COMMUNITES hit by recent flooding will be able to get a helping hand from the state and federal governments via the State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Impacted northern New South Wales local government areas such as Armidale, Ballina, Bellingen, Byron, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Glen Innes Severn, Inverell, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, Nambucca, Port Macquarie - Hastings, Richmond Valley and Tweed will eligible for the funds.
The funds can be used to help people replace property damaged in the floods, support for affected local councils to help with the costs of cleaning up, concessional interest rate loans for small businesses, primary producers and non-profit organisations and freight subsidies for primary producers.
Read Also:
NSW Police and Emergency Services Minister, David Elliott, said communities experienced significant losses and disruption due to heavy rainfall and flooding over several days.
"The assistance being announced today will help cover the costs associated with the operational response and repairing damaged essential public assets, such as roads," Mr Elliott said.
Federal Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud, said the funds would provide a range of practical assistance measures.
"This includes in-kind assistance, such as emergency accommodation, food hampers or small cash payments to purchase essential items, as well as grants to replace essential household contents or repair structural damage to homes," Mr Littleproud said.
New England MP Barnaby Joyce said the funds would be pivotal to his electorate, which has received vast amounts of rainfall in recent days.
"The assistance will come as a relief to affected residents and three Councils in the New England Electorate after the heavy rainfall and flooding which caused devastating damage across the impacted councils," Mr Joyce said.
"This was a severe weather event that our communities are still trying to recover from. These grants will help councils with the ongoing clean-up and repairs to infrastructure."
Love agricultural news? Sign up for The Land's free daily newsletter.
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
