Wine, apples and forestry to get bushfire funding boost

Scott Morrison will unlock grants to assist the forestry industry, wine producers and apple growers after the ‘Black Summer’.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has allocated another $76m to accelerate the bushfire recovery effort. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison will unlock a further $76m in targeted grants to assist the forestry industry, wine producers and apple growers rebuild after the horror ‘‘Black Summer’’ as part of the government’s efforts to speed up the recovery effort.

The bushfires impacted more than two million hectares of Australia’s productive forests, destroying more than 700ha of vineyards and about 20 per cent of the nation’s apple trees.

“This is about helping communities build back better,” the Prime Minister said on Monday.

“As our communities battle to overcome the effects of drought, bushfires and now COVID-19, it’s initiatives like these that will also help accelerate economic recovery and ultimately deliver more jobs to the regions.”

The additional bushfire relief measures will include a $40m Forestry Recovery Development Fund to support bushfire-affected wood processors.

A $5m fund for grants of up to $10,000 will help wine grape producers who lost their 2020 vintage because of smoke taint.

Another $31m will go to bushfire-affected apple growers, who will be able to apply for grants of up to $120,000 a hectare.

Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud said the government had not forgotten about the communities and industries affected by the 2019-20 fires.

“The devastating bushfires earlier this year impacted more than two million hectares of Australia’s productive forests and our forestry industries are faced with the prospect of wood shortages in major timber regions,” Mr Littleproud said.

“This assistance acknowledges the impact on wine grapes extends beyond the fire scar. In some cases, smoke taint from the bushfires has led to a loss of the harvest for the 2020 vintage, estimated to be around 60,000 tonnes lost.”

The royal commission into the Black Summer disaster was told on Monday that the telephone signal was so poor in parts of the country during the fires that councils resorted to buying extra hardware to try to boost coverage in their local areas.

Witnesses representing bushfire-ravaged local government areas also gave evidence that alerts were confusing at times and in one case caused widespread panic and stress when a message was misinterpreted.

Angela Jones, director infrastructure and environment at Richmond City Council, told the inquiry the emergency response in the Northern Rivers region of northern NSW was hindered by “poor telecommunications”.

“A lot of the area where we were fighting the fires had very, very poor telecommunications and that hindered all the emergency response agencies (responding) to that fire,” she said.

Ms Jones said the council was engaging with utility providers to determine whether telecommunication signals could be boosted in the area. “Should, God forbid, another event like this unfold, having good and ­reliable telecommunications is absolutely paramount,” she said.

Local Government Association of Queensland manager Mike Lollback said ‘‘watch and act’’ and ‘‘leave now’’ messages were sometimes simultaneously broadcast on different radios, making it hard for residents to know when to evacuate.