Money for flood relief, not war

January 22, 2011
Issue 
Part of the aftermath of Brisbane's flood.

The Queensland flood crisis is a national emergency that requires urgent action.

Socialist Alliance Queensland co-convener Ewan Saunders told Green Left Weekly that the "Gillard government should call Australia’s soldiers back from the war in Afghanistan to help with tackling the flood crisis and its aftermath".

Saunders said the billions in taxpayer dollars wasted on the Afghanistan war should instead be spent on flood recovery work.

"We need the urgent reassignment of massive state and national emergency relief resources to deal with the immediate crisis and the huge rebuilding.

"It means we need an urgent redirection of national priorities. This should include the redeployment of soldiers fighting a useless war in Afghanistan to a socially, useful purpose: helping to repair the flood damage in Queensland."

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