David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

While, rightfully the nation's attention has been on COVID-19 and our response, the government's focus has continued to be on those communities and those individuals that have been impacted by the 'black summer' fires this year. Our initial support and relief to those people now totals nearly $240 million—that was $1,000 per adult, and we doubled it from $400 to $800 per child—to give people the dignity and respect they needed straight after this event and to let them breathe and get some space and understanding of what had just happened to them.

We made an initial commitment of $2 billion in a relief and recovery fund, and we estimated that we'd spend around $500 million of that by 30 June this year. I'm pleased to advise the House that in fact we have spent, as of today, $530 million of that. It's come out of our pocket and been put into the pockets of those who need it most. Our new estimate is that we will expend $1 billion of that $2 billion by 30 June, putting it into the pockets of those people and communities that need it to help them recover. That's an important aspect of making sure that we expedite this and rebuild the lives of those people who have been touched by this.

Our local economic recovery plans will start in the next three to four weeks. We said that this should be not a Canberra-led recovery but a locally led recovery, and we'll be empowering those communities to rebuild themselves in the way that they want and to rebuild themselves better. That's what government should do: get out of their lives as best it can.

As part of that $2 billion, we've committed $100 million into mental health, to a mental health program for those that have been impacted. But also today—

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