Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

In terms of access I am really quite pleased and proud to be able to say that my department was back up and running in Rockhampton, Yeppoon and Biloela on the first business day after the cyclone, albeit running off some very large generators. When we bear in mind that the local staff have also enjoyed the same experience of the disaster events as the community, that is a pretty big undertaking. In addition to manning those service centres, we have also had staff operating in both recovery hubs in Yeppoon and Rockhampton. To assist with ease of access in more remote areas, we also diverted one of our mobile service centres—which I have spoken about in this chamber before—to this region from Monday of last week. It has visited a number of smaller towns and villages. Today it is in Marmor, helping there.

Our phone lines were open straight away. Since that Sunday we have taken over 9,400 phone calls relating to both cyclones. We have received, in Queensland, 7,485 claims for disaster recovery payments and, as a result of that, granted 3,263. (Time expired)