Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) | Hansard source

The Australian government, through the National Recovery and Resilience Agency, which we established following the royal commission I called into those disasters, is administering the COVID-19 disaster payments and the recovery following the recent storms and floods, is supporting communities impacted by large-scale events which include the bushfires and the North Queensland floods, and is undertaking new initiatives to reduce risks and manage the impact of future natural hazard zones. More than $2.8 billion has been allocated to the recovery, including the now $2.2 billion National Bushfire Recovery Fund as well as assistance already available through the existing disaster support funding mechanisms. More than $1.7 billion from the fund has already been delivered for locally led efforts on the ground, along with over $700 million in other assistance. In addition, the $390 million for the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program, which will assist communities directly impacted by those bushfires, continues and remains a priority.

In February this year the Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience announced that the government would provide an additional $110 million on top of the $280 million already committed to provide further support to those communities. I remember vividly at the time, when I announced the $2 billion in early January in the Prime Minister's courtyard, saying, 'This is what we will do, and if we need to more we will do more.' And we are doing more. We're continuing to deliver this support on the ground. We're continuing to work with the state government, which is obviously seeking to address the accommodation issues, and we continue to support the communities when it comes to their resilience and recovery on the ground all over the country. The Leader of the Labor Party has been seeking to exploit natural disasters for political gain for the last three years. It's a grubby tactic on his behalf, it reflects on his character and he has failed the character test.

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