Hinchinbrook floods: Cane-farmers granted Category-D disaster grants
Recovery grants for flood-struck North Queensland cane farmers and businesses have increased as new details about the extent of the disaster emerge.
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Recovery grants for flood-struck North Queensland cane farmers and businesses have increased as new details about the extent of the disaster emerge.
Speaking at a news conference in rural North Queensland on Wednesday, Cairns-based Senator for Queensland Nita Green announced a tripling of the Extraordinary Disaster Assistance Recovery Grants for primary producers to $75,000 for primary producers, with $50,000 available for small businesses and not-for-profits.
In a separate announcement, Queensland Minister for Disaster Recover Ann Leahy said extraordinary disaster recovery packages worth more than $50 million were also available for the North in the wake of last month’s devastating floods.
The money is funded by the Albanese and Crisafulli Governments under the joint Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
The assistance comprises $30 million for sport and recreational community organisations to rebuild or for repairs and $20 million for a grants-based program to repair and rebuild affected community facilities, primarily council-owned assets.
Ms Green, speaking on a cane farm in Coolbie south of Ingham, thanked Kennedy MP Bob Katter and representatives from a number of representatives from key primary producing organisations for their “tireless” advocacy since the disaster struck and during the ongoing recovery process.
“One of the messages that I think is really important for myself and Bob and the people behind us is we totally understand that South-East Queensland has gone through a big weather event and there’s a clean-up underway but it’s incredibly important that North Queensland is not forgotten,” she said.
“We are still in recovery and we still need support for our businesses, for growers, for farmers and for our communities.”
Ms Green, to applause from Mr Katter, said the $25,000 grant for primary producers was “clearly not enough to repair the damage that has been done on a number of properties throughout the region”.
“So we are tripling the grant to $75,000 to make sure that we can help and start to recover on what is a really big damage bill on the farms around us,” she said.
“We are also going to double the grant for small businesses and not-for-profit organisations to $50,000.”
Ms Green said the new money was all part of a “bigger disaster-recovery response” for the State and Federal governments.
“We will continue to work with people on the ground about where there might be areas that we can deliver funding or improve the criteria.”
Kennedy MP Bob Katter is continuing to advocate for enhanced disaster-recovery programs in the wake of the North Queensland flood disaster.
“On $25,000 it would be very hard to replant, with $75,000 they will be able to do that.”
Initial estimates of the extent of the lost sugar-cane crop were initially put at between 500,000 tons and one million tons in Hinchinbrook, with the upper estimate representing about a quarter of the total harvest.
Industry expert Lawrence Di Bella said the true extent would only be able to be quantified when the harvest began about mid-June.
“The impact is quite significant, probably the biggest issue is the infrastructural damage, the washouts in fields … they are massive, we’ve never had that, we’ve got holes in paddocks and some of the holes are going to cost us over $100,000 to repair,” he said.
“We’ve lost thousands of tons of top soil, we’ve got to rebuild our farms and the announcement today is a positive step to (rebuild) our farms but also it’s a positive step for rebuilding our community.”
The QCAR Herbert District manager said the Hinchinbrook community relied on the sugar-cane industry.
He said initial estimates were of crop losses totalling $25m to $50m, possibly as high as $60m.
“That’s just on sugar cane for the growers in the Hinchinbrook, that doesn’t include the milling side … and then small business, there is a knock-on effect with harvesters, planters, everyone in this community is suffering because of the impact we’ve had from this flood event.”
Fourth-generation Hinchinbrook cane farmer Robert Lyon said harvesters would be badly impacted.
“I’d like to see something to help the harvesting sector because they are going to face paddocks with ruts and logs and God knows what has been deposited in the flood and in some cases incur huge costs,” he said.
“You put a log up the middle of a harvester, it hurts them, it’s very costly.”
Mr Lyon said insurance companies were already charging harvesters “an insane amount of money to insure their gear with huge excesses”.
Michael Reinaudo, speaking on his cane farm in Coolbie, said the severe weather and flooding disaster had caused significant damage to his crop.
“We’ve had crossings washed out, headlands (to access crops) damaged or destroyed and we’ve got a lot of debris in the cane as well so we need to clear that out,” he said.
“On our other farms we’ve lost over 100 acres of cane just from inundation and dying so this (announcement) is a huge relief because you look at the job ahead and wonder ‘where are you going to start?’ … to bet back on track and back to where we were.”
EARLIER
The federal government has confirmed that flood-struck cane farmers in North Queensland are now eligible for disaster grants of up to $75,000.
This comes as the government announce a $50m disaster relief package for North Queensland to help rebuild impacted sport and recreation facilities and repair and rebuild affected community facilities.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday morning, Cairns-bases Senator for Queensland Nita Green said impacted farmers would now have access to Category D funding under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
The news is a significant increase from the previously announced level-C funding of $25,000, which local politicians, including Kennedy MP Bob Katter, and peak-industry body Canegrowers had labelled as insufficient to help farmers get back on their feet following the disaster.
The Albanese and Crisafulli Governments are also extending disaster assistance to Aurukun, Burke, Doomadgee, Mareeba, Mornington, Mount Isa, Napranum and Torres Councils following February’s flood event across northern Queensland.
“Today’s announcement will help restore community and recreational infrastructure. We want to help get communities back on their feet and this is an important step,” Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister said.
“North and Far North Queensland farmers are so important to the region and local economy. Today we are tripling the grant available to primary producers to help get recovery started.”
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Originally published as Hinchinbrook floods: Cane-farmers granted Category-D disaster grants
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