Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that under the highly centralised, inflexible model of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, imposed on the communities in my electorate of McEwen, local residents are denied the ability to determine how their communities should be rebuilt? Given that current research of disaster recovery clearly says that top-down, inflexible and standardised approaches are ineffective and dysfunctional, and given that the Commonwealth has invested many hundreds of millions of dollars for the benefit of affected communities, will the Prime Minister provide a commitment not just to my communities but to any future communities affected by disaster that models for recovery funded by the Commonwealth ensure flexibility and give priority to local knowledge and expertise when deciding when, how and where community infrastructure will be rebuilt. Further, will the Prime Minister initiate a COAG agreement on flexible community driven models for disaster recovery?

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