Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg say the budget surplus is not a priority in the context of the human cost of the bushfires.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
With farmers and small business owners suffering a blow to their incomes and the loss of their assets,the government is promising to use the money to help employers keep operating.
As an example,Mr Morrison cited payments of up to $75,000 to primary producers and said similar grants had been"lifesavers"to farmers hurt by previous disasters.
The new fund will be separate from existing disaster assistance payments,such as cash outlays equivalent to Newstart for those who have been caught up in a disaster and which are available immediately.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the indicative cost to the budget would be $500 million this financial year,followed by $1 billion in 2020-21 and $500 million in 2021-22,but he said more funding would be brought forward if needed.
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The cost of the disaster recovery assistance for Queenslanders hit by Cyclone Yasi reached $5.6 billion over the years after the 2011 emergency,highlighting the potential cost to the Commonwealth beyond the new fund.
As well,the federal government will suspend debt recovery from welfare recipients in the targeted areas,while forming 20 small teams of public servants to be located with the ADF and help take questions about Centrelink payments and other help.
"We've already taken a number of decisions in this area to streamline those payments – it's important that cash gets in people's hands as soon as possible,"Mr Morrison said.
Mr Morrison announced the bushfire recovery fund a day after naming former Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin to lead a newNational Bushfire Recovery Agency on Sunday.
The Australian Tax Office will offer an automatic two-month deferral of payment and lodgement obligations for those in fire-affected areas,while the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has set up a hotline for people worried about bushfire charity scams.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours a bushfire-damaged farm in Sarsfield.Credit:AAP
Mr Frydenberg will meet insurance company executives in Canberra on Tuesday to discuss their handling of claims from victims,but the meeting has caused friction over whether it is necessary when government officials admit they have few complaints from customers to date. Insurers have handled more than 6000 claims from bushfire regions in NSW,Queensland,South Australia and Victoria and estimate the insurance losses to be $431 million this bushfire season.
With the government under political attack overMr Morrison's holiday in Hawaii andsocial media advertising about his bushfire response,some insurers believe the meeting is being held only to project a sense of action on an issue that is under control.
Insurers have closed 93 per cent of the 30,000 claims from the Townsville flood last February,according to a brief sent to the government to fend off any attacks over the industry's performance.
Mr Albanese criticised the communication breakdown between the federal and NSW governments over the defence deployment and said Mr Morrison should have acted more swiftly with a national response to the emergency.
"I do think from the beginning there should have been a national response that was agreed to by the Prime Minister on Saturday,"he said.
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"I do think that's why people have responded very negatively to the Liberal Party ad that was authorised by the Prime Minister on Saturday,which even had a button on it for donations,not to the bushfire recovery,but to the Liberal Party."
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the Prime Minister's actions showed he did not understand the scale of the threat from climate change and bushfires.
"Some political leaders rise to a crisis,while others shrink away and show themselves to be unfit for the job,"Senator Di Natale said.