Source: AEC map; TND graphic |
Showing posts with label government funding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government funding. Show all posts
Sunday 7 June 2020
And the bad news concerning Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government rorting just keeps coming
The
New Daily,
1 June 2020:
I
was wrong. The Community Development Grants program isn’t the
Coalition’s hot $1.126 billion political rort – it’s the
Coalition’s hot $2.5 billion-plus political rort.
It’s
not 11 times bigger than #sportsrorts, it’s 25 times bigger and
counting.
The
government has a number of corrupt slush funds, but none more
blatantly designed to buy votes with taxpayers’ money than the CDG
scheme purpose built in 2014.
As
reported last week, analysis of the government’s GrantConnect
website showed Coalition seats “luckily” scored 75.5 per cent of
last year’s CDG money, while Labor seats managed just 19.9 per
cent.
Of
the 68 federal seats Labor now holds, 22 have never received a cent
in CDGs while those that did score well tend to be of particular
political interest or history.
And
the Coalition has quietly arranged to keep this particularly rich
pork barrel rolling for another six years.
As
Michael West Media has posed, why buy one election when you can
buy three?
Billions
of dollars in corrupt pork barrelling can seem a little abstract, so
using Vince O’Grady’s spreadsheet analysis, I’ve chosen an
example of a frontline seat and those that adjoin it to demonstrate
how much an Australian Electoral Commission boundary costs or
benefits communities.
The
Labor-held seat of Hunter in regional New South Wales abuts three
National seats to its west and north.
It
is a particularly rich green line that separates Hunter from the
Nationals’ Calare, Lyne and New England.
Since
the Coalition invented CDGs in 2014 through to and including the 2019
election year, only $108,000 in CDGs show up on the GrantConnect site
for the good folk of Hunter.
…..CDGs
are not supposed to be purely regional grants – some of the biggest
winners are rich Liberal-held city seats – but it is the National
Party that has done by far the best out of the way this barrel has
rolled.
In
2019, the 68 Labor seats averaged $836,000 in CDGs, Liberal seats
$2.086 million, LNP seats in Queensland $2.473 million – and the 10
National Party seats scored an average of $6.712 million.
That
contrast is stark on the ground……
As
previously reported, the CDG process was designed by the newly
elected Abbott government to avoid any embarrassing involvement of
public servants in divvying up the spoils, as
subsequently happened with the McKenzie/Morrison #sportsrorts
scandal, and the $100 million environment grants program that was
also
conveniently established before the 2019 election.
Read
full article here.
Sunday 8 March 2020
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre to close because the Morrison Government refuses to consider funding it further
In 2015 the Abbott Coalition Government changed guidelines for government-industry-community cooperative research centres.
This change was implemented by the federal Department of Industry and Science.
At the time the 2015/2016 Federal budget planned to cut $26.8 million of CRC funding (over four years).
In spite of the original budget cut less than two years into its existence, the
Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC) went on to do sterling work in cooperation with federal and state governments, industry, non-government organisations and international bodies.
This was Australian Prime Minister on 7 February 2020 according to the
BNHCRC website:
CRC Chair Dr Katherine Woodthorpe, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, CRC Research Director Dr John Bates and Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews. |
Prime Minister Scott Morrison invited the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC to Parliament House to discuss current and future contributions of research to the bushfire response and recovery.
CRC Chair Dr Katherine Woodthorpe and Acting CEO and Research Director Dr John Bates met with Prime Minister Morrison and the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews on 5 February to talk about building a bushfire-resilient Australia.
After the meeting Prime Minister Morrison posted the above picture on his Facebook page, saying:
“Today Minister Karen Andrews and I also met with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC to discuss their important work to assist with the bushfire response and improve preparedness for future fire seasons. We talked about making a more bushfire-resilient Australia and how it can support the proposed Royal Commission.”
The CRC was invited to discuss how it could support the Royal Commission using its research knowledge and expertise, and through the Inquiries and Reviews database that catalogues over 300 inquiries and reviews of emergencies and disasters caused by natural hazards across all jurisdictions in Australia between 1886 and 2017. The database captures the findings of previous royal commissions and other bushfire inquiries.
What Scott Morrison was well aware of, and most ordinary voters hadn't realised, was that the 2015 change to those guidelines meant that the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre would cease to receive federal government funding as of 30 June 2021 and inevitably will have to close its doors.
