Mark Coulton (Parkes, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to raise the plight of the residents of western and central New South Wales in my electorate who have been severely discriminated against by the Gillard Labor government. Despite the fact that they suffered extensive flooding from late November, in some areas right through until February, they have been deemed ineligible to receive funding under the Australian government disaster relief program. The Attorney-General, despite putting out a press release identifying 13 local government areas as being eligible to receive this payment, then deemed them ineligible because the water was supposed to have come from Queensland. If anyone knows anything about the geography of New South Wales, they know that areas around Mudgee and Dubbo are never going to get flooded by water from Queensland. Those people suffered severe inconvenience. Indeed, one mother in the small village of Quambone, which is completely surrounded by water, has a profoundly disabled son who was stuck in an electronically operated bed because the power was shut off. She has been denied this fund. To add insult to injury, from 1 July they will be slugged with the government's flood tax. So their tax money will be going to fund recovery in areas of Australia that were no more disadvantaged than their area was. This is a great injustice.