Editorial: Myuna Bay Sport and Recreation Centre decision hard to fathom

It's hard to deny that this decision takes Australian bureaucracy to a new low when it comes to a complete lack of common sense.

There's a big difference between rational fear and irrational fear.

The Myuna Bay case seems firmly entrenched in the camp of irrational fear.

The risk of the Eraring Power Station ash dam collapsing in an earthquake and pouring its sludge over the recreation centre, killing children and anyone else in its path is tiny.

Dr Philip Pells, a leading Australian geo-technical engineer, told the Newcastle Herald in September that the closure of the sport and recreation centre was "totally irrational" and "ill considered".

The retired University of NSW professor said if the state government stood by its decision to close the centre due to earthquake risk, "we should also abandon society".

He said if an earthquake caused the ash dam to collapse, it would be of a magnitude that would cause catastrophic destruction on a massive scale.

"There would be no road and rail transport, bridges would be down, multiple buildings would have collapsed, the coal-fired power stations at Eraring and Munmorah would be substantially damaged, hospitals would be on life support, there would be hundreds of miners trapped in underground coal mines. And I could go on and on," he said.

The government conducted two reviews of the decision to close the centre. The first review found that the assessments of risk used for the original decision were reasonable. The second review found that the prospect of an earthquake causing the ash dam to rupture would pose an "intolerable" and "unacceptable" risk to life.

Bizarrely, an internal report by Origin Energy - the owner of Eraring Power Station - found there was no risk posed to its workers on the ash dam.

The madness seemed to have no end.

Then on Thursday, the government announced that the centre would be moved to another site and Origin Energy would foot the bill.

Myuna Bay Water Ski Club and the Morisset Rotary Club, which used the Myuna Bay centre, will receive compensation.

Staff at the centre - whose lives were upended when it was closed in March - will be offered voluntary redundancies or jobs at other sport centres.

The staff have been getting paid while living with constant uncertainty.

The government said the new centre would take at least two years to be built.

About 20,000 people signed a petition to save the Myuna Bay centre.

No doubt many of them believe that this entire matter sounds like an episode of the classic British TV show Yes Minister.

ISSUE: 39,476.

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