Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The government has responded to the bushfire crisis with a $2 billion national bushfire recovery fund, and that is administered by the National Bushfire Recovery Agency. When it comes to small businesses, as the member would be aware, there are qualifying criteria for businesses that have been directly impacted by the fires. It is the same criteria that applied to small businesses that were affected by the floods that occurred in North Queensland this time last year. That same criteria applies to those affected businesses in the bushfire-affected zones today. That is important. We'll provide the same support to those in this disaster that was provided to those in previous devastating disasters.

What is important, whether it's that business or the many other businesses, is the recovery work that is being put in place, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, to clear sites. We are doing that with the New South Wales government. We are providing the $50,000 grants and providing the $500,000 zero interest loans with nothing to pay for two years and at a concessional rate of 0.6 per cent, which is half the bond rate; that's where it's currently at now. All of that is there to provide working capital and support for those businesses that may not have been directly impacted by the bushfires but are otherwise going through the very challenges that the member has outlined to this House.

The measures in response to the North Queensland floods have proved to be enormously helpful as those businesses have gone about the repairing and rebuilding process over the last year. If the member is suggesting that the disaster recovery arrangements should change—that the taxpayer should be the insurer of last resort on all matters—that is not a policy that his government pursued and it is not a policy that this government is pursuing.

Those grants will get to the small businesses that need them. We have put through support, with the New South Wales government, to assess with financial counsellors, to help them get access to the support they need. For these individual cases I am sure the minister responsible for emergency management would be pleased to pass that on through the recovery agency, to provide whatever assistance we can. This government is providing the most significant package of relief that we have seen in relation to a disaster of this nature. It's initial, it's additional and it'll keep rolling every single day, and it will be there for years and years and years to come.

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