Flood assistance activated for another 10 local government areas

The Queensland Government has activated assistance for another 10 local government areas in response to widespread flooding rains caused by a monsoonal low this week.

Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said he had approved the recommendation to activate the joint State and Commonwealth-funded Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) for the local government areas of Broadsound, Calliope, Duaringa, Hervey Bay, Kolan, Livingstone, Maryborough, Rockhampton, Sarina and Woorabinda.

“Yesterday, I activated NDRRA assistance for 13 local government areas including Mackay, Mirani, Nebo, Whitsunday and Bowen local government areas,” Mr Roberts said.

“The Department has collated preliminary estimates of more than $34 million in damages to public assets, primarily roads, across the 23 local government areas.”

Mr Roberts said of the 23 local government areas, only six – Calliope, Hervey Bay, Kolan and Maryborough activated today and Burnett and Miriam Vale activated yesterday – have not already been activated for other flooding events this year.

“In total, there are now 77 local government areas where NDRRA assistance has been activated this year.”

Mr Roberts said while an NDRRA activation for a whole local government area did not mean all areas were flooded, let alone received any rainfall, it was important to activate assistance to ensure affected residents, primary producers, small business operators and councils could access assistance.

The assistance, under the joint State-Commonwealth Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA), in these local government areas can provide:

·concessional loans for primary producers and small businesses affected by flooding;

·freight subsidies for producers;

·personal hardship assistance;

·recovery of costs for restoring public assets, such as roads, and for costs of local councils' extraordinary disaster management, and

·assistance for sporting clubs and other non-profit organisations who cannot provide for their own recovery to restore assets to pre-disaster standard.

Personal hardship assistance to individuals and families, and assistance for non-profit organisations is administered by the Department of Communities. The Department of Communities can be contacted on 1800 440 074.

Concessional loans for producers and small businesses should contact QRAA (Queensland Rural Adjustment Authority) on 1800 623 946.

To apply for freight subsidies, producers should contact the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries (DPI&F) on 13 25 23 or their local DPI&F inspector.

Media contact: Kirby Anderson 0418 197 350