Evidence Qld dam engineers 'colluded'

March 16, 2012. Three Wivenhoe dam engineers could face criminal or misconduct charges in the wake of damning findings by the inquiry into Queensland's flood disaster. Commissioner Catherine Holmes found there was evidence the engineers had colluded to pen a misleading report about how they managed water releases from the dam before Brisbane and Ipswich flooded last year. Flood victims have long claimed the water releases were botched and the flooding was compounded as a direct result.

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Justice Holmes said Queensland's corruption watchdog should investigate the men to determine if they deliberately misled her inquiry. The Crime and Misconduct Commission must assess whether the actions of John Tibaldi, Robert Ayre and Terry Malone warranted criminal or official misconduct charges, she said. Justice Holmes said it was not for the commission to say whether an offence had occurred.

But there was evidence the men had colluded to write a misleading March report - primarily written by Mr Tibaldi for dam operator Seqwater, with input from Mr Ayre and Mr Malone - about when they escalated water releases. Justice Holmes also found the engineers breached the dam's operating manual before the two cities and their surrounds flooded last January.

Lawyers say the findings have strengthened the case for a class action, on behalf of thousands of flood victims, against the government-owned Seqwater. The inquiry reconvened hearings in dramatic circumstances earlier this year, after media reports said it had failed to identify discrepancies in documents about the way water releases from the dam were handled.

In a damning assessment, Justice Holmes said: "The conclusion has been reached that Mr Tibaldi and Mr Ayre knew - and that Mr Malone had a basis for suspecting - that the March flood event report was misleading," Justice Holmes found. She said none of the men had pointed out discrepancies between earlier flood documents and the final March report, despite them having every opportunity to do so at the inquiry's initial hearings.

Critically, the engineers did not mention an early document Mr Malone wrote, which said the dam transitioned to a higher water release later than was claimed in the March report. Commissioner Holmes spoke of a "striking, unanimous and collective lapse of memory" about documents that painted a different picture from the March report.

"The inference was open that the concealment of the true nature of the March flood event report was a joint effort to which each was a party," she found. In their testimony to the reconvened hearings, the engineers denied colluding to create a fictitious report and said they did their best to protect urban areas.

Justice Holmes said flooding in Brisbane and Ipswich could have been reduced to some degree, if capacity in the dam had been freed up before the December deluge. But she said it simply wasn't possible to have forecast what was to come. "... to appreciate what the magnitude of the rain would be and that it would fall in the dam area would have required a more than human capacity of prediction," she found.

However, she said she was concerned about "the apparent inertia" of government when the possibility of drawing down the dam was raised. Labor's water minister at the time, Stephen Robertson, told the inquiry that he had raised the idea of pre-emptive dam releases months before the floods, but by the time he got a formal response the deluge had already begun.

In other findings, Justice Holmes said there was room for improvement in emergency response planning. But she noted the flood crisis was unprecedented and so widespread that no government could be expected to have the capacity to respond seamlessly, immediately and comprehensively.

She found Queensland's land-use planning regarding flood risk had been ad hoc, and flood risk assessment systems were lacking. Premier Anna Bligh and Liberal National Party leader Campbell Newman have both vowed to implement the inquiry's recommendations in full should they win the March 24 poll.

The report contained no adverse findings against the Bligh government, nor Mr Newman during his tenure as Brisbane lord mayor. But the threat of a massive class action against a government-owned authority could hurt Labor at the ballot box. Ms Bligh said Seqwater was insured, but its liability was yet to be established. Seqwater said it would not be commenting on the inquiry's report until it had properly considered it. (AAP)