Flood package helps recovery

A $21 million government package will help flood affected families get back on the road to recovery.

 A $21 million assistance package for flood affected irrigators has been designed to protect irrigators on the Lower Loddon floodplain from future flooding and help rebuild the area.
Minister for Water, Agriculture and Food Security Peter Walsh said a $12 million voluntary buyback scheme is part of the package, as well as funding for strategic levee repairs and case management for irrigators.
"We now know that many of the properties which flooded in January have been built on an active floodplain, which has severely diminished property values," Mr Walsh said.
"The buyback program, which will be managed by the Rural Finance Corporation (RFC), will reinstate the floodplain and develop a management regime to protect the community in the future."
Under the package, landholders in the Lower Loddon region would be offered either a voluntary acquisition package or compensation, to establish covenants on land on active floodplains.
"Land purchased by the state will either become part of the public land estate or resold under a flood overlay," Mr Walsh said.
Funding of $5 million will be made available to provide individual case management for irrigators in regions severely affected by the floods and will include a $2000 grant, workshops and soil salinity surveys.
"A taskforce, chaired by the Department of Primary Industries with input from government departments and key stakeholder groups such as the Victorian Farmers Federation and Gannawarra Shire Council, will be appointed to work with the community."
A further $3.5 million has been set aside for strategic repairs to levees and ground water bores in the Lower Loddon area.
"This funding will be used to address short-term repairs needed in the region in case further flooding occurs in the next few months," Mr Walsh said.