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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-24 Daily Xml
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FLOODING

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:09): Can the Minister for State/Local Government Relations advise the house what the state government is doing to assist those council areas affected by yesterday's storm?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Volunteers, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister Assisting in Early Childhood Development) (15:09): I thank the member for Torrens for her question; it is one the member for Goyder should have been asking me. In the aftermath of yesterday's storms I am aware of several of our northern communities that have sustained damage to important council infrastructure. In fact, my colleague in another place, the Minister for Emergency Services, today travelled to Kadina to meet with members of the local community affected by yesterday's flash flooding. I am advised that the minister also met with the emergency services workers responsible for dealing with the impacts of the flood and managing the clean-up efforts, and I understand that they are doing a magnificent job.

Again, the government has taken the initiative to make contact with country councils primarily affected by these quite significant and somewhat unexpected downpours that occurred yesterday. It is ironic that, in this year of drought, we have now had not only one but at least two significant storm damage events in South Australia. Members will remember the terrible storms that struck earlier this year in January and February. When those storms occurred, we swiftly put in place mechanisms to assist those councils most affected by the floods. At that time, discussions resulted in eight of the most severely affected councils making applications to the Local Government Disaster Fund. Funds totalling $4.4 million were made available to assist eight of the councils to repair vital infrastructure for their communities. As I said, yesterday we again saw several of these very same councils experiencing floods.

I have today made contact with the Northern Areas and Peterborough councils to offer immediate financial assistance if they require it, and we are also in the process of contacting a range of other councils. A similar practice is likely to be adopted with respect to the Local Government Disaster Fund, which was quite successfully used for the floods earlier this year. We will assist in the assessment of the damage in each of the council areas prior to making application to the fund. Once the full extent of the damage is known, the overall assessment will take into account any immediate assistance provided at this time. Councils are forwarding details of the damage that has been sustained as we speak. A fuller assessment will be known into next week.

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