Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Last Thursday night, while visiting bushfire affected communities on the South Coast of New South Wales, I met a truck driver in Nelligen who is losing income because of the fires but isn't eligible for any assistance under the government's recovery package. Can the Prime Minister tell the House why thousands of workers who have lost income because of the fires can't get a helping hand from this government?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member would recall from when he was in a government managing disasters, there are many other payments—whether it's in the welfare system or whether it is in the Newstart program—or many other measures that are available to provide income support for those who have found themselves in difficulty. That's the whole point of the safety net that has been built. And I'll tell you how you can keep a safety net in place. You keep it in place by ensuring that you manage money well, that you actually can bring a budget back into balance and do it without adding levies as those opposite had to do when they were struck by disasters. They had to go out and tax Australians more because they couldn't manage money.

We are delivering $2 billion of additional support in initial and additional support through the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. We are working through the disaster-recovery payment arrangements that we put in place with the states and territories. And we're doing that consistent with all the same guidelines and rules that were put in place by the previous government. Those rules and guidelines did serve their government well, and I believe they serve our government well.

Mr Albanese interjecting—

I'll take the interjection, because he said I was just criticising those arrangements. I was not criticising those arrangements. His own member who asked the question previously of me was criticising the very arrangements that the government is putting in place now. We will continue to work with the state and territory governments. We'll continue to work with local councils, and we will continue to work with businesses right across the country through local economic recovery plans, which are now being put in place by the states with the Commonwealth—working with the former commissioner Colvin, who heads up the National Bushfire Recovery Agency.

But what we'll stay focused on is rebuilding this economy in those areas that have been so devastated by the bushfires. That will happen with the rebuilding work that we're putting in place. That will happen with the record levels of money we're putting in to support the grants to these communities as they rebuild. We will listen carefully to those communities—whether it's the orchardists out there in Batlow, whether it is those in the forestry industry, or, in particular, whether it is the defence forces that we sent in that rebuilt the roof on Mogo Zoo and cleared out the Eden mill that needed the support of the defence forces so they could get their operation back on track. That's what we'll continue to do each and every day. We won't play politics with bushfires in this place; we'll just get on with it.