On the heels of a devastating 2019-2020 bushfires season, marked by mega wildfires burning across millions of hectares, this Senate Estimates hearing (below) is how the Australian public became widely aware that one of the supports enabling emergency services to fight such fires was being withdrawn.
On 2 January 2020 The Australian reported that the Insurance Council of Australia had urged the federal government to commit to keep funding this key bushfire research organisation.The full evidence of the Gov saying there is no more funding for the bushfire CRC, unless it finds something itself, can be seen here: https://t.co/j0yvxKZkeg Australia needs public good research like what the Bushfire CRC does.— Kim Carr (@SenKimCarr) March 4, 2020
This call seems to have had no effect on Scott Morrison and his government - it appears that he is still intent on burning Australia back to nothing but bare barren earth.
Monday 2 March 2020
The Morrison Government is still not managing to present itself in a good light in 2020
Dissatisfaction with the Morrison Government appears to be widespread....
In
November 2019 there were fears
Tweed Heads could lose hundreds of jobs if Centrelink moves three of
its offices to the Gold Coast.
The
offices were identified as a
national call centre, service centre and administrative centre.
At
the time Centrelink
denied it was moving out of the region.
But
less than three months later, on
22 Februrary 2020, Centrelink announced it was indeed closing its
Tweed Heads office.
Branches
at Newcastle and Newport in New South Wales and Mornington in
Victoria will also close their doors.
This
news
was reported
as far away
as
the UK:
Some
offices will be replaced with a so-called 'agency' or kiosk that will
be staffed by one person.
Each
day more than 66,000 people walk into Centrelink offices around the
country.
This
is being dwarfed by the amount of people who access government
services online, with half a million people logging into the MyGov
website each day.
Former
opposition leader Bill Shorten has claimed the closing of some
Centrelink locations is a move by the government to cover costs in
other areas at the expense of citizens.
'This
government's more interested in band aiding a dodgy budget surplus
and it's going to do it by shafting everyday Centrelink users,' Mr
Shorten said.
Services
Australia, which oversees Centrelink, said in its annual report that
it is trying to 'maximise the benefits of digital capabilities while
reducing the costs of administering payments'…..
In
Mornington, Mayor Sam Hearn told 9
News
that he is furious.
He says 35,000 people in the area could be worse off when the local
branch closes at the end of the next month. Mr Hearn is now urging
Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene.
Given
Mornington is in Australian Minister for Health, Minister Assisting
the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Cabinet &
Liberal MP for Flinders Greg
Hunt’s
electorate, the mayor’s fury may yet
be
translated into action by his local member who appears to have been
as much in the dark about these closure as everyone else.
However,
the residents of Tweed Heads and environs have little chance of their
dismay registering with Prime Minister
&
Liberal MP for Cook,
‘Scotty
From Marketing’
Morrison, as
Tweed
Heads is in a federal electorate which has been held by the same
Labor MP for the last fifteen
years and six federal elections.
The Daily Examiner,
22 February 2020:
DAVE
and Jan Binskin are in quarantine in “a sh-thole” in Darwin.
After being evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship where two
people died and 620 people tested positive for coronavirus, the
Casino couple and 170 other Australians are in another 14 days’
quarantine in a mining compound.
They
were on the ship in Japan when the Australian Government notified
them they could return to Australia, but face further quarantine.
The
conditions at the compound are terrible, Mr Binskin said. “Morrison
conned us. They didn't prepare for us and the people opposite us
didn't even have water for six hours,” he said.
Their
quarantine sounds more like a prison.
“They
locked us into an area with double fences around us and then decided
it was a fire risk and took down the fences,” he said.
The
Binskins were excited to be going back to Australia, he said, but
conditions were worse than on the boat.
They
have single beds, the room is unclean, the TVs don’t work and
they’re not allowed to have alcohol, Mr Binskin said.
“We
were told they didn't want the old people drinking and falling over,”
he said.
“We
can’t use the pool, we don't even have a garbage bin and some
people don’t even have bed linen.” The couple tested negative for
coronavirus.
“The
government has forgotten about us,” Mr Binskin said in a flat
voice. With nothing to do in the compound, Mr Binskin said his wife
Jan liked knitting and providing her with wool and needles would
help.
“It’s
against human rights,” he said.
Had
they disembarked in Japan they would have been free to leave, but
were told they would be looked after in Australia.
“They
didn’t prepare for us,” Mr Binskin said…...
He
said many people at the compound had received letters from their
local member of parliament.“We’ve heard nothing from Kevin Hogan
(Member for Page),” Mr Binskin said.
