$60m for disaster recovery

TOWNSVILLE’S resilience to natural disasters will be sandbagged under a multimilliondollar federal government plan to mitigate and respond to the worst of what mother nature throws at the region.

Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud was in Townsville yesterday to announce $60 million in funding to go towards natural disaster mitigation and recovery.

The measures come in the wake of Townsville’s devastating 2019 flood event that left a massive trail of destruction in its path, with the financial and social impacts expected to linger for years after the natural disaster event.

Mr Littleproud said the funding allocation had been decided in close consultation with the National Drought and North Queensland Flood Response and Recovery Agency co-ordinator Shane Stone, who has spent the better part of the past 12 months travelling to the worst hit parts of the state talking with landowners and communities. The $60 million cash splash included recovery and resilience grants, telecommunications and energy improvement, managing disaster risk and economic diversification.

It also included a $2 million top up of funding to go towards the mental health of children.

“Whether that be flood, whether it be fire, or more likely cyclone, and the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a La Nina warning, which means we will be looking at 2010, 2012 events possibly coming,” Mr Littleproud said.

“And, that’s where we need to be prepared. We need to protect our most precious capital, our human capital, and looking after young Australians and young North Queenslanders who are impacted by this particular event is very important.”