Prime Minister announces $8 million relief fund for Queensland flood victims

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Prime Minister has announced an $8 million relief fund to support Queenslanders affected by flood damage. Anthony Albanese is in North Queensland assessing the damage firsthand, as heavy rainfall continues to hamper recovery efforts. He says the funding will help communities with the clean-up.

Transcript

00:00Today we're announcing $8 million co-funded community relief fund providing up to a million

00:08dollars for the local government associations, eight of them, that are impacted by this flooding

00:15event.

00:16This will provide councils with financial assurance that they need to get on with the

00:20business of cleaning up and making their community safe.

00:24From 2 o'clock today, we will also be activating the Australian Government Disaster Recovery

00:30Payment.

00:31This provides $1,000 for eligible adults and $400 for children who, for affected people

00:38in the localities of Cardwell and Giru and the local government area of Hinchinbrook.

00:44You can check your availability on servicesaustralia.gov.au, servicesaustralia, one word, slash disaster

00:55support, one word again, or call the emergency info line that we've established, 180 2266.

01:04That's 180 2266.

01:06This money is to help people who have suffered serious damage or injury as a result of the

01:11floods to help with the cost of recovery.

01:14We've taken the opportunity to pre-deploy and to restock some resources in the knowledge

01:19that there could be some more rain in the next few days.

01:22That looks like setting up a couple of different hubs and making sure that we do what we did

01:27ahead of this event.

01:29Pre-deploy the likes of Swiftwater Rescue and SES and Ergon Cruise and I really have

01:34to say the work of those emergency services is nothing short of phenomenal.

01:38They went in early and they responded hard and the community is seeing the results of

01:43that and we're very, very grateful for what they have done.

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