Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Watt is not going to help those communities through his political spin. We put in place a $2 billion fund, which came on top of all of the disaster recovery support provided into the community. We put in place a $2 billion fund, over two calendar years, for the bushfire recovery. There was the immediate disaster response, and, when I went through the numbers for expenditures on that, all I was told was, 'Why are you just giving us numbers?' Well, I say them again. There was $271 million to families and individuals, and over $237 million paid to 193,000 eligible individuals in disaster recovery payments and disaster recovery allowance. By the end of June, we will have spent about $1 billion out of the $2 billion fund. In the first six months of a two-year program, we will have spent about half.