Northern Rivers communities are teaming up to sue the government over the catastrophic flooding they experienced earlier this year — and their class-action lawsuit is already close to 1,000 signatures. Go off!!!
Woodburn residents Vanessa Allport and Lyndall Murray reckon the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade, which cost nearly $5 billion, was the reason their town flooded as badly as it did.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the pair argue the highway prevented water from passing through and basically turned their town into a dam. They allege that concerns about the highway were ignored by both state and federal governments in 2017, and now local towns are paying the price in the form of flood damages.
At first, Allport and Murray were hoping the lawsuit would just push the state and federal governments to actually take them seriously. But now the entire town of Woodburn has signed the lawsuit and the pair have found a lawyer to take on the case, they think they’ll actually sue the government regardless. Get ’em queens!!!
“… Everyone feels the same way,” Vanessa Allport said, per the Daily Telegraph.
“They’ve all been let down”.
Finally breathing after the flood peaks and my parents / grandparents evacuate Woodburn this evening. Rescued from 2nd storey at 4am by locals with tinnys which we had to organise on Facebook. I am devastated for my hometown and feeling incredibly hopeless watching from afar. pic.twitter.com/RVqu7gbw80
— Matthew Rees (@matt_w_rees) March 1, 2022
Allport said locals felt frustrated, like no one was listening to them. She spoke about how flood victims have been left to recover on their own.
“Nothing has changed for me, I am still at a standstill,” she said.
“I have to raise my house before I can do any work on it. It will cost between $50,000 and $60,000 before I start on renovation”.
The pair were clear that part of the interest in the lawsuit from locals was based on the fact they don’t want to leave their hometowns — something that was suggested when flood victims questioned how they’re supposed to deal with more frequent flooding.
National Recovery and Resilience Agency Coordinator General Shane Stone said in March that taxpayers shouldn’t have to “pick up the bill” for people he reckons knowingly choose to live in floodplains. He even went as far as to say flood victims in areas like Lismore should “face reality” and just leave the area.
Yeah, looks like our PM isn’t the only one who needs empathy training.
Transport NSW has commented on the OG lawsuit proposal and said it will take “some months” to understand “the recent flood events and how they interacted with the highway and communities”.
However, it maintains that making sure the highway wouldn’t impact water drainage too much “was an important objective during the design and construction of the highway”.
