Black Summer bushfire recovery grants awarded on merit to LGAs

Bushfire-ravaged Victorian communities will receive recovery funds ‘on merit’, instead of a set $4.5m allocated by the federal government’s grants program.

The national agency leading the Black Summer bushfire recovery has hit back at criticism of new grants program, amid growing frustration about the pace of the rebuilding effort.

The Herald Sun revealed last week that East Gippsland leaders, including ex-federal Minister Darren Chester, were demanding Scott Morrison intervene to fix the grants scheme because it offered $4.5m for each affected local government area.

That would see just $4.5m directed to ­projects in East Gippsland – where 1.1 million hectares were burnt – compared to $27m for northeast Victoria.

Victorian communities would receive federal government bushfire recovery grants on merit. Picture: Luis Ascui/Getty Images.

But National Recovery and Resilience Agency co-ordinator general Shane Stone, writing in Monday’s Herald Sun, said the funding for each council area was “not fixed” and projects would be backed on merit.

“Incorrect assumptions about the final allocation of funding potentially discourage applicants from putting forward important projects for their communities,” he said.

It came as Indi MP Helen Haines, whose electorate is in the state’s northeast, warned that she was concerned about the program’s guidelines because money could be “sent to places which didn’t see a wisp of smoke or any flow-on business impacts during the fires”.

Ms Haines said community groups, small businesses and organisations were “working their hearts out” to secure “sorely needed” funding and needed to know they were ­“applying to a fair system”.

Several East Gippsland communities were devastated by the 2020 bushfires. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images.

Gippsland East MP Tim Bull turned up the heat on the state government last week, blasting its “go-slow approach” to fixing local infrastructure damaged during the bushfire disaster including boardwalks, walking tracks, campgrounds and bridges.

He said Parks Victoria had promised him a list of project time frames a month ago and still had not delivered.

“These communities and businesses, which rely on these locations being open for their economy, are frustrated at the progress and angry they have no time frames,” Mr Bull told state parliament.