00:00Earlier today I had a meeting with a local member, Tanya Thompson, and lots of senior
00:07business leaders put together by the Chamber of Commerce, by the Mid-North Coast Chamber of Commerce.
00:13Really appreciate the candour in that meeting, their directness about what's required next
00:20for this community that's gone through so much since those devastating floods and the inundation
00:26river and a positive plan for the future of this region. Now that's more about resilience and
00:35investment from the New South Wales Government. In the meantime we want to announce today an
00:41increase of $56 million package but also an increase to small business grants. Originally we had a $25,000
00:48grant for eligible businesses. We're going to put an additional $25,000 into those grants to bring
00:55it up to $50,000 for effective businesses. In addition to that we're committing $26 million
01:01for cleanup and recovery efforts to be managed by the New South Wales EPA. There's an environmental
01:09restoration fund of $8.8 million. As I said small business grants have been increased to $50,000
01:16and community recovery and resilience program $7.2 million. Now it's jointly funded with the
01:23Commonwealth Government. We sincerely appreciate that funding from the Albanese Government and in
01:28particular Christy McBain. That was agreed to last night between the New South Wales Government and
01:35the Commonwealth Government. We're proud to announce it today. But I think today's visit was really more
01:41about resilience and confidence particularly for Taree and surrounding communities and we had a good
01:47discussion about where the state government can step in with the local council to ensure that we're
01:53putting funding on the table to build resilience and and to the extent possible the infrastructure
01:59that's required probably not to stop all kinds of natural disasters into the future but reduce its
02:07impact on the local town. We think that would be an important shot in the arm. The kind of confidence
02:13that a regional community needs to say to private investment and private business that you can invest
02:19in Taree in the local community because we're going to be there for the long term. We also agreed at
02:25the
02:25meeting earlier that we would have an independent review into issues affecting the river in particular
02:32the Farquhar entrance and when the dredging is required over a long period of time now. The Mayor informed
02:38us that there had been a previous study, a cost-benefit analysis that had looked at that project but it
02:45clearly, as the Mayor had told us, it clearly didn't take into account the massive costs associated with
02:53the flooding of the local town and the community last year and that needs to be taken into consideration
03:00when you're looking at any kind of remediation program. So we want an independent look at that.
03:06That'll inform the government's decision and we are open and I said to the group that we met earlier
03:11today, we are open to looking at funding a major project particularly on the river so that we can
03:19do everything possible to prevent this kind of funding happening, this kind of flooding happening in
03:23the future. Can I do that one again? We'll do, we want to work with the local community and we
03:28are open to
03:29funding it to do everything possible to prevent this kind of flooding into the future and also say to the
03:35local community that you can have the confidence to invest whether it's in your own personal
03:40business or a family expanding and putting down groups in the water.
03:45you
03:48you
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