March 12, 2013
A flying visit paid to Local Government Minister David Crisafulli last week by the South Burnett’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor has borne fruit – the South Burnett will receive an additional five weeks of emergency funding.
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann and Deputy Mayor Keith Campbell visited the Minister in Brisbane last Tuesday to lobby the State Government for an extension to the region’s disaster recovery funding because of the February 25 and March 2 floods.
Under current arrangements, all the council’s outlays for urgent road repairs since the original Australia Day flood have been covered by the QRAA.
But this funding window only lasts for 60 days after a flood event and the State Government’s “open chequebook” was due to close on March 26.
After this, the Council would either have to pay for urgent flood repairs out of its own funds and hope that money to cover the outlays would later come from the State and Federal governments; or cease flood repair works altogether until funding did become available – a process that took almost a year following the 2011 floods.
Today the Minister advised Council that the emergency funding window will now be extended to early May – 60 days after the March 2 flood.
Mayor Kratzmann told southburnett.com.au he was very grateful Minister David Crisafulli had taken the South Burnett’s concerns on board and responded so promptly.
“He’s a terrific Minister to deal with, no doubt about it,” the Mayor said.
“If he can’t do something he’ll say so. But if he can, he’ll say that too.
“He’s a very direct, very energetic person and he knows that we’re not making up stories about how bad the roads are in this area and how many of our people are doing it tough.”
The Mayor is now considering a similar flying visit to Canberra to lobby the Federal Government over its own disaster recovery arrangements.
“Right now we have the ridiculous situation where farmers who’ve lost their crops aren’t allowed to use disaster recovery money to buy seed or fertiliser to get started again.
“We also noted that the Federal Government’s recent announcement of a special fund that local governments can draw on for flood recovery work includes $10 million specifically set aside for fencing repairs, but excludes the South Burnett,” he said.
“That’s absolutely crazy.
“Right now the South Burnett is partnering with Gympie Regional Council to get Blaze Aid to carry out fence repairs in both shires. Blaze Aid are all volunteers, and both our Councils worked very hard to get them here because the work is so vital.
“But the Federal Government has ear-marked this part of their funding to go anywhere but here. That simply doesn’t make sense.”
The Mayor also pointed to the case of Wooroolin residents David and Diana Bolton, who are excluded from any disaster recovery assistance because they were forced to abandon their home by the March 2 flood rather than the Australia Day flood, as another example of flaws in the Federal disaster recovery system.
“I think that eyeballing people in Canberra may be the only way to get some common sense back into the current arrangements,” he said.
“It’s something I’m seriously considering.”
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