RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...

22 May 2013 Questions Without Notice 1673
Recently my department has undertaken—and prior to us coming into office under the previous
government—a review of the sustainability of funding to community based helicopter rescue services
in Queensland. I was not very happy with the way in which that review had been established and
recently brought in some consultants to finalise that. In our discussions with the community based
helicopter rescue services throughout Queensland we are now getting a large and significant
consensus of view with regard to a new funding model going forward. Many of those helicopter
rescue services provide an extraordinarily good job to Queensland and, obviously, we need to ensure
that we have sustainability in their base funding and also appropriateness with regard to the overfly
hours, which they do as well. Many of those do hundreds and hundreds of hours.
I know the honourable member may be disappointed with this answer. However, it is not
beholden to the department of health in Queensland to step in and provide block funding to a
helicopter service that establishes themselves under the guise of being a rescue helicopter service. In
2011, this service was recognised as being able to do ad hoc work for the department of health.
Indeed, I understand since about July last year they have been contracted to undertake about nine fly
hours, equivalent to around about $30,000 to $35,000. That decision has been made by local
clinicians. Also, recently we have seen the withdrawal of funding available to that particular provider in
north-west Queensland by one of their benefactors—a sponsor. I think the honourable member needs
to consider how these services should be established. It is not the role of the state to step in and just
bail them out.
(Time expired)
Flood Recovery
Mr BENNETT: My question without notice is to the Minister for Local Government, Community
Recovery and Resilience. Will the minister please provide the House with an update on the flood
recovery and explain how the government is increasing resilience with a limited amount of money?
Mr CRISAFULLI: Can I start by acknowledging the local member and indeed the role he has
played in the hour of need for his community. He has been magnificent, as has the police minister, in
their part of the world.
The question was in two parts, but let me start by speaking about the recovery effort. The
member asked how the recovery effort is going. The answer is that it is going very well. I have to pay
tribute to those local governments—not just Bundaberg and North Burnett but right across the state—
that have rolled up their sleeves in a way that I have never seen before. The attitude from local
government to want to get on and make this work has been wonderful.
I also acknowledge the work of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. Gone are the days of
the paper warfare that existed where a council would put in an application and then it would be
assessed and then the QRA would come back and say, ‘No, maybe, maybe this way, maybe that
way’ and then it would go back and forward. This time the Reconstruction Authority has been on the
ground from day one and the argy-bargy that we have seen in years gone by has happened from day
one rather than a trail of paper that is taking months. Of all the statistics that I can give there is one in
my mind that crystallises how this recovery effort is going compared to the last one. In 2011, it took
the Bundaberg council 18 months to get $25 million worth of work to market. In 2014, it has taken four
months to get $40 million of work to market. If ever you need proof of what happens when two levels
of government work together, it is that on the ground.
I acknowledge that there has been a huge social impact as well and the uncertainty and the
fear in some communities as I have walked the streets in places like Mundubbera is very real. In
places like Gympie, where businesses have flooded five times in two years, it is real. It is against that
backdrop that I have discussed the need not just to replace like for like but to look at mitigation and to
look at betterment. Whilst the fund that we have been able to secure for betterment is much less than
we would have liked, today I can announce a further three projects to be funded out of that betterment
fund for the Bundaberg Regional Council. They are for three projects in the member’s electorate and
three projects that he knows all too well. In fact, I have even inspected one with him. They are Gentle
Annie Bridge, Barretts Road, and Blacks Road. In all cases, for a small investment upfront we can
prevent what we have seen, which is over and over going back and doing the same culverts, the
same bridges. In all cases it has prevented the community from going about their daily lives—from
getting medical treatment, from going to school, from doing all of the things that we take for granted.
So $80 million may not be what we were chasing, but it is my great desire and my intention to make
sure that we deliver huge value for money and show that there is a better way with disaster recovery.