MORE recovery support has been announced from the January bushfires, with Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery Vicki Ward announcing grants up to $75,000 are now available for community groups and not-for-profit.
The program will back locally led projects that help people recover, reconnect and rebuild across bushfire-affected council areas.
It is based on a simple principle – local communities knowing their recovery needs best.
This can include trauma-informed training and psychological first aid. It can also support community wellbeing events and workshops that bring locals together.
Projects may also include practical preparedness resources such as ‘Are You Ready?’ materials to help households plan for future emergencies.
This builds on more than $420 million in bushfire recovery support already funded.
Ms Ward said there would continue to be support for Victorians affected.
“No two communities recover in the same way. These grants put communities in the driver’s seat, giving them the flexibility to deliver the projects that will matter most,” she said.
“We’ll continue standing alongside bushfire-affected Victorians, backing them with the support they need every step of the way.”
In response, Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland, said rate relief needed to be provided for affected residents, not a round of grants.
“The Treasurer stood in the Seymour recovery centre and told affected residents rate relief would be delivered. Months on, we are still waiting,” she said.
Ms Cleeland said more than 15 per cent of total ratepayers across the Strathbogie Shire were bushfire-impacted, and without genuine relief many faced years of rate bills on properties they were still rebuilding. Three years of rate relief and the waiving of the Emergency Services Tax for those properties is estimated to cost less than $6 million over three years.
“This is a modest ask, less than $6 million over three years, for a Shire where more than 15 per cent of ratepayers were directly affected by the fires,” she said.
“The State Government found the money to rush out a grant round timed for an election. It can find this small amount of funding for rate relief.
“Strathbogie Shire can currently only offer deferrals, because of rate capping. A deferral is not relief, it is debt. Families who have lost everything should not be expected to pay rates for years to come on top of everything else they are carrying.”
“If we do not receive three years of rate relief, we will have localities that cannot rebuild and businesses that never reopen.
“The very least this State Government can do is honour what its own Treasurer promised in Seymour, instead of rushing out grants timed for an election.”
