Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Indi for her question, and I acknowledge her community is going through a particularly tough time at this point in time. A lot of Victorians have been impacted by bushfires that have burnt through over 415,000 hectares across Victoria, and it's had a major impact on communities right across that place.

Can I again thank the member for Indi and the member for Nicholls for inviting me into their local communities. It is really important in this role to hear firsthand from communities about what they're going to need not only in the short term but also in the medium and long term. Can I thank, in particular, the members in Ruffy who I met. I said the other day that they were so worried about their local environment, let alone their own homes. I heard very clearly from them their desire to see the Ruffy community centre rebuilt, which they lovingly referred to as the TCC. We will continue to work with your community on those things. I also heard really clearly from Strathbogie and Murrindindi shire council members about the need to make sure that infrastructure is built back more resilient and that we work on those community cohesion projects together into the future.

As the member knows, the Prime Minister announced another package of supports—$158 million going to things like extended power outages for businesses, clean-up support for community members, temporary accommodation, rebates for people who need to clean out water tanks, and mental health support in particular. We'll continue to extend support where it's needed, and we'll work with the Victorian government on that. We have enacted over $330 million in those state-Commonwealth Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements already.

However, we recognise that the state and the local councils are best placed to identify the type and the level of assistance that is going to be required following this disaster, in accordance with their responsibilities for disaster management. The Albanese government will continue to work really closely with the Allan Labor government, and with local councils and local communities in particular, to understand where supports and assistance is going to be needed into the future, and our government stands ready, willing and able to assist when those support packages come forward. We know that recovery isn't a straight line. It's not going to be a speedy process. Our commitment is to continue to work with all levels of government and local communities to see this recovery tail through. We stand ready, willing and able to support as we can, when we can.

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