Regional centres, including Gympie and its northern neighbours Maryborough and Bundaberg, deserve a “fair share” of flood recovery funds, but are not getting the statte government’s promised “boots on the ground,” Burnett MP Stephen Bennett has told state parliament.
Speaking up for Gympie as well as Bundaberg, Mr Bennett commended emergency workers including police, firies, ambulance crews and volunteers from the Red Cross, Salvos and State Emergency Service.
“We are spending a lot of money in Brisbane on flood resilience works. I think the bush deserves better.
“Whether it is Bundaberg, Maryborough or Gympie, we deserve our fair share to make sure our communities are the best places to live and raise our families and that includes future flood mitigation works.”
Deputy Premier Steve Miles said the government had made a good start on assessing more than 5800 homes registered as flood affected, for upgrades or demolition.
“The team has completed 4,500 home assessments and 3,300 reports have been sent to home owners, 540 homes have been identified for voluntary buyback, 230 have accepted offers.
“We have begun to remove those flood affected properties from the housing stock of the south-east so that next time homes will not flood again,” he said.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Communities and Housing Department had established 23 community recovery hubs (including one which operated out of Gympie Civic Centre) and distributed $35.8 million for food and other essentials (for) more than 111,000 people in “one of the most widespread disasters our state has ever seen..
