Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Capricornia for her question. She was one of a number of members who had the opportunity yesterday in the House to share their reflections on the summer of disasters that we have all shared and her reflections from her local community. I did have the opportunity to visit with her in Rockhampton. They are very stoic people. They were very well prepared. They were isolated for a very long period of time. But as we started the process yesterday of sharing some reflections—and we will continue to do that during the course of this week and beyond—it is also important to reflect on the way in which Australians got in to help each other. They did not need to be told; they did not need to be asked. They just got in to help each other, and they obviously expected that government would do the same.

Consequently, we have got in to help people as these natural disasters have unfolded. I can advise the House—and these figures are accurate as at 3 February—that we have already granted 38,000 claims totalling $17 million in disaster income recovery subsidy. We have also accepted 350,000 claims, granting a total of $421 million under the Australian government disaster recovery payment—that is, the emergency money that people can get. Referring, too, to the Leader of the Opposition’s question to me just a few moments ago, we are already seeing take-up of clean-up and recovery grants for small businesses and primary producers: 925 clean-up and recovery grants have been granted in Queensland, totalling $4.5 million; and 237 clean-up and recovery grants have gone to small businesses and primary producers in New South Wales, totalling $3.5 million. We have also seen uptake under the emergency assistance provisions of the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, the personal hardship and distress assistance, in the order of $13 million. We are dealing with 7,560 applications to date for essential household contents in Queensland and 1,986 applications to date for assistance with people’s dwellings.

The government responded quickly to make this emergency assistance available because it was needed. We have responded quickly, too, to make the decisions that are necessary to support rebuilding. The nation is looking to us to make the decisions necessary to enable us to rebuild in Queensland and around the nation. That is why I announce that the government will invest at least $5.6 billion in rebuilding. That figure has been drawn from preliminary estimates. We will do that by making space in the federal budget, by reprioritising and reprofiling infrastructure, and also by asking Australians to make a contribution. I believe Australians do want to assist those who have been affected by these natural disasters. We will be asking Australians to make that contribution through the levy that I have announced. Every dollar collected in that levy is matched by $2 that has been made available in cutbacks through the government’s budget, and we have reprofiled infrastructure not only to make money available but to ensure that we are not pressing and creating additional capacity constraints as the nation tries to rebuild. This is the right package when the nation is looking to us to make the right decisions in this parliament in the national interest.

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