Federal Member for Wright, Scott Buchholz and Scenic Rim Mayor, Greg Christensen have welcomed an announcement by the Australian Government for further Disaster Funding for the region.
The Australian Government announced $60 million in further assistance for 42 local government areas across Australia, including an urgent $1,000,000 funding boost for Scenic Rim.
The funding will be provided through the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, to assist Council with clean-up and recovery efforts following the 2019 bushfires.
Federal Member for Wright, Scott Buchholz welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement and said he had been putting the case for further assistance.
“The Scenic Rim has been hit hard on a number of fronts by recent bushfires. We were one of the communities first hit, with the Canungra, Beechmont, Illinbah and Sarabah fires in September 2019.
“Following that, we experienced further fires at the other end of the district, in Tarome, Aratula, Moogerah and up Cunninghams Gap,” Mr Buchholz said.
A Council spokesperson said there is an expectation from Canberra to have a focused plan in place in three months time.
“We have been gathering ideas from a wide range of people across our community, remembering that we have affected communities from the very east to the west of the region,” he said.
“The possibilities are quite extensive and the focus will be on ensuring we are giving reasonable consideration to all those possibilities.”
“We do understand that some of the things that people have asked us to spend it on would be outside the guidelines, for example making direct payments to affected people.”
“We encourage people across our communities who wish to contribute ideas to contact Council at mail@scenicrim.qld.gov.au,” he said.
