Farmers, businesses and not for profit organisations affected by flooding earlier this year and planning to apply for natural disaster assistance must finalise their applications by the end of November 2013.
I remind applicants that youhave until 29 November 2013 to lodge their applications with QRAA.
The support applies to Category C and D assistance under that State and Commonwealth Natural Disaster and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
The clean-up and recovery grants of up to $25,000, and a grant and loan package of up to $650,000 have been made available to help small business, primary producers and not for profit organisations recover from ex Tropical Cyclone Oswald. This assistance is in addition to standard concessional disaster loans of up to $250,000 and disaster freight subsidies of up to $5,000.
These schemes were initially open for six months and were due to close on 30 August 2013 but after being made aware that there were primary producers struggling to complete repair and recovery activities, the Queensland Government agreed to extend the closing date from 30 August to 29 November 2013.
The purpose of the extension was to provide sufficient time for repairs prior to the onset of the next wet season.
Since agreeing to the extension, conditions have been extremely dry, providing an opportunity for producers and contractors to conduct repair activities.
I encourage all producers who were directly affected by the floods to contact QRAA about their eligibility. If eligible, producers should submit their applications before 29th November as there will be no further extensions.
More than $63 million in financial assistance has been approved to go to flood affected primary producers and small business under NDRRA since the assistance was activated in January 2013.
Primary producers, small business and not for profit organisations should keep all receipts and invoices of expenditure on natural disaster recovery and contact QRAA on 1800 623 946 to discuss eligibility or visit qraa.qld.gov.au