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

ORRISON (—) (): I thank the member forquestion on the very serious issue of providing support to constituents as a result of those bushfires. The answer to the question is: because we have already provided $1.7 billion from the National Bushfire Recovery Fund that's been delivered to locally led efforts on the ground. That includes $350 million for the local economic recovery projects in impacted communities, which includes those in the member's electorate but also in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia; and there's funding to support a range of mental health assistance and counselling, small business advice, hardening telecommunications infrastructure and primary producer assistance. Also, the $280 million Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program is assisting communities directly impacted by the Black Summer bushfires to address remaining priority bushfire recovery and resilience needs. Applications for that opened on 22 July 2021.

The Emergency Response Fund was to be there where there weren't other funds available. We created those extra funds. We did that in the middle of the fires themselves. That allocation of funding was made and, as I said, $1.7 billion has been provided; and we will continue to provide that support. The Emergency Response Fund is drawn on where there is a need for support in addition to the funding available, but I made it very clear that our government would continue to provide the resources that were needed for what was then the Bushfire Recovery Agency, which is now the agency led by the honourable Shane Stone that has people on the ground working with people to ensure they can get the support they need. One of the most important of those, as the member will recall—I thank the state member for Bega, Mr Constance, who worked very closely with me to ensure that the small business grants program was able to be more responsive to the needs on the ground. We worked together on that program, and I know he was very pleased that we've been able to deliver that support on the ground.

So $1.7 billion has already been delivered directly on the ground, with more funds still to follow. The recovery effort takes time, as the minister indicated in the answer to the previous question. It is very important that we are in there for the long haul, and hundreds of millions of dollars will continue to flow to these affected communities as they are building back and building their resilience for the future.

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