Let us get a stick each and flog the victims! so much fun!
IF we overnight took every flood prone house and forced the mostly renters out, what site has enough refugee tents to house them?
Some live there because by its very nature the price is one they can afford, and not more.
Councils are corrupt, believe me any color anyplace.
Land developers get their way, building right now,on flood prone land.
My thoughts are far from limited to houses.
Roads and rail, when ever possible, should be moved above flood lands.
More drainage properly kept, clean and running.
Factory's and whole shopping centers.
Tax relief is still comeing from us, but think about the longterm benefits.
We can have those wide roads, and the equivalent, in every new street.
It cost, to do anything, not always directly us.
Business tax is much bigger than par as you earn.
America, in ww2 told us we need a reliable road system, that is why Germany built the Auto Bann.
What if the Pacific Highway was flooded and Brisbane needed massive help/defense?
A Nation building scheme as was the Snowy River, should include National laws about building including the views put here, no buildings o0n flood land.
Right now a national firm is building a MASSIVE shopping center, soon to start, for its supper hard ware shop, including roads and even public roads near by to keep traffic moveing.
At no cost to any one other than them selves, it can be done.
We should be building for the next 200 years, not just until the next flood.

rehctub,

You were unable to dispel any of the facts I put to you, in particular government's responsibility as planner, developer and profiteer. You did not address the severe, continuing problem of population overstretching planning and available land and infrastructure.

You mentioned Brisbane so I could easily have added the loss of wide expanses of dairy and market garden land, including orchards that has paralleled the over-supply of migrants who congregate in and around the large metropolitan city of Brisbane. Loss of this first class and replaceable farming land to housing development is a tragedy of similar proportions to the flooding of houses. In any event, it is so often the same fertile farming land that is part of the flood plains for the Brisbane River and surrounding rivers and creeks.

I also did not mention the failure of government to complete Stage 2 of Wivenhoe and for other dams that have been paid for many times over in additional land development taxes and other taxes. Where has the money gone? The floods come and go and the overpopulation from overzealous federal policies of record immigration create water shortages (and expensive energy, and high road taxes and so on, as infrastructure plays catch up and resources are overstretched).

I reckon you just want to feel superior to 'lesser' mortals who got stiffed with flood land. Especially where government has the monopoly on land planning and housing approvals. Citizens trust their governments to do the right thing. That is very foolish of them isn't it? Maybe the drafters of the US Constitution were right all along and citizens must first protect themselves from government.

Belly, like anything else we want/need, it takes money, and money is a luxury we no longer have, thanks to the billions allocated or wasted on either failed projects and or illegals.

Quite simply, without a much better, fairer and more efficient tax system, all these items on our 'wish lists' will simply be pipe dreams, unless of cause we continue to rob Peter to feed Paul.

As far as shopping centers go, they invest countless millions at times developing centers, then, a few years latter, when the centre is well established and returning a profit, for both tenants and owners alike, government allocate more land nearby, for another centre, which takes from the existing owners/tenants, all in the name of increased competition.

Of cause the result can often be, loss of confidence, and/or the swallowing up of family centers by huge, often forign owner multi nationals.

Now as for tenants loosing their belongings, well that's a different issue than property owners and I agree that they should be supported.

I notice in some of these flooded areas that most of the houses are timber.
Would it be possible for those houses to be jacked up and converted
into Queenslanders ?
The other houses could be resumed and the blocks sold for Queenslanders
only to be built.
The resumption cost would depend on how complicit the local council was
in the original approval.
Obviously the cost of demolition or jacking up would be shared between
owner, council and government by some magic formula.

rehctub, "Now as for tenants loosing their belongings, well that's a different issue than property owners and I agree that they should be supported"

You and Belly seem to believe that property owners are wealthy capitalist entrepreneurs who can afford to absorb damage. Yet it is mums and dads such as yourselves who prop up the supply of rental housing. Much of it is small holdings and like the family farm is not a business model any competent adviser would recommend. High risk and 2% gross returns!

The scorn that was heaped on Labor for the flood levy wasn't because supporting the victims wasn't important, but because of the relatively small value that required yet another tax.

The $1.8bn represents less than 0.5% of the annual budget, and should fall easily within the budget contingency, and is no more than that allowed for the NDIS trials that Labor found no problem in funding.

That Juliar decided to dock 0.75% from the incomes of middle Australia is a sign of incompetence