Member for Cootamundra, Katrina Hodgkinson has welcomed the announcement of joint State and Federal funding under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) for local communities recently impacted by flooding.

“I am very pleased the State and Federal governments have expedited NDRRA assistance for a number of local government areas impacted by flooding including Bland, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Cowra, Hilltops and Temora,” Katrina said.

“The psychological impact of this extreme weather is taking its toll across much of the electorate. There are many farming families with crops sitting in water, fencing and road access washed out.”

“We also have many small businesses that are impacted by road closures, in particular the closure of the Newell Highway between West Wyalong and Forbes.”

“The road closures have also led to additional school holiday traffic and freight traveling along alternative routes like the Olympic Highway, so I encourage everyone to exercise caution and observe instructions issued by council and emergency services.” Katrina said.

“With more rainfall expected, a huge thank you to State Emergency Service volunteers and all other agencies on the ground, including council staff, who are pushing on despite their exhaustion to assist residents and working around the clock to fix damaged infrastructure.”

Katrina said the NDRRA program is vitally important to helping regional communities pick themselves back-up after periods of severe weather.

There is a range of assistance available as a result of these declarations including:

  • –  Help for eligible people whose homes or belongings have been damaged;
  • –  Support for affected local councils to help with the costs of cleaning up and restoring damaged essential public assets;
  • –  Concessional interest rate loans for small businesses, primary producers and not-for-profit organisations;
  • –  Freight subsidies for primary producers; and

– Grants to not-for-profit organisations.

Click here for more information about each of these forms of assistance.

For more information on personal hardship and distress assistance, please contact the Disaster Welfare Assistance Line on 1800 018 444.

To apply for a concessional loan, grant or freight subsidy, contact the NSW Rural Assistance Authority on 1800 678 593 or visit raa.nsw.gov.au.

Information on the assistance available can be found at disasterassist.gov.au or emergency.nsw.gov.au.