Monday 17 January 2011

'75% of Queensland is flooded' - Anna Bligh

I'm getting rather sick of some in the media, making up shock stories about how much of Queensland is affected and under water.

NewsLtd papers in South East Queensland appear to be the biggest offenders.

I don't know who started this over-dramatised view of the flooding, but I even heard Premier Anna Bligh say repeatedly at press conferences that "75% of the State is under water."

Where do they get such rubbish from?

Queensland, the second largest State in Australia after WA, is 1,730,648 km2, excluding Island territories. The entire Brisbane area is just 40,000 square kilometres. Now I know there's Rocky and many smaller regions in the South East, including the Lockyer Valley area West of Brisbane, but this combined is still nowhere near 75% of our massive State.

With no disrespect to those that have lost their homes, or their family members, it would be more like 5% - 7%. Cairns and the Cape York Peninsula, and even Townsvile, who are all very used to regular flooding, are reasonable dry and have certainly not experienced any floods this wet season. That's not to say that we're in for some harsh weather over the next two months.

The media deserve a kick up the arse when they either invent drama or deliberately mislead their readership. And so does Anna Bligh.

Yesterday another body was located in the Withcott area, of a middle-aged man in a large pile of debris near Lockyer and Gatton Creeks, bringing the number of flood related deaths to 18 since January 10th.

I guess in all the reporting, it's easy for the brain-dead media to ignore other more dramatic tragedies. Last Wednesday torrential rains inundated a hillside area near Rio de Janeiro, causing floods and mudslides. 610 bodies have so far been recovered - the deadliest single-day disaster in Brazil.

Kind of puts this home-grown disaster into perspective, doesn't it?

11 comments:

Hingehead said...

Haven't heard the press conference you're describing so I can't know the context, but I'm pretty sure Bligh is aware how big the state is. Maybe she meant 75% of the QLD population is affected by the floods - even in Cairns we there are visible knock on effects (check the supermarket shelves and Rusty's for proof).

KitchenSlut said...

http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/mms/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=73255

A link to the media statement from Anna Bligh last week with the headline "Three Quarters of Queensland Disaster Declared". The purpose of this seems to be to give police and emergency services appropriate power within the declared districts if necessary.

The declared districts were Brisbane, Bundaberg, Dalby, Gladstone, Gold Coast, Gympie, Ipswich, Logan, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Roma, Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Warwick and Redcliffe disaster districts. I haven't seen a map of the disaster districts however it does seem that if that has worked out to 75% that there are some weird district boundaries or they may have been using the same calculator that Andrew Fraser uses for the Qld budget?

scarecrow said...

Normally I'm with your rants against the media Mike but this time I think your just picking a fight for the sake of it, the Premier's media briefings have been all publicly transcribed and put on YouTube by the QPS so i challenge you to provide us a link to where she says what you are alleging. Otherwise you are doing exactly what you are accusing shoddy journalists of doing.

Alec

Michael P Moore said...

Here is one of the references Alec..

'Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh has today declared three quarters of Queensland a disaster zone.

The southern part of Queensland has been declared a disaster situation as the state continues to respond to one of the most intense flooding events in its history....'

SEE:
THREE QUARTERS OF QUEENSLAND DISASTER DECLARED

And this is what ABC Far North wrote on their website...

'Anna Bligh keeps saying 75% of the state is underwater. Is it? The flooods are an absolute tradegy...but Townsvile, Cairns and north to T.I, and west to Normanton, Weipa and Mt Isa aren't...by my calculations...that's nowhere near 75%.'

scarecrow said...

Hi Mike,

You have said in this article; "I even heard Premier Anna Bligh say repeatedly at press conferences that "75% of the State is under water."" you used direct quotes and said that you had heard her say this repeatedly.

The media statement that you have just linked us to above says nothing like what you have said she said, it is a very clear statement of fact.

As I said in my previous post, every word that the Premier has said publicly over the last couple of weeks has been transcribed on the Internet by various media organisations and unedited videos have been posted on youtube by the QPS.

