Flood disaster Payment

Australians are being told the federal government has spent $17 billion on disaster relief - but that figure includes $13 billion in coronavirus pandemic ...

Mr Albanese opposed the shift in funding at the time. The government set up the emergency fund in 2019 using money shifted from the Education Investment Fund, which had been set up by Labor and was meant to fund research. The separate $1.5 billion for the 2019 floods in northern Queensland consisted of $1 billion for the AgRebuild loans for farmers, $232 million for the Queensland government for disaster recovery and $240 million to the Queensland government to pay for grants to primary producers. The Labor spokesman on disaster and emergency management, Queensland senator Murray Watt, said the government was misleading voters by making the pandemic measures part of its claim for disaster spending. While the government did not specify the pandemic measures included in this total, the National Recovery and Resilience Agency said the pandemic measures were worth $13 billion. The government has included $13 billion in pandemic measures to the new estimate for its emergency spending while the NSW and Queensland floods heighten a political debate about whether enough is being spent to help disaster victims.