I had the opportunity to speak in Parliament last week about the recent rain events that brought devastation to a large part of southeast Queensland and New South Wales. Here is a summary of that address: ‘Krause, we dodged a bullet,’ is how a local farmer described the flood to me on the morning of the peak, looking at it from a farming perspective. On the night of Sunday, 27 February, I was watching the Bureau of Meteorology radar and saw the rain systems sitting off the coast. If those systems had come in and dumped a whole lot of rain into the headwaters of the Albert and Logan Rivers and into the Teviot Creek and Warrill Creek catchments, things could have been a lot worse. All the way from Calvert in the west, near Rosewood, through Harrisville, around Boonah, in the Logan basin south of Beaudesert and over to Canungra and Tamborine, there was a lot of damage across the land.

Sadly, around Beaudesert, Tamborine and Cedar Grove, we had homes with water in them and more sheds with resulting loss of equipment and damage. A bridge was washed away on Flying Fox Creek at the back of Canungra, cutting off the population there. When that happened, the ingenuity and community support was great. Ironically, a flying fox was set up across Flying Fox Creek to get supplies into that community because the road was cut for quite a few days until the council was able to mobilise equipment to put in temporary road access. No doubt there were some businesses affected by the loss of stock and lost trade. The huge amount of damage to local roads, parks and other public assets will take a long time to repair. 

I want to thank all members of the community for supporting each other through the event. In particular, I thank the SES, police and other emergency service workers at the council for their work. That includes the rural firefighters who have taken it upon themselves to assist with the clean-up of houses, not only in our area but also further afield in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. 

10 Years on from the 2012 State Election
Thursday 24 March 2022 will be 10 years on from the 2012 Queensland State Election when I was first elected as the (then) Member for Beaudesert. A lot has changed since 2012, including a name change and boundary changes for the State electorate. Back then, Yarrabilba was still a pine forest! Many of the matters I was working for right from the start remain on the go today – including getting viable public transport options, better police resources, health services that work for all Queenslanders (although getting maternity and other surgery back to Beaudesert Hospital in 2014 under the LNP was a massive win), sensible planning for residential growth on Tamborine Mountain and the never-ending battle for better investment in roads around Tamborine Mountain. 
I’m pleased to see that the moratorium on new water bores on the Mountain has been renewed, and I’ll keep advocating for a better system to ensure water for local residents is available in rainy spells and dry ones too. It is an honour to be your advocate at the Queensland level, and I thank you for the privilege. 

Phone (toll-free) 1800 813 960 – email: scenicrim@parliament.qld.gov.au – Mail: PO Box 656 Beaudesert QLD 4285.