Joint media release

Emergency financial assistance is now available for residents in the Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Nambucca and Port Macquarie-Hastings regions who have been severely affected by storms and floods.

Federal Member for Cowper Pat Conaghan said residents with damaged homes or belongings after this week’s significant rainfall and councils with damaged public assets should access assistance.

“Disaster assistance is now available in a range of storm and flood affected New South Wales local government areas, including all five council areas across Cowper,” he said.

“Some residents have had a difficult time this week due to flash flooding and severe winds and I know councils are counting the cost of the clean-up bill and damage to roads and bridges.

“Assistance is now available and I encourage anyone who has suffered the loss of a home or belongings or damage to a business premise to contact the Disaster Welfare Assistance Line on 1800 018 444 and see if you are eligible.”

Disaster assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Assistance available under the DRFA may include:

• help for eligible people whose homes or belongings have been damaged
• 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
• support for affected local councils to help with the costs of cleaning up and restoring damaged essential public assets
• concessional interest rate loans for small businesses, primary producers and non-profit organisations
• freight subsidies for primary producers, and
• grants to eligible non-profit organisations.

New South Wales Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said the assistance being announced today would help cover the costs associated with the operational response and repairing damaged public assets.

“Communities experienced significant losses and disruption due to heavy rainfall and flooding over several days, including road closures, landslips, school closures and in some cases, evacuations,” Mr Elliott said.

“The assistance being announced today will help cover the costs associated with the operational response and repairing damaged essential public assets, such as roads.”

For information on personal hardship and distress assistance, contact the Disaster Welfare Assistance Line on 1800 018 444. To apply for a concessional loan or grant, contact the NSW Rural Assistance Authority on 1800 678 593 or its website.

Further information on disaster assistance is available on the Australian Government’s Disaster Assist website and the NSW emergency information and response website.

ENDS

Media Contacts:

Mr Littleproud – Douglas Ferguson 0455 448 985

Mr Elliott – Vanessa Till 0419 603 586

Mr Conaghan – Liz Spry 0418 928 744