Has the new M1 motorway added to our disaster?

By Rod Bruem

Two days ago I walked into my mother’s kitchen in Ballina to find her semi-conscious, with her head slumped in the sink.  For days our pipes have been backing up due to floodwaters, but fortunately, this time, the sink was empty.   Hours later, the irony of Grandma possibly drowning due to floodwaters in her own kitchen sink was cause for some levity, but not at this moment.   Janice had suffered two strokes previously and was not looking good.  She was breathing, but unable to speak or open her eyes.

My heart raced.  I knew Ma had been stressed out, worrying mostly about me and the big hit I’d suffered to my farm and business at Lismore.  There’s just no escaping the collective grief in our community right now.   It’s like a cloak of pain and sadness that weighs heavily on all of us.   I dragged Janice to her bed and called an ambulance.  Holding her hand, I gave her a few kisses and said goodbye – just in case this really was the end.  I knew the ambulance would have difficulty getting through as the house was surrounded by floodwater.

The good news is the wonderful paramedics eventually did get through and transported Janice to Ballina hospital, where she made a remarkable recovery.  By lunchtime she was sitting up eating a sandwich.  She remembers nothing of her time with her head the sink, or even my heartfelt goodbye.

Certainly there were a few minutes there where I’d feared the worst and my heart sank at the thought of dear Ma being another flood victim, just a week before her 80^th birthday.  Worse still, that she’d been floored by sharing my stresses.

Yet in many respects, I count myself as one of the lucky ones.  Others have lost so much more, including loved ones.  This incident underlined to me the responsibility I have as an elected representative and we share as a community to ensure we don’t let this disaster pass without learning from the mistakes and fixing what we can.

The flood inquiry announced by the NSW Government must be given the scope and powers to examine all the issues, like the inaccurate forecasts, the failure of warning systems and now the shameful snail pace of government assistance.  None of these issues will be easy for a government to have to listen to, especially given the next NSW election is less than a year away.

In recent weeks, I’ve spoken out about the failure of our telecommunications system at the height of the floods and also how it’s becoming impossible for businesses to rebuild without adequate insurance support.  On that issue, I was pleased to back a motion by the Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader for Federal intervention to create a re-insurance pool to enable the industry to provide adequate cover.

However the biggest question on my mind right now is, will the NSW Premier give the inquiry heads licence to properly investigate and tackle apparent failures by state agencies themselves?

Possibly the greatest concern along the Richmond floodplain has been the impact of the new M1 Motorway.  Residents believe the elevated construction has acted like a giant dam wall, causing flood levels to rise to unprecedented heights and channelling floodwaters to places never inundated before.

Then there’s also the apparent failure of this wonderful piece of infrastructure to actually stay open as a life-saving route during the floods.  Despite its elevation, key sections, including the ridiculous half-built north Ballina interchange at Cumbalum went under water and were cut off.

This is the biggest infrastructure investment this region has seen and it has saved the lives of motorists and drastically reduced trauma from road accidents, but have flaws in design and construction added to our flood losses?

We deserve to know the answer to this and so many other questions.

Image: This is a photo being shared by South Ballina residents, showing water being directed to areas that never saw flooding before