Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question. The member for Blair saw firsthand the damage caused by the 2011 Queensland floods, and he stood side by side with his community as they rebuilt. Floods and fires have affected communities around the country, but I want to focus on the state of Queensland, the state that the member for Blair is from, and that is because of the truly devastating impacts that there have been in the state of Queensland. The scenes following ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald down the Queensland and the New South Wales coasts have been truly devastating—in the Bundaberg region in particular. On Australia Day, that area bore the brunt of this storm, with a series of separate tornadoes and more than 7½ thousand residents forced to evacuate their homes.

Our government has moved very quickly to ensure that support was available for those most severely affected. We have activated our disaster response plan. In Queensland more than 300 Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed to assist with the emergency response and recovery efforts led by ADF Joint Task Force 637 Queensland Flood Assist 2. We have paid almost $47 million in recovery support directly into people's bank accounts following requests from 40,200 applications from Queensland, with every eligible adult receiving $1,000 and $400 per child. The Prime Minister has also activated clean up and recovery grants of $25,000 for primary producers, for small businesses and for not-for-profit organisations in Bundaberg, North Burnett, Fraser Coast, Gympie and the Lockyer Valley. There are a further 53 local government areas eligible for help including personal hardship assistance, concessional interest rates, loans and freight subsidies for primary producers.

As Australians, we take pride in our ability to pull together in a time of crisis. We have seen the mud army—referred to already today—of volunteers return to lend a helping hand, and I would echo— (Time expired)

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