Opposition renews call for resilience funding for local governments

Opposition leader David Crisafulli, along with opposition disaster recovery spokesperson Ann Leahy, and Lockyer MP Jim McDonald visited the region early this week, gaining perspective on the amount of damage done and calling for more urgent assistance.

Specifically, they are calling on the government to reinstate resilience funding for local governments.

"I'm here because I want Queenslanders to know that we've got some mates in our state right now who need a hand, and the scenes that we have witnessed this morning show just how large the scale is," Mr Crisafulli said.

"I've been in a lot of disaster zones - this is right up there with the scale of devastation.

"We've seen dwellings picked up and tossed aside like a rag doll, and people have lost everything.

"It's been many weeks now, and they need to know that we care about them, and they need to know that support's going to come, and come quickly."

The state government last week announced $12 million in flood assistance for primary producers and small businesses across flood-affected communities, including Boulia, Burke, Carpentaria, Cloncurry, Doomadgee, Mornington and Mount Isa council areas.

Primary producers can apply for recovery grants up to $75,000, while small businesses and not-for-profits have access to grants up to $50,000.

Funding is also available to councils and primary producers for immediate livestock support, including emergency fodder and carcass disposal.

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Mr Crisafulli said that as well as financial support, impacted people would need emotional support, adding that there was an urgent need for connectivity of roads and communications so people could rebuild their businesses.

"There are communities that have effectively been cut off since Christmas and with that comes huge impacts on the way that they conduct their lives," he said.

Ms Leahy said the state government had failed to protect rural and regional Queensland from natural disasters, axing 75 per cent of the Queensland Betterment Fund since 2015.

She said it had been designed by the Newman government to fund projects to help Queensland communities "build back better" after natural disasters, not only providing critical funds for local government to deliver repairs, but to help drive down the cost of living.

RELATED: Flood-ravaged Gulf towns call for resilience funding

In its first year, $80 million was allocated and spent by the fund, but since the Palaszczuk government was elected in 2015, $23 million has been invested each year.

"What we've seen is absolutely devastating, and what disappoints me the most is what these people in the Gulf communities have been putting up with," Ms Leahy said.

"They have been cut off for the last three months and now we've got this serious once-in-a-lifetime flood situation, but we've seen a cutback of 75 per cent of resilience funding to Queensland councils.

"These councils up here need that money so they can actually keep their roads open and keep their communities going during the wet season, but also when they've got to recover from events like what we're seeing in the Burke shire.

"I call on the state government to help these councils. It is so important we look after these people, they are our frontline defence to so many things up here in the Gulf."

Mr Crisafulli said infrastructure needed to be built to more resilient standards.

"There are roads that are cut off for months at a time, and the airport for example - there might be an opportunity to build a levee around the airport, to enable that access to be continued," he said.

"You're not going to floodproof communities in the Gulf but we need to make them a little bit more resilient.

"Every time, we just need to look at how can we improve things just a little bit.

"To be cut off for months at a time makes remote living more remote."

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