Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question and indicate, in part, the answer that I gave the Leader of the Opposition. I do want to be clear with the parliament about the ability of people to apply for the disaster income subsidy arrangement—that is, the arrangement for 13 weeks of assistance if people are not able to go about their ordinary trade because of circumstances like being cut off by floodwaters. The assistance that the government is already providing is not quite as confined as the way the member phrased his question. I do not seek to make a big issue of that, but I did not want anybody to be confused about the circumstances in which you can get that recovery payment. That does flow, for example, when people have been cut off and are simply unable for some period of time to get to their ordinary place of work.

Can I reiterate what I said to the Leader of the Opposition. We understand that there are impacts broadly in the regions that have been hit by these disasters. We particularly understand that in the region hit by the cyclone. I have seen it from the air myself: acres and acres as far as the eye can see with every tree snapped in half and consequently all of the loss of production that that is going to mean for banana growers and the like. I have seen that damage and I do understand that that will press on people. But we do want to design any additional assistance both in consultation with the Queensland government—because under our Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements we work in partnership on the recovery—and in consultation with the local community.

On the package available under Cyclone Larry, even in the few hours I was in the region last Friday and able to talk to people, I had people give me feedback that they thought it was a good package and it worked for them. I had one person give me feedback that it had not worked for her and her business. When you get that kind of feedback, you obviously do want to do the consultation that will enable you to structure assistance so that we can best work with local needs and make a difference to them.

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