Media Release

A draft report on disaster funding spells double-disaster for north Queenslanders with the Government proposing to significantly reduce disaster relief funding and community members unable to protect themselves with escalating insurance premiums said KAP Leader and Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter.

“This draft report by a productivity commission has clearly been written by the Queensland State Government.

"They want to use the money for flood mitigation in Brisbane and there is no doubt that some money should be spent there; but it shouldn’t be at the expense of north Queenslanders.

“There is no way to prevent cyclone damage but you can prevent flood damage.

“Clearly the money will now be syphoned to Brisbane instead of north Queensland and after Cyclone Yasi and Cyclone Larry, many of our economies particularly in places like Mission Beach, Ingham, Tully and Innisfail would not have been able to survive if it wasn’t for the relief funding,” Mr Katter said.

The Productivity Commission’s draft report into Australian Government funding for natural disasters has recommended that the Commonwealth reduce its financial support to state and territory governments for natural disaster relief, while mitigation funding will be increased.

If these recommendations were implemented many communities in the Kennedy electorate would face significant difficulties financially and economically to recover from Cyclones or other natural disasters, and additionally with rising insurance premiums, we are also unable to protect ourselves, said Mr Katter.

“Effectively, we succeeded in getting $1 billion from the Federal Government for Cyclone Yasi and the State Government would have spent close to $500 million repairing services and assets such as roads, schools, hospitals, government housing. Additionally, there was an estimated $1 billion that was paid out to north Queenslanders by insurance companies.

“To add insult to injury, not only can we not mitigate against cyclones, but we can’t even protect ourselves financially because insurance charges have skyrocketed out of reach of many north Queenslanders.

“So essentially we can’t get the money from the government, and we can’t insure against it. Who is going to foot the bill here, if there is another catastrophic cyclone or natural disaster?

"Is the Government callously going to leave these people crying and devastated in broken homes across north Queensland?

“In the event of another cyclone, we are going to be left with no insurance on our homes and no natural disaster government money coming in. The Government should be governing in the interests of all Australians,” Mr Katter said.

Earlier last week Mr Katter called two public meetings in Edmonton and Innisfail to address the issue of insurance premiums as north Queensland residents struggle under the burden of skyrocketing premiums.