David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Parkes for his question and acknowledge not only his leadership but also the member for Riverina's, particularly over the last week, and, I suspect, coming into this week, as further forecasts are showing significant rainfall hitting northern New South Wales. We won't just see houses inundated with water. We have already seen millions of dollars wiped off this year's winter crop, a crop that was there to help those farmers that have endured drought to rebound. Sadly, we will continue to work with the New South Wales government in monitoring that and quantifying the damage. We will work with them constructively, as we have in Queensland, already this year, and in South Australia and Victoria.

That is the premise on which this government has worked since the bushfires of last year to ensure that we have a national approach. That's why we stood up the National Recovery and Resilience Agency on 1 July—to make sure that we have a coordinated approach, that we have people on the ground who can get around kitchen tables and work with those that have been impacted and who understand not just federal programs but also state programs, so no-one falls through the cracks. We've also stood up the Australian Climate Service, which is pivotal in bringing together data and information from 10 agencies, including the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, so that we have real-time data that we can provide to emergency services personnel to ensure they understand the gravity of the threat. It's also to ensure that we're prepared and ready immediately after the threat has dissipated and that we can get people into those areas and respond appropriately between federal and state agencies. It's never been done before, and it's an important step in protecting Australians into the future. We're also supporting that through the ERF. Of the $50 million that went into flood mitigation last year, $17.2 million has gone to the jurisdictions and I can ensure the House that the balance of that $50 million will go out in the next couple of weeks as jurisdictions satisfy the requirements of that. In fact, we will reopen again for this year so that $50 million in mitigation works are out there. We're also doing Rebuilding Australia, with $600 million going into projects, including $400 million for community projects, to build resilience—like a levy bank around a large community to not only protect it but to drive down insurance costs. We're also working with households. We've already done that in Queensland. We're supporting households by partnering with them to try to do improvements to their homes to improve their resilience against cyclones, floods or bushfires. We're undertaking practical measures of support to partner with the states. This is a joint partnership protecting Australians now and into the future.

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