Flood aid activated for Palm Island, again

The Queensland Government has activated assistance for Palm Island in the wake flooding caused by a monsoonal low this month.

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 Palm Island, off north Queensland.

NDRRA was activated for Palm Island on 16 January in response to damage reported from flooding associated with that monsoonal low.

“So far this year, flood assistance has been activated in 81 local government areas. Palm Island is one of 26 local government areas where NDRRA has been activated twice this year,” Mr Roberts said.

The assistance in these local government areas can provide:

- 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;

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

- freight subsidies for producers;

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