Master Vote winner, ScoMo dishes out some vote winning cash.Coalition unveils $86m for primary producers as Eden-Monaro contest heats upKatharine Murphy Political editor Mon 22 Jun 2020 22.30 AEST Last modified on Mon 22 Jun 2020 22.31 AEST
Package to aid bushfire and Covid-19-impacted communities frustrated at slow pace of disaster recovery.
The Coalition is announcing an $86m package to aid rural communities hammered by twin disasters of summer bushfires and coronavirus pandemic. Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Greenpeace Australia/Getty Images
The Morrison government will unveil $86m for primary producers hit by the summer bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic as the byelection contest in Eden-Monaro accelerates into the closing fortnight.
The package to be unveiled by the Coalition on Tuesday includes a $31m grant fund, with payments of $120,000 a hectare available for bushfire-impacted apple growers.
Apple orchards around the inland town of Batlow were decimated during the summer bushfires, and recovery from that catastrophe is front-and-centre in the contest.
The Liberal party’s television advertising in the contest emphasises that the candidate, Fiona Kotvojs, will be able to deliver for constituents hammered by the two disasters because she will be a member of the incumbent government, rather than a member of the opposition.
There has been intense frustration in some of the communities in the bellwether electorate about the slow pace of disaster recovery, and about residents falling between the gaps of the various government assistance programs.
The byelection was triggered by the retirement of the Labor incumbent, Mike Kelly. Labor’s pitch in the contest in the seat – which is diverse, and covers Canberra commuter towns of Yass and Queanbeyan and stretches down to Eden near the Victorian border and back up to Braidwood in the Southern Tablelands – has been forgotten by the Coalition.
While Labor enjoyed a less cluttered start to the contest, the campaigns have been constrained because of the physical distancing restrictions required to flatten the curve of Covid-19 infections and strategists are reluctant to forecast success or failure of the persuasion efforts to date because of the diversity of the communities.
As well as the funding for orchardists, Tuesday’s package includes a $40m forestry recovery fund to support processors “navigating future wood supply shortages through innovation and product diversification” and $10m for storage facilities for processed timber products, fire-affected logs and other forestry products.
There is forestry industry on the south coast as well as in Tumut and Tumbarumba, and the Visy paper mill is located nearby.
The package also includes a $5m grant fund, which will require co-contributions from wine grape producers who experienced crop loss because of smoke taint. The funding will be centred on wine regions that don’t have access to primary producer grants.
In a statement issued ahead of the announcement Scott Morrison said the funding would help communities “build back better”.
“As our communities battle to overcome the effects of drought, bushfires and now Covid-19, it’s initiatives like these that will also help accelerate economic recovery and ultimately deliver more jobs to the regions,” Morrison said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/22/coalition-unveils-86m-for...
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