Political brawl erupts over NSW’s federal disaster funding
Share
A political brawl has erupted between local councils, the NSW Government and the Australian Government over the allocation of the federal disaster funding in the state’s flood-affected areas.
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry has revealed that while the Prime Minister’s office hasn’t contacted her, she is reassuring herself that the neglect is caused by Prime Minister Scott Morrison not being aware of the scale of destruction.
“The only way I can get through this, basically, is to believe that the prime minister’s office doesn’t have our numbers yet and as soon as he is made aware of the devastation (and) the human toll that we’ve had (he will),” she said.
“I’m just hoping that that message gets through very quickly.”
This comes after NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack announced that she would quit the party over what she believed was a decision to allocate the NSW disaster funding on partisan lines.
The NSW flood funding was provided to Nationals-held council areas Lismore, the Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley. Meanwhile, Labor-held areas such as Byron, Ballina and the Tweed Shires are yet to be provided with aid.
“The idea that being a flood victim in a National Party-held seat makes you more worthy than a flood victim who is in the Richmond electorate … is probably the most unethical approach I have ever seen,” Ms Cusack said.
“The whole Northern Rivers should have been given funding according to their need, not according to their LGA. It’s unprecedented.”
While NSW Treasurer Matt Kean acknowledged the concerns over the allocation of disaster funds, he stated that he didn’t think they were being handed out on a partisan basis.
Treasurer Kean told the ABC that discussions between the NSW and Australian Government to allocate further funding were ongoing after reports of the Prime Minister’s trip to Western Australia had delayed the funding announcement.
Meanwhile, opposition leader Chris Minns has called for an upper house parliamentary inquiry into what happened during the Northern Rivers flood disaster to ensure a similar catastrophe is never repeated
“We want to find out what has gone poorly and make sure mistakes are corrected,” he said.
“SES infrastructure needs to be in place in local communities, and the Government needs to ensure the emergency response teams are properly resourced.”
The NSW Government has been working on an additional flood response package valued at up to $1 billion. This added package will be jointly funded by the federal government.
The disaster funding is targeted at people whose homes were damaged in the floods after assessors found some 95,000 homes in northern NSW were damaged or destroyed.
With AAP
Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.
