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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-02-05 Daily Xml
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Bushfire Recovery Support

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (17:16): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney advise the house of the work undertaken to date by Consumer and Business Services to assist bushfire victims?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (17:16): Indeed I can. I thank the member for his question and his considerable work with the member for Kavel during the Adelaide Hills fire. The State Emergency Relief Fund has been established, as the government is coordinating the South Australian Bushfire Appeal. They are collecting the funds, of course, through the SERF, which is the relief fund to support those affected at Cudlee Creek and Kangaroo Island. It has been established under section 37 of the Emergency Management Act 2004 to provide a mechanism to receive donations through a public appeal.

I may say, as the minister relating to Consumer and Business Services, we have had a number of inquiries and provided support to those who have wanted to establish other appeals and have sought approval in relation to various status relating to those. Can I say that all moneys donated to the SA Bushfire Appeal go directly to the people who have experienced injury, loss or damage and to support community rebuilding.

Under the act, a committee has been appointed by the Minister for Human Services to administer the fund. The SERF committee includes representation from communities directly impacted by the bushfires. The minister has approved four particular members of the SERF committee, one from each of the three councils affected by the Cudlee Creek fire, from the Mid Murray Council, Mount Barker council and Adelaide Hills Council, and one from the Kangaroo Island Council.

For the benefit of members, I just highlight as follows: the government has issued instructions to the committee to ensure the payments happen fairly and in a timely way. I am advised that the committee is reporting to the Minister for Human Services on a weekly basis. SERF committees develop criteria to guide the distribution of funds, with priority given to those most affected by the event.

The response from the community to donate and to fundraise for the SA Bushfire Appeal has been significant and indeed greatly appreciated. The government has also contributed $2 million dollars to kickstart the fund, $1 million for each of the two fire events. I am pleased to inform the chamber that the SA Bushfire Appeal has commenced making payments to those who have lost their homes. Applications continue to be received and assessed, supporting those who have lost their homes, with additional payments for those households that include children.

The SERF application form is available online, and I think members are already familiar with this. Hard copies are also available at Lobethal and Kangaroo Island recovery centres. The Premier and I have been in attendance to those to see that they are underway. On Friday the 31st, SERF received 207 applications, and on Thursday 30 January SERF received 74 inquiries regarding authorisation of external fundraising events.

Significant effort has been put in by the community and resulted in excess of $5.1 million being received by SERF from the community as at today's date. On top of this, a further $1 million was raised at the Showdown 2020 bash at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday 2 February. I hope that if anyone attended they enjoyed it.

The Hon. S.S. Marshall: Go the Power!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: Thank you. There were another 279,000 at the SA bushfire gala event last Friday, attended by the Premier and other members. Some other significant funds have been raised from corporate donors and are expected to be received soon.

A range of grants have also been made available to families, individuals, primary producers and small businesses impacted by the Cudlee Creek, Kangaroo Island, Yorketown and Keilira fires—is that pronounced correctly?

An honourable member: Keilira.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: 'Keilira', I am reliably informed by the member. I thank everyone at the Department of Human Services and the members of the SERF committee for their dedication and hard work in the recovery effort and ensuring that 100 per cent of the money donated will go to the affected community.

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