actually doing something during the crisis. Or from the people sitting on the sidelines because they were not allowed to get involved (such as the RFS)! Why get the RFS to manually fill sandbags when the SES have a machine to do it laying dormant?

That’s odd. I distinctly remember being called out (with ACTES) to Qbyn until midnight helping with the flood mitigation. And the next day we were in Goulburn doing the same.

ACTES supplied a number of teams to QBYN during the floods and this was in a time when the ACT was experiencing a high level of storm and flood damage itself. Indeed, I can distictly remember monitoring ACT radio frequencies to see what ACTES crews were doing whilst we were involved in NSW floods.

As such, I would think that the ACT’s effort was above and beyond the call of duty during this time.

I will add that Qbyn SES were thoroughly professional and hard working in their roles as well.

Maybe the OP could join the SES rather than complaining?

I totaly agree. I was working in the background and Thumper is correct in saying that ACT SES & RFS were deployed to QBN and Golubourn and what a good job was done by all. It should be noted that this is not the first time ACT Emergency Services have provided crews to QBN.

Skidbladnir said :

We had our own heavy rainfall problems keeping the SES busy, and the same water that flowed through Queanbeyan ended up in the ACT.
So, why is Queanbeyan City Council’s lack of any ‘What could possibly go wrong should Googong Dam get full?’ emergency planning or crisis assistance resourcing anybody’s fault but their own?

If QCC or their ratepayers want to reap benefits of a good neighbourly relationship, a good place to start would be addressing the costs the ACT has to carry for:
A) water contamination and the closure of national attractions every time it rains (ie: the sewage treatment facility, or the Cemetary), or
B) shortsightedly giving the go ahead to land developments that externalise costs entirely onto the Canberra economy (such as Tralee).

Relationships don’t come for free.

No, they come based on things like putting your new gaol near a residential estate, and sticking your new industrial area right on the border, only a few metres from residential housing.

This works both ways.

Realistically, it’s time both parties stopped being silly and interacted like grown ups.

I don’t see the problem, there has always been a need for moat separating Queanbeyan from Canberra. It just needs killer crocodiles and a drawbridge to stop the Queanbeyanites migrating across the border.

Anyway, for cross-border assistance in these situations the state/territory needing help normally needs to officially request it, and specify or negotiate the amount. They should perhaps examine what help NSW actually requested before accusing the ACT of not providing assistance.

On behalf of the people of the ACT I would like to thank the Queanbeyan Shire for regularly providing us with raw sewage for our lake. This seems to happen every few years, the last time they kept quiet about it for a week.

Get real, the ACT SES dont have to help when there is something on in Quangers, the fact that any of the ACT emergency services helped during the flood is a courtesy. What else was supposed to be done? Its a flood, which flooded houses that are on a declared flood plain. The council shouldnt have let them build there in the first place.

We had our own heavy rainfall problems keeping the SES busy, and the same water that flowed through Queanbeyan ended up in the ACT.
So, why is Queanbeyan City Council’s lack of any ‘What could possibly go wrong should Googong Dam get full?’ emergency planning or crisis assistance resourcing anybody’s fault but their own?

If QCC or their ratepayers want to reap benefits of a good neighbourly relationship, a good place to start would be addressing the costs the ACT has to carry for:
A) water contamination and the closure of national attractions every time it rains (ie: the sewage treatment facility, or the Cemetary), or
B) shortsightedly giving the go ahead to land developments that externalise costs entirely onto the Canberra economy (such as Tralee).

Relationships don’t come for free.

You need to relax, and understand ACT and QBN have always disagreed. Never fear, it will never be worked out.

Edglass- are you by any chance part of Cr Barilaro’s election campaign team? If you’d been really concerned about a lack of cooperation, you would have at least outlined what his allegations were, and explained where ACT had not cooperated. Then we could have a discussion about how substantive his calls are. The Queanbeyan Age obviously doesn’t appear to consider them important enough (as at Fri evening) to warrant posting them on its website.

I’m concerned that you put so much stock in the opinions of the queanbeyan age and one of queanbeyans councillors, but more than that confused that you hold those two in high regard and managed to navigate yourself to a website like riot act.

Hey Johnboy, are you guys advertising during today tonight or something?

Without access to the Queanbeyan Age, I’d appreciate it if someone could outline what the areas of no cooperation are said to be? Emergency Services? Water Management? Infrastructure (or roads)?

Well that’s decided, its all the fault of the ACT govt. What does the ACT govt have to answer for, especially as Qbn is upstream of Canberra and there were some flood concerns in the ACT as well? I suppose it deflects blame from the Qbn council.