Bush summit: PM’s $75m boost for flood-ravaged NSW communities

Anthony Albanese will use Friday’s Bush Summit to announce critical flood funding to improve levees, flood warning infrastructure and projects like voluntary house raising.

Flood-ravaged communities across NSW will share in $75 million to improve levees, warning infrastructure and mitigation projects like voluntary house raising.

Backing in regional communities Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will on Friday travel to Griffith in NSW for The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit, where he will announce the critical post-disaster resilience funding.

Mr Albanese said as regional communities grappled with climate change, and the intensifying cycles of flood, fire and drought, they deserved “nothing less than a government that has your back”.

“(The funding) will cover all 62 local government areas affected by the February to March floods,” he said.

“I’ve spent time in flood-ravaged communities this year and I will never forget what I saw, or the stories I heard. Homes gone, livelihoods destroyed.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce the funding at the The Daily Telegraph Bush Summit in Griffith on Friday. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Mr Albanese said even as Australia’s flood recovery continued, when regional communities think about water the last drought was still “fresh and raw” in their memories.

“As the world’s driest inhabited continent, we have a precarious relationship with water,” he said.

“We often have either too little, or far too much.

“Managing water well is crucial for Australia’s future, and there are big challenges ahead.”

Mr Albanese said the Murray Darling was Australia’s biggest and most important river system.

“The government is broadening the investment framework for the National Water Grid Fund to support projects that secure essential town water supplies in regional and remote communities,” he said.

‘TYRANNY OF DISTANCE’

Mr Albanese said he would also continue to improve road, rail and communications infrastructure in regional Australia to “chip away at the tyranny of distance”.

“The Government has already delivered $480 million in funding to upgrade NBN Co’s fixed-wireless network,” he said.

“It will make it easier for a whole range of businesses to be able to leave the congestion and expense of big cities and set up in regional towns.”

Mr Albanese said he was pleased to be returning to speak at Bush Summit, describing it as a “valuable” contribution to the “life of the nation”.

The Prime Minister said it was a mistake to talk about the Australian “bush” as being homogenous.

“Each community has its own character, its own set of challenges,” he said.

Mr Albanese said the government was currently focused on the threats of foot and mouth, and lumpy skin disease, which pose a serious risk to Australia’s livestock industry.

“A foot and mouth outbreak could cost the Australian economy $80 billion,” he said.

“It’s a devastating number calculated not just in dollars, but in mental health and in the very viability of communities.”

Mr Albanese said the best way to stop foot and mouth reaching Australia was to stop its spread through Indonesia.

“Australia has provided expert veterinary assistance to Indonesia along with over 430,000 vaccines for lumpy skin, to be followed soon by 1 million vaccines for FMD, and additional biosecurity funding,” he said.

The Daily Telegraph’s 2022 Bush Summit will be streamed online live and free on Friday August 26. Register to watch here: https://bushsummit2022-dailytelegraph.splashthat.com/

Originally published as Bush summit: PM’s $75m boost for flood-ravaged NSW communities