ABC
News,
23
February 2020:
The
Country Women's Association (CWA) has slammed the Federal Government
over its drought assistance, describing the latest funding
announcement as "disappointing, infuriating, insulting and
disrespectful".
But
the CWA said despite repeatedly seeking more federal funding for its
drought programs since September, it only learned of the voucher
announcement on Wednesday evening.
"It
was a total disregard, it's disrespectful ... it would have been nice
to have been consulted," national president Tanya Cameron said.
"It's
very disappointing. It's actually infuriating. It's very annoying.
I'm really quite angry.
"It's
quite insulting and it's disrespectful to an organisation that has
been around as long as ours has."
The
CWA has written to the Government to say it will not be participating
in the outreach program as it is currently proposed.
It
said its state branches did not support the process of administering
$500 vouchers at public events, such as barbecues or roadshows, as
they understood the Government intended.
"We've
explained to the Federal Government on a number of occasions very
clearly why, for NSW, the vouchers don't work," CWA NSW chief
executive Danica Leys said.
"I
don't think the provision of assistance in this way should be tied to
having to attend an event to get it."
In
New South Wales, the CWA has distributed more than $16 million of
drought aid in recent years, directly depositing funding in the
recipients' bank accounts.
"People
are given the dignity and respect to make the decision they need to
make," Ms Leys said of the CWA system.
"Obviously
someone in the federal bureaucracy thinks they know better how to get
it out.
"If
they know how to get it out, then they should perhaps think about
doing it themselves before verballing us and telling us that they're
partnering with us.
Ms
Ley said there were many questions around the logistics of how people
would get the vouchers.
"We
absolutely support further investment into drought-affected
communities, and vouchers can be helpful for some people, but a $500
voucher at the outset is quite minimal in nature," she said.
"That
is not what is needed ... not to sound ungrateful, but more than that
is needed."……
Labels:
Centrelink,
CWA,
drought,
government funding,
Morrison Government
Monday 24 February 2020
‘Grant from Auditing’ dropped ‘Scotty from Marketing’ right in it and the net result is a strong stench of corruption emanating from the Morrison government
New
Matilda,
14 February 2020:
Summer
rains finally fell on large parts of New South Wales this week. They
didn’t fall everywhere, and much of inland Australia is still in
drought, but enough rain fell where it was needed to allow weary fire
authorities to announce that the New South Wales bushfires were
finally contained.
For
different reasons, Scott Morrison has also had a difficult summer, so
the Prime Minister would no doubt have been pleased the bushfire
emergency he so badly mishandled is now receding. With Parliament
back and the serious matter of COVID-19 Coronavirus to attend to,
Morrison could be forgiven for thinking that February would be the
month where the government could regain the political initiative.
But
that’s not happening, because the government finds itself mired in
a series of corruption scandals.
The
key issue, as it has been for weeks now, is the sports rorts affair.
As we now know, roughly $100 million in sports grants were
distributed in a completely corrupt manner by former Sports Minister
Bridget McKenzie before the 2019 federal election.
The
scandal blew up after the National Audit Office released a
devastating report into the orgy of pork barrelling.
The
government’s initial response to the Audit was to try and downplay
it: a variation of the classic “nothing to see here, folks” line.
Morrison himself argued many times that no rules had been broken and
that all the projects funded in McKenzie’s dodgy process were
eligible.
That
approach proved unsustainable, as the media turned its attention to
the grants program and uncovered multiple instances of highly dubious
decision-making. Huge grants to fancy rowing clubs in Mosman, grants
for female change rooms to clubs with no female players, grants to a
shooting club that McKenzie herself was a member of, grants that
sporting clubs boasted about before even receiving them – the more
journalists dug, the worse things seemed.
The
Audit report was always going to be difficult to wriggle away from.
The report set down, in black and white, a devastating series of
findings about the sports grants program.
An
established funding program was subverted by a “parallel process”
of political decision making inside McKenzie’s office, quite
transparently driven by political interest. Questions were raised
about the program’s probity by senior bureaucrats, only to be
batted away by McKenzie and her staff. A colour-coded spreadsheet was
even drawn up, one that had nothing to do with the merits of the
funding applications, and everything to do with the Coalition’s
re-election strategy.
As
former senior New South Wales judge Stephen Charles QC argued, this
was not just ministerial misconduct; it was corruption.