The Premier has been absolutely incredible through this terrible period of Queensland's history, particularly in the dissemination of accurate information. Even the Courier-Mail have had to admit this.

To avoid having the same accusations thrown at you which you have dished out to the mainstream media I would suggest you publish a retraction at the top of this article stating that you were mistaken when you attributed these words to Premier Anna Bligh. If ABC FNQ have said something similar on their website then they should also retract it. Please post the link to where they have said "Anna Bligh keeps saying 75% of the state is underwater" and I will personally make a complaint (http://www.abc.net.au/contact/complaints.htm). In the mean time could you please post a retraction at the top of this article.

Keep up the good work Mike, but don't BS us.

Alec

Ryan Jamieson (Holloways) said...

another faceless nameless coward that hides behind a weird nick name...... ignore the idiot Mike, Capt Bligh is seriously in need of help.

She said what you put here. I heard the ABC radio mention this and have seen the crap media and churnalists repeat the same trash.

I also read what local writer /commentator Mark Beath wrote on the ABC website in reaction to this 75% claim that the ABC also rightfully questioned. Beach was incensed with the trash and the over-dramatic headlines that many media have been jumping on the bandwagon....... when they can't find genuine drama, they bullshit and make it up to sound way too huge.

Michael P Moore said...

I hardly think it's worth entertaining a discussion with you 'Mr Scarecrow'

So you believe that 'every word that Bligh has said in the last two weeks has been transcribed and reported on the internet...' Every word??!!

You must be a Labor suck up...

Do you actually believe this statement?.....

'The Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh has today declared three quarters of Queensland a disaster zone.'

scarecrow said...

lol, sticks and stones Mr Moore and Mr Jamieson. The username Scarecrow came up because I made the choice to log into your website under my gmail loggin instead of clicking on "OpenID" and calling myself whatever I wanted to.

It was a statement of fact Mr Moore, a declaration of a "disaster zone" is very different from "under water" as you have reported it. It means that the police are authorised to evacuate areas if necessary depending on the what happened with the floods, this is something they can't do legally unless a disaster has been declared in the region.

You did not hear the Premier say anything like what you have reported her saying. It really looks like this article is based on you making up the news to suit your agenda, exactly what you are accusing the media of doing.

You said you heard her say those words repeatedly in a press conference... so when did you hear her say it?

If she had of said something so ridiculous as "75% of the State is under water." it would have been more than your blog and a local writer /commentator picking up on it!

Just from a Google search the transcripts can be found at http://australianpolitics.com/2011/01/16/qld-floods-latest-briefings.html and full videos of each of the press conferences are at http://www.youtube.com/user/QueenslandPolice

So there you go Mr Moore, you said you heard her say this at "press conferences" and you titled your article "'75% of Queensland is flooded' - Anna Bligh"" so why can't you back it up?

This article seems to be based on you just making stuff up and so you should retract it. Otherwise you're the one who deserves a kick up the arse for inventing drama and deliberately misleading your readership to use your own words.

Alec

scarecrow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Leigh Dall'Osto said...

I also had a problem with the use of the 75% in regard to the reporting on this flood crisis (and heard Anna say that number in a press conference; but only once, not repeatedly). Then I made the effort to look at the figures re; population in the areas currently affected. It appears that the reports are indeed correct......75% of QUEENSLANDERS are flood affected. They just need to add the 'ers' on the end to make these statements accurate.

North Qld and Far nth Qld is largely unaffected and more needs to be said about that so that tourism doesn't suffer but with 75% of QUEENSLANDERS flood affected....that's a disasdter whichever way you choose to look at it!

Anonymous said...

Apparently, Queensland is divided into 23 disaster districts for disaster management purposes.

According to the Premier’s press release, disaster declarations have been declared for 15 of these regions.

15/23 x 100 = 65%. In other words, approximately two-thirds of Queensland’s disaster districts have had disaster declarations declared.

Thus, the Premier’s press office needs to clarify how it came up with the statement, “The Premier of Queensland Anna Bligh has today declared three quarters of Queensland a disaster zone”, or retract the statement if it is incorrect.