Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate this question because it allows me to update the parliament and place on the record what has actually happened in relation to the New South Wales bushfires and certainly to correct some of the misleading statements that have been made by the opposition on this.

Can I firstly say, in relation to the New South Wales bushfires, that, in line with very longstanding arrangements with New South Wales, the Commonwealth has jointly funded relief for people who are in need of it as a result of this serious natural disaster. That means that, through these longstanding arrangements, we make sure that people in need of short-term accommodation, people in need of emergency food, people in need of clothing and people even in need of things such as cash grants can have them available through the services that the New South Wales government runs in the wake of bushfires and which we fund.

On top of this, we have also announced that we will fund the disaster recovery payment, which is for families who have been severely impacted by these bushfires, which means that they have had lost or damaged homes, or they have had somebody who has been severely injured or have lost a loved one. That is in line with very longstanding practice of the previous Howard government, and, most importantly, it is in line with longstanding practice of the previous Labor government. The Labor Party are running around saying that we have changed the guidelines, even though on many occasions when they were in government they activated the disaster recovery payment in exactly the same way that I have done in relation to the bushfires.

Let me just run through the circumstances in which this happened. In January 2008, with storms and flooding in Mackay and on the Whitsunday Islands, the Labor Party activated the disaster recovery payment in exactly the same way as I have just done in relation to the New South Wales bushfires. In February 2008, with flooding in Mackay—

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