Agriculture
29 December, 2023
Minister rejects call to make disaster declaration
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes has today rejected declaring the Christmas Day floods in the Loddon Shire a natural disaster and said the council is working on assessments that will determine what financial assistance is available. Her...
Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes has today rejected declaring the Christmas Day floods in the Loddon Shire a natural disaster and said the council is working on assessments that will determine what financial assistance is available.
Her comments come after Nationals’ leader and Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh yesterday called for the declaration to allow farmers quick access to grants as they set about replacing an estimated 300km of damaged fences and count stock losses expected to be in the thousands.
Some Wedderburn residents have also been told they are ineligible for assistance because the Christmas Day floods were a localised rain event.
More than 175mm was recorded in Wedderburn, homes flooded and some residents evacuated and rescued as ferocious floods swirled down the Nardoo Creek.
There was also extensive flooding in Korong Vale, Borung and Inglewood.
Ms Symes told a media conference in Melbourne today: “Look, I find it quite concerning that nearly every emergency you have the National Party call for the government to make a declaration which, frankly, they understand is misleading information.
“It is not a requirement for me as minister for emergency services or indeed the premier to declare a state of emergency in order for federal and state government funds to flow.
“What we have in relation to this is a well informed path between the federal government, the state government and local councils.
“Local councils go and assess the damage, they feed this into Emergency Management Victoria and ERV who then speak to the Feds about the activation of DRFA which is the financial assistance.
“Declaring a disaster or a state of emergency actually does things that we don’t need, it gives me extraordinary powers to stop transport. These are not powers that are necessary or indeed hold up any funding in any way.
“Frankly, I am sick and tired of having to remind the National Party of this in the event of disasters, they continue to do it. It’s misinformation and it is leading to unnecessary stress to those who are impacted by this and leading them to believe falsely that there is something holding up assistance to them.
“I can confirm that those that have had flood impacts on their homes, DFFH has already ensured that financial assistance is available to those communities. In the event of more financial assistance, we have to undertake assessments and councils are working on that right now, feeding it back to the State Government as is appropriate.”
Mr Walsh is the only MP to visit the Loddon Shire since the deluge, meeting farmers and inspecting damage on Thursday.
He said affected farmers and property owners in the affected areas along Korong Creek should qualify for compensation.
“It must be classified as a natural disaster area so farmers can qualify for the Victorian primacy producer recovery grant,” Mr Walsh said.
“Smaller land holders should also qualify for a Victorian rural land holder’s grant given the enormity of the localised rain event.
“I met with local farmers, Amber and Peter Gibson and John Tonkin this morning. They are from multi-generational farming families and say it is the worst they have seen it since 1974.
“Having seen the damage first-hand, I urge the Allan Government to do something to help. It must now be classified as a natural disaster.”