Supporting disaster recovery and rebuild

Providing a lifeline to affected communities

Ex‑Tropical Cyclone Alfred has impacted communities across southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. This has curtailed economic activity, harmed industries, and damaged property.

The Government is continuing to support communities, states, and local governments that were severely impacted. It has:

• activated the Disaster Recovery Allowance, and the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment
• co‑sponsored with the states $30 million to support council clean‑up activities
• provided one‑off Business Continuity Payments of $10,000 to Child Care Subsidy approved services closed or partially closed for 8 days or more.

The full fiscal cost is not yet known, but it will be substantial.

After ex‑Tropical Cyclone Alfred, the Government expects that total costs for national disaster support will continue to rise to at least $13.5 billion. To plan for these future costs, the Government has provisioned $1.2 billion in the Contingency Reserve to better respond to – and recover from – future disasters.

Investing to respond, recover and rebuild

The Australian Government’s crisis management arrangements and Disaster Response Plan provided a co‑ordinated and proactive response and recovery to ex‑Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) activated the National Coordination Mechanism with states and industry to support disaster preparation, response and recovery efforts.

Despite these efforts, ex‑Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the subsequent flooding damaged infrastructure and caused disruption to supply chains, agricultural production, construction, retail and tourism activity.

The loss of economic activity from the impacts of ex‑Tropical Cyclone Alfred could be up to a ¼ of a percentage point of quarterly GDP growth. Rebuilding efforts and the replacement of damaged property are expected to contribute positively to GDP in subsequent quarters.