Ex-Cyclone Alfred relief announcement from federal government

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Emergency Management Jenny McAllister will hold a press conference on new support being rolled out by the Albanese Government following on from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Transcript

00:00The Federal Treasurer has just announced $1.2 billion will be included in next Tuesday's

00:07Federal Budget to help assist people who have been affected by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.

00:12That will come in the form of income support for those who are unable to work or trade,

00:17or perhaps cut off by floodwaters, or without power for a significant number of days and

00:22so were unable to get to work or trade.

00:25It also comes in the form of one-off support payments for those who have been directly

00:31impacted by storm damage or perhaps flooding.

00:35And the number of local government areas that have been included in those disaster support

00:39payments has also been expanded across Queensland and northern New South Wales.

00:45The Treasurer has previously warned that ex-tropical cyclone Alfred delivered a $1.2 billion hit

00:51to GDP as a direct result of the cyclone and he said that the damage bill will be much

00:57greater than that, although he wouldn't go into details about what it looks like until

01:02next Tuesday's Budget.

01:04He's also warned that the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred could be inflationary because

01:09we've had a lot of crop damage here in south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, which

01:13is impacting supply and so therefore putting upward pressure on prices.

01:20He said the $1.2 billion in support payments would be part of a $13.5 billion package for

01:26natural disaster relief more generally, but as to what else we expect out of the Budget,

01:32he wouldn't give too many details, although he did concede that after posting two Budget

01:37surpluses in a row, that was very unlikely this time around.

01:41Have a listen to what he had to say.

01:44Defining feature of our first three Budgets was responsible economic management.

01:48That will be a defining feature of the fourth as well.

01:52Even this year where we will be printing a deficit for this year, it will be much, much

01:57smaller than what we inherited from our political opponents and that shows the progress that

02:02we've been able to make.

02:04Not managing the Budget responsibly or providing cost of living help, but managing the Budget

02:08responsibly and providing cost of living help and investing in building Australia's future.

02:15Will, how is the recovery going?

02:17Well, Mel, the recovery has been going quite well.

02:21So far we've had 44,000 people apply for insurance, but we've had a sustained period of dry weather,

02:29which has really made the cleanup easier.

02:31The local government here in Brisbane has just begun picking up flood damage products

02:36from the kerbside, which was stacked up last week as a result of flood damage.

02:41But there is sort of more structural things that need to go on here in South East Queensland

02:46as well.

02:47We had some 450,000 people lose power during Cyclone Alfred, another 200,000 people lost

02:52internet services.

02:54So there's a conversation going on at the moment about how we improve both the flood

02:58resilience of people's homes, but also the utility system here and whether we can do

03:03something to make sure that next time around, so many people don't go without.

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