So,
after weeks of defending her, Morrison bowed to the inevitable and
sacked McKenzie. After a hastily convened investigation by Morrison’s
hand-picked Secretary of the Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet,
Phil Gaetjens, McKenzie was sent on her way.
On
the day he sacked McKenzie, Morrison announced that Gaetjens’
report found that McKenzie had erred, but that the program itself was
sound. Exactly how Gaetjens managed to come to that conclusion is
something that has puzzled journalists and onlookers. If the program
was sound, why was McKenzie sacked for rorting it? And if McKenzie
rorted it, how could the program be sound?
Just
to make matters more opaque, Gaetjens’ report was never released,
with Morrison claiming that it was a cabinet document. He therefore
kept it secret. It’s marvellous stuff, this open government
business…..
In
scathing testimony, Auditor-General Grant Hehir and senior auditor
Brian Boyd demolished the government’s position with a few
well-chosen lines.
Were
all the grants eligible, Senator Eric Abetz asked Boyd? No, answered
Boyd.
In
fact, as many as 43 per cent were not eligible. Boyd went on to
explain why. Some applications were late. Some projects had started
their work before they signed the funding agreement. Some had
actually finished the work.
As
Boyd told the Committee, “If you’ve completed your work, or in
some cases — as in this one — you’ve even started your work
before a funding agreement is signed, you’re not eligible to
receive funding.” Oops.
It
got worse. We also found out that the Prime Minister’s office was
intimately involved with McKenzie’s office in drawing up the dodgy
list of grant recipients. Auditor-General Hehir told Senators there
were “direct” communications between Morrison’s office and
McKenzie’s, including at least 28 versions of the now-notorious
colour-coded spreadsheet that laid out the various sports grants by
marginal seat.
The
Auditor-General described a process where key advisors from Morrison
and McKenzie’s offices haggled over which projects to fund, using
the spreadsheet as the basis for their decisions.
To
say this looks bad for the Prime Minister is an understatement. He
has been caught out in a particularly ham-fisted cover up, one that
looks all the more ill-judged now the facts have come to light. Given
the level and detail of communication between his office and Bridget
McKenzie’s, it’s hard to see how he can plausibly argue he wasn’t
privy to the rorts…..
Read
the full article here.
Thursday 13 February 2020
Morrison's refusal to release the written finding of the Gaetjens investigation into the allocation of Community Sport Infrastructure Grants during the 2019 federal election campaign is raising eyebrows
The handling of the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program during the 2019 federal election campaign - otherwise know as SportsRorts scandal - has already taken the scalp of former Agriculture Minister & Nationals Senator for Victoria, Bridget McKenzie, after poor personal polling on 12 January and growing public anger on the release of the Auditor General's adverse report of 15 January 2020 caused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to order an internal investigation into this $100 million dollar scheme.
Ms. McKenzie has been made Leader of the Nationals in the Senate as compensation for the fact that she was forced to resign in an effort to put a lid on the whole affair.
Nevertheless disquiet remains after Morrison refused to release the written finding of the Gaetjens investigation.......
Former
head of the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance, and
Employment and Industrial Relations and currently Visiting Fellow at
the Australian National University, Michael
Keating,
writing in Crikey.com.au
on
11 February 2020:
In
my view the Gaetjens’ report reflects poorly on its author.
It
would seem on the evidence that Gaetjens has produced a report whose
only purpose was to get the government off a political hook.
One
suspects that finding McKenzie guilty on the grounds of political
bias in her administration of these grants would have implicated
other ministers and/or their offices, and therefore she was
exonerated on this charge.
However,
as head of the public service, Gaetjen’s first duty is to uphold
its values and integrity. And as set out in its enabling legislation,
the Australian Public Service is meant to be apolitical, serving not
only the government but also parliament and the Australian public.
Gaetjens
should be setting an example for the rest of the APS — indeed the
head of any organisation has their greatest impact on its culture.
My
other concern about this sports rorts saga is what it tells us about
the prime minister’s attitude to the public service.
As
the High Court has found: “the maintenance and protection of an
apolitical and professional public service is a significant purpose
consistent with the system of representative and responsible
government mandated by the constitution”.
But
the Gaetjens’ report reinforces doubts about whether Morrison
accepts the independence and impartiality of the APS.
Furthermore,
this report comes on the back of the Morrison government’s
rejection of all the recommendations from the independent ThodeyReview of the APS which would have strengthened that independence,
and therefore reinforces that concern.
On 5 February 2020 the Senate resolved to establish a Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants to inquire into and report on the administration and award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program.
