The federal government did not fund more than $150 million in flood mitigation projects sought by state and territory governments, including a 'priority' upgrade to Queensland's early flood warning infrastructure.
Shadow emergency management minister Murray Watt says there are questions over how the projects were selected for funding.
Emergency Management Minister Bridget McKenzie told 7.30 in a statement the National Recovery and Resilience Agency had advised her that the: "National Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program was for pre-disaster flood mitigation project[s] and could not be funded from the $150 million post-disaster recovery component of the ERF as this would not be lawful expenditure under the ERF Act or the [Public Governance, Performance and Accountability] Act.
The flood warning infrastructure in Queensland has previously received $8 million in joint Commonwealth and Queensland government funding through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. Most other states and territories received only part of the funding they had sought during the 2020 flood mitigation round and none applied for the extent of funding that was sought by the Queensland government.
The grant guidelines for the first round of funding established a project review panel, which included members of the Department of Home Affairs, other Commonwealth agencies and the director-general of Emergency Management Australia. Agriculture Minister David Littleproud told 7.30 in a statement: "Senator Watt knows only $50 million was available for flood mitigation because he spoke about it in his speech in the Senate and then voted for the bill.Debate over emergency response fund use
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