Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the motion be amended to read as follows:

That this House:

(1) notes the motion agreed to on 18 August 2011 in relation to the severe flooding of Torres Strait Islands;

(2) acknowledges the commitment the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government made on behalf of the Government to address the problem;

(3) calls on the:

(a) Minister to publicly comply with the resolution that this House passed on 18 August 2011; and

(b) Government to investigate:

  (i) any remediation works required to bring the affected sea walls to a standard high enough to prevent tidal flooding;

  (ii) the maintenance of sea walls to a safe standard; and

  (iii) how these works might be funded;

(4) acknowledges the announcement made by the Minister on 4 June 2012 that the Commonwealth has committed up to $12 million to restore and rebuild sea walls of the Torres Strait Islands, representing one half of the overall cost of the project;

(5) notes that the Torres Strait Regional Authority and Torres Strait Island Regional Council welcomed the Commonwealth contribution and called on the Queensland Government “...to recognise the serious nature of this issue for our communities and at least match the Commonwealth contribution”; and

(6) calls on the Queensland Government to match the Commonwealth’s commitment to restoring and rebuilding the sea walls of the Torres Strait Islands.

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