Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Khan family, who live in an apartment complex in my electorate, applied for disaster payments when their basement was flooded and they were without power for 27 days. The Khan family says one family member received the payment, but others had their applications rejected. How can one member of the same family, living in the same apartment, be eligible for flood relief payments but the others be rejected?

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

I'd be very happy to receive the details of the matter which the member has raised and have that taken up by Services Australia. In the course of these floods over the last few weeks, $1.3 billion has been paid to over 1.4 million Australians. Particularly in relation to the Queensland floods, as I mentioned when I was in Brisbane at the time—and I want to thank Premier Palaszczuk for the close cooperation we've had on dealing with the issues with the Queensland floods—when you go back to the 2011 floods, then Prime Minister Gillard, working together with then Premier Bligh and the Brisbane City Council, turned out the Australian Defence Forces and the support that was there to ensure there was an effective response. What I can say is they used everything at their disposal, but, because of what we've been able to build up since 2011, in the Brisbane floods we turned out four times the amount of ADF response, and we did it almost a week earlier than occurred on that occasion.

I'd be very happy to receive the details of the individual case that you're raising; I'd be happy to have that taken up by the minister. But, as I've said, 1.4 million Australians have received assistance, to the tune of $1.3 billion. That is what has gone out over the course of these floods over the recent weeks in which they've been experiencing them. I want to thank the staff at Services Australia for turning out in large numbers, and to thank those who have come from other departments to help process those calls. They have been getting on with their task of helping as many Australians as they possibly can. I commend them for their work. I call on all members of this House to thank Services Australia staff for doing such a great job in this crisis.