The first and, perhaps the only, hearing day is today Thursday 13 February 2020 - beginning at 4.30pm when the Auditor General Grant Hehir will be giving evidence.
On 5 February 2020 the Senate resolved to establish a Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants to inquire into and report on the administration and award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program.
The first and, perhaps the only, hearing day is today Thursday 13 February 2020 - beginning at 4.30pm when the Auditor General Grant Hehir will be giving evidence.
The closing date for submissions is 21 February 2020 and the committee is to present its final report on or before 24 March 2020.
BACKGROUND
Terms of Reference
1. That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants, be established to inquire into and report on the administration and award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program, with particular reference to:
a) program design and guidelines;
b) requirements placed on applicants for funding;
c) management and assessment processes;
d) adherence to published assessment processes and program criteria;
e) the role of the offices of the Minister, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and any external parties, in determining which grants would be awarded and who would announce the successful grants; and
f) any related programs or matters.
2. That the committee present its final report on or before Tuesday 24 March 2020.
3. That the committee consist of 5 senators, as follows:
a) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;
b) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and
c)1 nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.
4. That:
a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator; and b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee.
c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.
5. That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.
6. That the committee elect as chair one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and as deputy chair the member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.
7. That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.
8. That, in the event of an equality of voting, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.
9. That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.
10. That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.
11. That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.
12. That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.
The resolution establishing the committee is available in the Journals of the Senate No. 37 - Wednesday, 5 February 2020
1. That a select committee, to be known as the Select Committee on Administration of Sports Grants, be established to inquire into and report on the administration and award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program, with particular reference to:
a) program design and guidelines;
b) requirements placed on applicants for funding;
c) management and assessment processes;
d) adherence to published assessment processes and program criteria;
e) the role of the offices of the Minister, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and any external parties, in determining which grants would be awarded and who would announce the successful grants; and
f) any related programs or matters.
2. That the committee present its final report on or before Tuesday 24 March 2020.
3. That the committee consist of 5 senators, as follows:
a) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Government in the Senate;
b) 2 nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate; and
c)1 nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.
4. That:
a) participating members may be appointed to the committee on the nomination of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate or any minority party or independent senator; and b) participating members may participate in hearings of evidence and deliberations of the committee, and have all the rights of members of the committee, but may not vote on any questions before the committee.
c) a participating member shall be taken to be a member of a committee for the purpose of forming a quorum of the committee if a majority of members of the committee is not present.
5. That the committee may proceed to the dispatch of business notwithstanding that not all members have been duly nominated and appointed and notwithstanding any vacancy.
6. That the committee elect as chair one of the members nominated by the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and as deputy chair the member nominated by the Leader of the Australian Greens.
7. That the deputy chair shall act as chair when the chair is absent from a meeting of the committee or the position of chair is temporarily vacant.
8. That, in the event of an equality of voting, the chair, or the deputy chair when acting as chair, have a casting vote.
9. That the committee have power to appoint subcommittees consisting of 3 or more of its members, and to refer to any such subcommittee any of the matters which the committee is empowered to consider.
10. That the committee and any subcommittee have power to send for and examine persons and documents, to move from place to place, to sit in public or in private, notwithstanding any prorogation of the Parliament or dissolution of the House of Representatives, and have leave to report from time to time its proceedings and the evidence taken and such interim recommendations as it may deem fit.
11. That the committee be provided with all necessary staff, facilities and resources and be empowered to appoint persons with specialist knowledge for the purposes of the committee with the approval of the President.
12. That the committee be empowered to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by it, and a daily Hansard be published of such proceedings as take place in public.
The resolution establishing the committee is available in the Journals of the Senate No. 37 - Wednesday, 5 February 2020
Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), Award of Funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Program, Report NO. 23 OF 2019–20, which found:
- The award of grant funding was not informed by an appropriate assessment process and sound advice.
- The successful applications were not those that had been assessed as the most meritorious in terms of the published program guidelines.....
- There was evidence of distribution bias in the award of grant funding. Overall statistics indicate that the award of funding was consistent with the population of eligible applications received by state/territory, but was not consistent with the assessed merit of applications. The award of funding reflected the approach documented by the Minister’s Office of focusing on ‘marginal’ electorates held by the Coalition as well as those electorates held by other parties or independent members that were to be ‘targeted’ by the Coalition at the 2019 Election. Applications from projects located in those electorates were more successful in being awarded funding than if funding was allocated on the basis of merit assessed against the published program guidelines.
