Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Yesterday flood waters overran the Lismore levy for the second time in just over a month. The community is dealing with a second round of devastation before they have even begun to recover from the last flood. How on earth did the government fail to list Lismore as a priority area for flood mitigation funding through its Preparing Australia Program?

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

I will hand over to the minister representing the minister in this area. I spoke to Steve Krieg, the mayor of Lismore, this morning to speak to him directly about the government's ongoing support and the response to the floods in Lismore. I thank Mayor Steve Krieg, as I know the member for Page would if he were here today, but he is obviously with his own electorate in the seat of Page. I am sure the member for Richmond is as well.

We spoke about the ongoing support. He was very appreciative of that support. He was also very appreciative of the ADF's presence there, which is very reassuring at a time of great stress and trauma. In addition to that, we spoke of our government's commitment to over $150 million for the very mitigation works that are necessary in Lismore that his council and his election as mayor in Lismore will now enable us to do after they were opposed for so long. I am very pleased that we will be able to proceed with that. I will hand over to the minister representing to add further to my answer.

David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia) | Link to this | Hansard source

The program the member asked the question about is in fact a competitive grants program and in fact is right across the country. It's part of a comprehensive package, not just through the ERF and $50 million a year but also in terms of $400 million a year in our package for mitigation works.

It's important for those opposite to understand that natural disasters are indiscriminate in where they may hit across this country. While our hearts go out to those people in Lismore, there is nothing to say that a natural disaster may not hit in another part of this country. It's important to understand that this is a partnership with states. This comes down to appropriate planning at a local and state level and making sure that we work in partnership, not just in the federal government with our competitive grants but with state governments to make sure that we get value for money not just in flood mitigation but, as we learnt, from bushfires. We must make sure that we work with those bushfire communities on mitigation works into the future.

This is about ensuring that we move towards a system and a competitive grants program that goes right across the country. Now that we have obviously seen in South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales this number of disasters, then part of the recovery process in partnership will be funding for those mitigation works that the state governments can apply for. That's part of the normal arrangements we've had with states that are long standing. That is nothing new. This was in addition to that. These are programs in addition to what we have in normal funding arrangements with state governments. We would encourage the state government to put forward any mitigation works as part of that recovery, and we will continue to roll out these programs as part of our commitment to keep Australians safe well into the future.