PATRICIA KARVELAS [HOST]: Well, joining me next, of course, is Anthony Chisholm, who joins us from Queensland. He's going to join us to talk about the disaster relief scheme. I think he joins us now. Welcome to the programme.

ANTHONY CHISHOLM [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Good to be with you, PK.

KARVELAS: I just want to talk to you about what you're doing there. Just give me a sense of what's going on in Hervey Bay. I think that's where you are.

CHISHOLM: Yeah, it is PK, and I was actually here last week and it looked like they were going to avoid the worst of the cyclone. But Saturday, Sunday, they got hit by a massive rain event that did a lot of damage. It had an impact on businesses, had an impact on schools, and it had an impact on households as well. Quite an elderly community here. There's a number of sorts of low set, high-rise along the waterfront, and a lot of those have taken on water in their basements. That's had a really devastating impact on the electricity and, also the lift systems that operate in there. So, I think for a number of those places it's going to be a longer-term recovery as a result of that.

KARVELAS:  Yeah. It's really interesting, Anthony, that obviously last week there was a lot of coverage from everyone and often what happens is that after the kind of disaster moves on less of a focus here. Just give me a sense of how dire things are. I mean, I know we’re in the recovery phase, but how are people going? You've obviously spoken to people on the ground there.

CHISHOLM: Yeah, it's been a good opportunity to be here on the ground and talk to people. And conscious of, particularly in this part of the world, that Keith Pitt the local member was obviously vacated because he's been appointed to the Holy See as an ambassador. So, I think it was important for the government to be here, to announce the support that they're providing, but also to just be on the ground and be able to talk to people. I went to one of those high-rise apartments that's been impacted. I went to the recovery centre. There's a school that's had about six classrooms that have been inundated by water, that still isn't operational. So, there's still a lot of effort going on to ensure that they can clean up and get their buildings and get their school facilities and houses back. But there's no doubt that there's going to be people displaced for a period of time. 

KARVELAS: Now, you've activated new disaster payments today. The Greens were out earlier saying recovery payments should be doubled. Just talk to me about what you've offered and whether you think that there should be a look at this again, given we're seeing so many people really devastated by these events.

CHISHOLM: There's always a multitude of payments that are made as part of this recovery. So today the State Government, in conjunction with the Federal Government, announced disaster relief that would apply to the Fraser Coast, which is where I am today. Today, the Federal Government extended its disaster payments, in terms of its assistance grants that will be paid to those affected in Hervey Bay. And they go to those people really in a difficult position. Those people that have had a really bad impact on their residence. They might have had an injury as a result of the damage that's been done. And that's Federal Government payment against it. As the impact becomes clearer, there is additional payments that can be made from the State and Federal Governments.

That's something that we are working constructively with the State Government on, and also with local government. I've had a spent a day here with the Mayor where we've been touring around together, and I've got a good understanding of the challenge that they'll face over the next couple of months.

KARVELAS: Thank you so much for joining us, Senator, and good luck out there.

CHISHOLM: Thanks.