Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has returned home from Canberra with no new committed federal cash for flood recovery efforts, pledging instead to dip into the Territory’s over-stretched coffers for a $100 million Flood Recovery Fund that will be overseen by Minister Jo Hersey – the same Minister who drew the ire of the Federal Government by spreading false “speculation” on social media Monday that the NT Government would be billed for ADF members helping clean up Katherine.
Ms Finocchiaro announced the funding at a press conference Tuesday morning, revealing the new $100 million fund will be “administered” by retired head public servant Ken Davies as “director general” of the fund, which will be used to repair infrastructure, including damaged roads, bridges and implement flood mitigation works. It was not disclosed why Mr Davies was selected and how much he’ll be paid for a role existing public servants could fill.
Did the Federal Government Say:
“You have more Public Servants per capita in the NT than anywhere else in the country, send some of them to help with the floods?”
Good job Feds!