By Tuck Thompson

March 23, 2007

A NEW report suggesting the current drought is unique was written to suit the Premier’s political stance on the issue, the Opposition says.

Opposition infrastructure spokesman Bruce Flegg said yesterday that the Climate Change Centre of Excellence had picked rainfall figures to support Peter’s Beattie’s claim that the water crisis was an unforeseen event.

“He’s trying to make the drought the scapegoat,” Dr Flegg said.

”Clearly we could have foreseen the water supply needed per head of population. Droughts come and go in Queensland.”

The Climate Change Centre of Excellence report was released on Thursday by Natural Resources Minister Craig Wallace to coincide with World Water Day.

The report said catchment rainfall in the 70 months since 2000/2001, when the storages were last full, was 24 per cent less than the historical average.

Such a long-term deficit had occurred only during the Federation Drought, which lasted 61 months in southeast Queensland, the centre said.

“The report confirms that we have never faced a drought like this in our Brisbane dam catchments,” Mr Wallace said.

But none of Brisbane’s major dams – Wivenhoe, North Pine and Somerset – was constructed before 1959. Weather bureau annual rainfall records show there were many dry stretches recorded by weather stations near the catchments.

Low rainfalls were reported in 1902, 1919, 1932, 1936, 1957, 1977, 1993, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

The centre defended its methodology, saying its analysis “was based on a spatially weighted average rainfall across the catchments” since 1890.

But Dr Flegg said it appeared 70 months was an arbitrary number selected to “produce the result they wanted”.

Mr Beattie and Mr Wallace launched the centre last week, saying it would examine reasons for the drought.

Dr Flegg said the Opposition supported the centre if it were not used for political purposes, but its research was too late for the current crisis.

“Once again the Government is taking action when the crisis is already on us,” Dr Flegg said.

Minutes from Government meetings over the past several years show ministers had been briefed about global warning and climate change, he said.

“They have ignored repeated warnings,” he said.