17 December 2010

Lack of cooperation Qbn and ACT during flood

| edglass
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I was reading the Queanbeyan age today and saw an article that is very concerning. The article is titled “Barilaro calls for more interstate cooperation”.

Queanbeyan Councilor Barilaro raised concerns over a lack of cooperation between the two governments in NSW & ACT during the Queanbeyan Flood. With the ACT very close to Queanbeyan, it is very concerning that the a lack of cooperation could happen between ACT and Queanbeyan.

Its is really pathetic that this lack of cooperation occurred and Barilaro is right to bring it up. Stanhopeless and the ACT have a lot to answer for and I think this should have been raised by the mayor in talks between council and the ACT Government.

Lets hope things can improve in the future.

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Still, John Barilaro is one of the most popular Queanbeyan Councilors around and I reckon he know’s what he’s on about. Don’t think he’s wrong on this one either.

JustThinking2:56 pm 25 Dec 10

I live in Queanbeyan and noticed alot of non-Queanbeyan Emergency/Helper people while I was trying to walk to work underwater…
I know all the news reports sounded horrid at the time,,,but geesh..
Also on the news (while I was at work) reports of Queanbeyan being natural disaster area!!!!
I know elderly people who live on the river,,,sat on their verandah and watched it all go past,,,after checking on the internet about how much water was coming…

Queanbeyan Age (I think) having nothing more to report (and tired of drug addict stories) tries to beam up as much as they can. I doubt they verify too much,,even then they crumble if given a sob story…Have dealt with them before…

So Canberra didnt have its own problems on that day????

screaming banshee11:36 pm 19 Dec 10

$100k for Queanbeyan seems like a fair price.

Wave $100K under the nose of the NSW govt and we might get Cooma thrown in

PrinceOfAles8:45 pm 19 Dec 10

Swaggie said :

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…..

$100k for Queanbeyan seems like a fair price.

Thanks everybody..

Edglass- are you by any chance part of Cr Barilaro’s election campaign team?

No I’m not, but he is a popular independent councilor elected by the people in Queanbeyan.

I’m concerned that you put so much stock in the opinions of the queanbeyan age and one of queanbeyans councillors

Councilor Barilaro is one of the most popular councilors on Quenbeyan Council – he usually gets things right. He should be speaking to Stanhope about getting things right for people on both sides of the border. The article doesnt really say what “his allegations were”, but he was backed up by Opposition spokesman for Inter Governmental relations Chris Hartcher. I havent seen if the Mayor in Queanbeyan has done anything – he has probably left it to Barilaro.

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.

Sewage leaks from Queanbeyan was mentioned. According to the article in the Queanbeyan Age, Barilaro stopped short of blaming the NSW Government for the Queanbeyan sewage system leak.

Thanks everybody..

Edglass- are you by any chance part of Cr Barilaro’s election campaign team?

No I’m not, but he is a popular independent councilor elected by the people in Queanbeyan.

I’m concerned that you put so much stock in the opinions of the queanbeyan age and one of queanbeyans councillors

Councilor Barilaro is one of the most popular councilors on Quenbeyan Council – he usually gets things right. He should be speaking to Stanhope about getting things right for people on both sides of the border. The article doesnt really say what “his allegations were”, but he was backed up by Opposition spokesman for Inter Governmental relations Chris Hartcher. I havent seen if the Mayor in Queanbeyan has done anything – he has probably left it to Barilaro.

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.

Sewage leaks from Queanbeyan was mentioned. According to the article in the Queanbeyan Age, Barilaro stopped short of blaming the NSW Government for the Queanbeyan sewage system leak.

Holden Caulfield12:18 am 19 Dec 10

I think the OP is forgetting that Qbn cooperated a week or so earlier by leaking its shit into our lake, haha.

If LBG is full and Googong is overflowing or about to do so AND these is a shit load of rain coming, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that letting water out of LBG (in advance) might be a good thing!!!

georgesgenitals7:56 pm 18 Dec 10

Skidbladnir said :

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.

The new industrial estate is far closer to the border than Jerra (which incidentally has almost 9000 people living it – hardly a small bunch of ‘out of towners’).

Tralee, is, of course, a brain damaged idea.

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.

Hells_Bells7410:35 am 18 Dec 10

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?

Rawhide Kid Part39:35 am 18 Dec 10

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.

georgesgenitals7:15 am 18 Dec 10

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.

WonderfulWorld9:47 pm 17 Dec 10

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

The cat did it9:25 pm 17 Dec 10

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.

screaming banshee9:03 pm 17 Dec 10

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.

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