Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education
The Australian Government will draw down on the Emergency Response Fund to inject an additional $150 million to flood affected communities in New South Wales and Queensland for recovery and post-disaster resilience initiatives.
Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie said Queensland and New South Wales will each receive a grant of $75 million to spend where they, in agreement with the Australian Government, determine it is most needed.
“At least 81 Local Government Areas in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales were impacted by the catastrophic February and March flooding event,” Minister McKenzie said.
“We are supporting both Queensland and New South Wales with $75 million of Australian Government funding to support community recovery and – importantly – to reduce the impacts of future floods.
“Due to the significant devastation wreaked by these floods, we are allocating the total $150 million available from the Emergency Response Fund this financial year to this effort.
“The scale and magnitude of these floods is exactly the type of event that the Emergency Response Fund was designed to address.
“The $150 million for the New South Wales and Queensland recovery and resilience package is in addition to other Australian Government commitments already made in response to these floods – over $1.5 billion for the joint Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements and over $923 million in direct Commonwealth payments that are supporting individuals and families.
“The Australian Government is providing immediate disaster recovery assistance as well as funding for future disaster risk mitigation and resilience initiatives. We want to make sure that we are better prepared for events such as these.”
