Bushfire funding: ‘Abandoned’ East Gippsland survivors denied federal recovery grants

Coalition senators have slammed their own government over its botched delivery of Black Summer recovery money.

Labor Senator Murray Watt has accused two Coalition MPs of turning on their own government in the rollout of the latest allocation of bushfire recovery money.

Gippsland MP Darren Chester was highly critical of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency in rejecting applications from community groups because they managed land owned by the Victorian Government.

“Let’s be clear,” said Senator Watt, the Shadow Minister for Disaster and Emergency Management.

“This is a Nationals MP slamming his own government over its Black Summer grant process.

“And he’s not the only one.”

Senator Watt said residents in South Australia’s southeast were in the same boat with Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin equally scathing of the NRRA for denying Kingston Council’s request for $1.6 million to help build a new childcare facility.

“If this is how government MPs feel, it’s no wonder bushfire survivors feel abandoned by Scott Morrison and his ministers,” Senator Watt said.

“At the same time as survivors cry out for support, Scott Morrison continues to sit on a $4.8 billion Emergency Response Fund that has done nothing to help.”

Sarsfield, one of the hardest hit communities in the East Gippsland bushfires two years ago, is devastated after a federal funding bid was rejected on a technicality.

More than 70 homes were lost in the Black Summer fires and two community groups in the town banded together to put forward an application for $3.5 million to build a new hall, playground and refurbish the sports oval and tennis courts at the recreation reserve.

But due to the reserve land being owned by the Victorian Government, the application was turned down at the same time an additional $24 million was allocated to other projects in the region.

Sarsfield has not received any federal or state funding to date, further angering the community groups involved.

“We felt a bit left behind before and this is just another blow,” Sarsfield Community Association president Simon Hof said.

“We had passed up on going for other grants because we didn’t want a replica of the Eiffel Tower we didn’t need.

“This funding fitted the bill, but to get nothing is beyond our comprehension.”

Other projects at Ensay and Wairewa are in the same boat and it has prompted Gippsland MP Darren Chester to lobby Nationals colleague and Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience Minister, Bridget McKenzie, for an urgent rethink.

Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience Minister, Bridget McKenzie, Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

“The ‘Canberra knows best’ centralised model of decision-making is fundamentally flawed and disrespects my community and everything we have been through,” Mr Chester said.

“Notwithstanding the fact that this situation could’ve been avoided if the National Recovery and Resilience Agency consulted with me at any stage regarding the application process, the current situation appears to be an unintended consequence of excessive and heavy-handed bureaucracy.”

A spokesman for the NRRA said all applicants for the bushfire recovery grants program were responsible for ensuring they were eligible to apply.

“All applicants must be treated fairly, equitably and consistently and the eligibility criteria cannot be waived under any circumstances,” he said.

Another Sarsfield resident, John Kinniburgh was equally scathing of the situation.

“We lost our family home in those fires, but that was nothing compared to the shock announcement that our community application had been deemed ineligible because of a 23-year-old ABN classification,” he said.