Despite every man and their dog (including Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Police Commissioner Ian Stewart) urging those impacted by Cyclone Debbie’s wild weather to stay at home, one local council told its employees to take this time off work as annual leave.
Shocked? Gobsmacked? Borderline disgusted? You choose.
In the aftermath of the category-four cyclone that struck the southeast coast of Queensland on March 28, The Courier Mail reports that widespread flash-flooding caused 43 roads to be closed.
Not only that, but the Government also closed schools and childcare centres on March 30 and 31, and public transport became free to ensure people could get home early.
However, on this same day, March 30, Moreton Bay Regional Council told their staff to make “appropriate leave arrangements” if they chose to take a day off work.
“Staff who needed to make personal arrangements were advised to speak with their supervisors and make appropriate leave arrangements,” a spokesman for Moreton Bay Regional Council stated.
Earlier this week, a 43-year-old mum and two children from Bilambil Heights in Queensland tragically died after the family’s car veered off a slippery, flood-affected road and into the Tweed River. The family were believed to be on their way to the children’s school to help with the community clean-up following the damage caused by Cyclone Debbie.
Sadly, the road they were travelling on at the time of the tragic accident was a closed road.
We’re not the only ones who disagree with Moreton Bay Regional Council’s insensitivity in capitalising on their staff’s leave entitlements…
“Now’s not the time to be clawing back entitlements from those who listened to the warnings issued by the authorities,” says Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace.
“They were acting responsibly in what was an emergency weather event.”
Case in point.
