Is Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman worried about what the Government-commissioned flood inquiry will find regarding City Council policies, particularly around land use planning?

Today the Lord Mayor launched his own independent flood review, focusing on the City Council’s handling of the flood disaster, even though City Council issues such as land use planning are within the scope of the Queensland Government-commissioned inquiry by Justice Catherine Holmes. See:

Queensland Floods Inquiry: Terms of Reference

Mr Newman has made it clear that the review he has commissioned, to be headed by former Governor Peter Arnison, is not intended to subvert the year-long Holmes Review, and the Arnison report, to be completed by May, will be provided to it.

This is all very well and proper. If the City Council is to attract any blame from the Holmes inquiry, then it deserves the right to a second opinion, which it will have already obtained through its own inquiry. Moreover, the more evidence and perspectives we get on these critical issues for Queensland’s future the better.

Queenslanders will watch both flood inquiries with intense interest, and may be surprised at some unexpected casualties. Regrettably, before the reviews have assessed all the relevant evidence, the blame game for the floods has already begun – see, for example, our national newspaper today.

In other flood-related news, a new ABARE report has quantified the costs of lost agricultural and mining production due to the floods. The Australian reports:

THE devastation from recent floods will cost the Australian agricultural sector $500-600 million, while coal exports will take a $2-2.5 billion hit in 2010-11, according to a new report.