Severely affected Mackay residents now eligible for more assistance

A request to the Federal Minister for Justice to allowed severely affected residents in the Mackay Local Government Area to be eligible for Disaster Recovery Payments and the Disaster Recovery Allowance was granted within 24 hours.This morning the Minister for Justice Michael Keenan has announced that Mackay has now been included in the local government areas which are eligible for this Australian Government assistance.I raised this with the Minister on Monday when he was in the Whitsundays, we followed up by letter yesterday and had word late yesterday that Minister Keenan had activated it.These payments are for people who have been severely affected by cyclone and flooding events, and though that’s a relatively small number in the Mackay local government area, the effects on them are devastating.