The clean-up effort in Far North Queensland is continuing and, thanks to the hard work of an army of volunteers, essential and emergency services workers, community organisations and defence force personnel, substantial progress has been made.
I want to commend the people of Innisfail and surrounding region for their resilience and commitment to rebuilding their homes, businesses and communities.
Rebuilding will be a long and complex process. The Australian Government undertook to continue to monitor the situation and do what we could for the communities affected by Tropical Cyclone Larry. Today I am pleased to announce additional assistance measures for farms and businesses in the disaster affected area.
On 22 March Premier Beattie and I announced concessional loans of up to $200,000 for small businesses and farms in the affected area. It has become clear that some businesses and farms will require more assistance to re-establish their enterprises and I am pleased to announce that, for special cases, such as enterprises demonstrating extreme damage, the maximum loan amount will be increased to $500,000, with the grant component capped at $50,000. There will be no repayments or interest accrued in the first two years. These loans will be available to eligible businesses regardless of the number of employees.
The Australian Government has previously committed to providing $10,000 tax-free grants to small businesses and farmers with 20 or fewer employees that have been adversely affected by the cyclone. Eligibility for these grants will now be extended to businesses and farms with more than 20 employees that have been adversely affected by Tropical Cyclone Larry. In view of the extensive damage caused, I have decided to increase the grant amount to $25,000 for businesses that can demonstrate significant losses.
We have identified a critical need for assistance for some dairy farms and aquaculture businesses that are without power as a result of damage suffered due to Tropical Cyclone Larry. Assistance for the cost of hiring a generator will be available where electricity is needed to operate equipment that is required to relieve distress or maintain the life of cows and fish and other aquatic organisms. This will help dairy farmers operate milking machines and aquaculture businesses operate pumps and filters. This is a commonsense measure that will mean dairy farmers and aquaculture businesses can maintain the health of their stock and return to production more quickly. Maintaining healthy livestock will also reduce the risk to the community of disease. This assistance is in addition to the fuel excise relief which is available to households and businesses that are without electricity and are using a generator as a result of the impact of Tropical Cyclone Larry.
Detailed guidelines for each of these measures are being developed by relevant agencies and will be available shortly from the Australian Government Cyclone Larry Relief Hotline (1802 002).
I will remain in close contact with Premier Beattie and General Peter Cosgrove as the disaster recovery effort continues to ensure that we are providing commonsense, practical measures to assist those in the area affected by Tropical Cyclone Larry.