Wednesday 5 February 2020
SevicesNSW is inviting residents & business premises destroyed by bushfire to register for a free cleanup of their property
Residents
on the NSW North Coast and elsewhere in the state should ring
ServicesNSW
on 13 77 88
to take advantage of the post-bushfire cleanup offer set
out in the media release below.
I
strongly
suggest that those eligible for this cleanup of residential or
business premises register immediately, as the Morrison Government
has recently demonstrated that it will repurpose bushfire recovery
funding at the drop of a hat and this program might just end prematurely with little notice to bushfire victims if federal funding is reduced or terminated.
Office
of the Prime
Minister,
media
release,
30 January 2020:
The
Morrison and Berejiklian Governments today announced they will share
the costs on a 50:50 basis for the clean-up of residential and
commercial properties destroyed by the recent bushfires in NSW.
This
follows the successful approach adopted by the Commonwealth and
Victorian Governments following the Black Saturday bushfires.
The
cost of the NSW clean-up is expected to run into the hundreds of
millions of dollars, though a definitive number cannot be settled
until the fires have ceased and sites are assessed.
As
part of recovery efforts the NSW Government has also selected Laing
O’Rourke Australia as the lead contractor to undertake the
clean-up.
Prime
Minister Scott Morrison, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Commonwealth
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, NSW Deputy Premier and Minister
responsible for Disaster Recovery John Barilaro, Commonwealth
Minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David
Littleproud and NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the funding
agreement would give people more certainty as the recovery process
continues.
“This
is an important step to get the clean-up and rebuilding process
moving to help people get back on their feet,” the Prime Minister
said.
“We
know many people are still battling these blazes but where the
fire-front has passed we’re deploying $2 billion through our
National Bushfire Recovery Agency to help people rebuild their homes
and communities.”
“The
destruction caused by these fires is unprecedented and the process of
recovery and rebuilding will take time, but I want people to know, we
will be with them every step of the way,” the Premier said.
“Government
is picking up the bill for the clean-up, at no cost to owners, so if
you’re uninsured, this is one less thing to worry about and if you
are insured, it means you will be able to use every dollar of your
policy to rebuild.”
Treasurer
Frydenberg said the speed at which agreement was reached between the
Commonwealth and the NSW government was not only a testament to the
working relationship between the two levels of government but that of
the National Bushfire Recovery Agency.
“An
unprecedented joint effort has and is required to assist with the
recovery, rebuilding and future resilience of local communities,”
Treasurer Frydenberg said.
“The
National Bushfire Recovery Agency has played a key role across the
board ensuring the Commonwealth’s resources are reaching the
communities when and where they are needed.”
The
Deputy Premier said the clean-up was a mammoth task but that he was
confident the partnership with Laing O’Rourke will see properties
cleared and the rebuild begin as soon as possible.
“With
2,399 homes destroyed and more than 10,000 buildings damaged or
destroyed all up, we have a long journey ahead of us,” the Deputy
Premier said.
“Despite
the enormity of the job, Laing O’Rourke has indicated the majority
of properties will be substantially cleared by mid-year, with a focus
on residential properties.
“The
contractor will also be working hand in hand with Public Works
Advisory to engage local suppliers and subcontractors, to keep local
economies ticking over.
“Our
emergency services, volunteers and our farmers have been outstanding
in emergency situations these past months, and we need to be as
vigilant in recovery as they have been in the face of disaster.”
Minister
Littleproud said the Commonwealth would continue to step up to do
whatever it takes.
"We
will continue to respond to changing conditions while these fires
affect communities across the country,” Minister Littleproud said.
“As
the rebuilding begins, the Commonwealth will be there to make sure
communities are well-resourced.”
Treasurer
Perrottet said he expected all savings insurance companies may accrue
as a result of the Government funded clean-up to be passed on to
policy holders to help assist them in the rebuilding process.
“I
know people are anxious to have their properties cleared as soon as
possible which is why the NSW Government has hit the ground running
with the clean-up effort,” Treasurer Perrottet said.
“Impacted
owners wanting their property cleared need to call Service NSW on 13
77 88 to register their details and provide consent for access to
their land.
“We
are working with the new National Bushfire Recovery Agency to ensure
a coordinated response to make clean-up as easy as possible for
property owners.”
The
NSW Government will provide regular updates to the Commonwealth on
the progress of the clean-up.
Labels:
bushfires,
government funding,
recovery
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