State Government extends cyclone Seroja relief grants by 12 months as payout process continues to be slow

Relief grants for cyclone Seroja victims — which has barely paid out a fraction of the total allocation as labour and supply shortages slow the region’s rebuild — have been extended for 12 months to “reduce the burden” on those affected. Grants for recovery and resilience, small business recovery, primary producer recovery and cultural and heritage asset clean-up and repair were introduced in the wake of Seroja tearing through the Mid West in April 2021, destroying and damaging thousands of properties. Under the original rules, applicants had until June 2023 to complete building works to be eligible for the grant and be reimbursed costs. The 12-month extension means applicants now have until June 30, 2023 to submit an application and June 30, 2024 to finish the works. Cyclone Seroja State recovery controller Melissa Pexton said there were 1100 people with open claims across the Mid West, and extending the grant process was one way to ensure rebuild could continue. “Every individual needs to go at their own pace and then at that community level we need to support all of those individuals to make decisions when it’s right for them,” she said. Recovery and Resilience grant applicants can now have the reimbursement grant paid directly to their builder on completion of the works. Applicants will no longer be required to pay for works out-of-pocket. Latest figures reveal at the end of August, 292 out of 432 applications for Recovery and Resilience grants were deemed eligible. However, to date, just 12 of those 292 properties have completed repair and building works and have been repaid a total of $217,242. Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said the slow progress of the grants scheme had been “quite frustrating”. More than $104 million was announced under the joint Commonwealth-State relief package. “We had the storm cause lots of damage, we had the border closure at the same time and we had people building lots of houses ... so we’ve struggled to get workers into the areas,” Mr Dawson said. “It’s a complicated system, it’s a slow system. Some of the money hasn’t gone out the door as quickly as I think it should have.” Mr Dawson said he’d asked his federal counterpart Murray Watt to make Commonwealth-State funding arrangements more “nimble” so money flowed faster. He said recovery was an individual journey and extending the deadline for completion would boost support for applicants. “The extension to the work completion date reduces the stress caused by insurance claims, supply chain issues and skilled labour shortages and provides a more realistic timeframe for recovery to progress,” he said.