Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Don't worry, Senator McDonald, we'll come to you. We also activated the disaster recovery allowance for the same areas and extended it to the local government areas of Carpentaria, Cloncurry, Doomadgee and Mornington. This is in recognition of the fact that this event has caused significant disruption to people's livelihoods. The disaster recovery allowance provides up to 13 weeks of federal income support to assist people who experience a loss of income as a direct result of a major disaster, such as being cut off from getting to their workplace or the business that they operate. There are many such people in our gulf communities right now.

I can inform the Senate that, as of midnight on Monday this week, 1,300 people had received nearly $1 million in payments since claims opened on Friday just last week. That followed other support that began within 24 hours of the floods— (Time expired)