Anthony Albanese announces $20m in SEQ funding
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared Steven Miles “a Labor hero” as he announced a $20 million disaster package.
Anthony Albanese has declared Premier Steven Miles a “Labor hero” as he announced an additional $20 million aid package for South East Queensland.
The Prime Minister, flanked by Premier Steven Miles, unveiled the funding on Tuesday morning after meeting with emergency services workers and army troops.
Mr Albanese said the federal government will give additional support for primary producers, small businesses and non-profit organizations.
A local recovery and resilience grant of $1 million will be provided to the Gold Coast, Logan City Council, and the Scenic Rim Regional Council. However, there will be no additional funds directed towards the tourism sector, which has been hit hard, particularly in Far North Queensland.
“We know how tough it has been for the people of southeast Queensland and there is more to do,” Mr Albanese said.
“We will deliver additional support for primary producers who can access up to $75,000 of grants and affected businesses to access $50,000 in grants.”
He said it was a reminder that the impact of climate change was being felt in the increasingly frequent wild weather events across the country.
The PM was asked if Mr Miles had a better chance of winning the October state election than his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk was a very good premier of Queensland, she’s a very good friend of mine, she won three elections in a row,” Mr Albanese said.
“She’s a Labor hero. This bloke here (Mr Miles) is going to be a Labor hero when he wins the next election held later this year.
Federal and state treasurers Jim Chalmers and Cameron Dick and Emergency Minister Murray Watt also attended the press conference in the Gold Coast on Tuesday morning.
Premier Steven Miles said the “sheer scale” of destruction was massive and the focus of the government was solely on the clean-up phase.
“This is a massive job and with this funding we can get this clean-up done,” he said.
Mr Miles revealed that 3.5 million lightning strikes hit the southeast region from the start of summer, almost 100 times more than last year.
“It took 80,000 work hours to get them reconnected, 120km of wires, 150 poles had to be replaced,” Mr Miles said.
He said over the same period last year, the southeast only copped 38,000 lightning strikes.
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers called on insurers to “do the right thing” and dismissed the mounting cost of the floods and storms to the Budget.
Asked about reports of insurers rejecting claims, the treasurer said victims had suffered enough.
“The last thing that people need is insurance companies stuffing them around,” he said.
“Our message from all three levels of government to the insurers is very clear - do the right thing by your customers.”
“People have been through hell in some of these communities... hosing out homes, throwing away a lifetime of belongings, being in physical danger.”
Senator Watt said insurers had improved their performance to consumers in recent years, “but the last thing that people want to see happen right now is to be dudded by an insurance company through finding some kind of a loophole”.
“”We’ve got all governments standing together, we’ve got entire communities standing together, we need to see the corporate sector stand with Australians in their hour of need as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, more than 1700 requests for assistance have been made throughout Victoria in 24 hours, with dozens more rescues taking place overnight as several emergency warnings remain in place for parts of the state.
Residents in low lying areas of Seymour, about 100km north of Melbourne, were told to “evacuate immediately” on Tuesday morning, while those in Yea and Rochester were issued a “too late to leave” warning.
As of 6am local time on Tuesday, Victoria’s State Emergency Service (VICSES) responded to a total of 1700 requests for assistance, 26 flood rescues and 38 water rescues across the state.
A spokesman for VICSES told The Australian the worst affected regions include Bendigo, Kilmore, and Pakenham.
“Since 7am on Sunday VICSES, 196 requests for help were sent to the Bendigo unit, 115 requests were for Kilmore and 77 for Pakenham,” the spokesman said.
“There’s also a massive slip in the area near Mount Dandenong in Ferny Creek, It’s about 40 metres wide and 70 metres long.”
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said although the rain has eased over Victoria, river levels could still rise rapidly.
Senior forecaster Angus Hines said the heaviest rainfall moved to the eastern part of the state around the Gippsland region overnight.
“The rainfall over the central part of the state which has been hit very hard over the previous 24 hours was significantly lighter overnight,” Mr Hines said.
“While the rain has stopped over those flooding areas, the flood warnings do continue with a wide array of flood watches and warnings across the state.”
There are two major flood warnings ongoing in central Victoria, one for the Golden River and one for the Campaspe River.
“The river levels are still rising in places until that rain starts to drain out through the different streams, certainly some caution is required around those waterways through the centre of the state.”
The Bureau has also warned of severe thunderstorms developing across most of Queensland and the northern New South Wales border.
Large parts of Queensland can expect “extensive thunderstorm risk” on Tuesday, bringing more heavy rain to several pockets of the state.
“It’s another day of widespread thunderstorm risk across most of Queensland and the northern half of New South Wales,” Senior Meteorologist Angus Hines said.
“The main risk today would be localised areas of heavy rain, damaging wind gusts and even large hail, particularly around northeastern NSW.”
Springfield Lakes, about 34 kilometres north of Brisbane, recorded 131mm in the three hours to 7am on Tuesday.
The Prime Minister will travel to Victoria on Thursday morning to survey flood damage around the most affected areas.
On Monday, a 74-year-old woman had to be rescued by a local man after her car was swept away in fast-moving floodwaters in Elmore, a small town northeast of Bendigo in central Victoria.
The elderly woman was driving in a convoy with a friend when both cars became trapped in floodwater on Elmore-Raywood Road at about 7pm.
As the car began to sink, the 74-year-old managed to climb out the window and grab onto a tree.
Local man turned hero Mitch Smith witnessed the incident as he was taking photos of the swollen river.
“She was rapidly losing strength and she wasn’t able to hold on for much longer,” Smith told Seven’s Sunrise on Tuesday.
“I knew if we both hit the water again I was going to be in trouble and I wasn’t going to be able to rescue her.”
Mr Smith made several desperate attempts to get to the tree before he was finally able to reach the woman and tie her to the trunk by using a ratchet strap.
He then stayed with her for an hour to make sure she was OK until emergency services arrived.
The SES and Victoria Police sent out a water rescue boat and brought the pair to shore.
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