PM Transcripts

FOR MEDIA WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 27 1982
DROUGHT RELIEF MEASURES QUEENSLAND AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA
I have today written to the Premiers of Queensland and
South Australia indicating that the Commonwealth has approved
for inclusion in the natural disaster relief arrangements
certain new relief measures requested by those States.
Under the arrangements, expenditure by the State on approved
measures above its base amount for a financial year
million for Queensland and $ 3 million for South Australia)
is eligible for Commonwealth assistance on a $ 3 Connonwealth
to $ 1 State basis.
For Queensland the Commonwealth has agreed to provide
financial assistance under the arrangements for the
construction by local authorities of simple bulk storage
facilities for molasses in drought affected areas in
Western Queensland. These facilities, to be constructed
adjacent to railway lines, will enable more efficient bulk
transport of molasses to be used as fodder for livestock
in remote areas. This measure will also have longer term
benefits extending beyond the duration of the current drought.
In addition, the Commonwealth has agreed to provide financial
assistance under the natural disaster relief arrangements for
a measure to provide low interest loans for horticultural -crop
growers in the Mundubbera-Gayndah area, where severe losses have
been caused by frost damage in association with low rainfall.
The Government has also agreed to a request by the South
Australian Government that expenditure on relief measures
for frost damage in the SA Riverland in June be considered
as eligible for Commonwealth assistance under the natural
disaster relief arrangements.
Assistance to orchardists for frost damage has not previously
been an eligible measure under the arrangements, but the
Commonwealth has agreed to it in these instances as a special
measure because of the severity of the,* frost damage and in
recognition of the serious difficulties . facing rural industries
at the present time. It is not to be seen as a precedent for
the future.
These measures are additional to those previously announced for
the current drought. I am pleased to note that both States have
substantially implemented the proposals made by the Commonwealth
for extensions to the range and levels of the relief measures
undeXz the natural disaster relief arrangements.
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