Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Humphries for his question in relation to the flood levy. I see the opposition are starting to warm to it, and we certainly call on them to support it. Australians understand that there is a lot of work ahead to rebuild the flood affected areas of Queensland, that the reconstruction will be difficult and that it will take years to rebuild. This disaster will have significant impacts on the budget—there is no doubting that. The scale of this disaster means that we have had to make difficult decisions. The federal government estimates we will need $5.6 billion to rebuild flood affected regions, with more than $5 billion going on rebuilding essential infrastructure. The natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements provide for the Australian government payment of $1,000 to people who have been affected by the flooding and has been sought by people from Emerald right across South-East Queensland to Brisbane and the like. Approximately 328,000 Australian government disaster recovery payments—the $1,000 for eligible adults and the $400 for children—have been made across Australia, totalling $388 million. It is also worth putting on the record that, in relation to supporting disaster recovery income subsidies, there has been 32,000—