"national emergency levy"
Paul1405,
A permanent National Emergency Levy alongside a permanent Old Age Pension from every Dollar earnt & spent.
How does 2 Cents in the Dollar sound for a start ?

Indy to put it in perspective, I am on the Albert. A little short river with only a small catchment by comparison with most of our rivers. For most of the year it is about 150mm deep & 3 meters wide, trickling along in a deep gully about 22 meters below the plane.

In 1993 & 4 it was dry for about 4 months each year, with a little water flowing gently through the 3 meter deep sand & gravel in the bottom of the deep river course. Digging a 1.5M hole in the sand we could get enough water to pump for a few minutes to supply drinking water for our horses. Our dam was dry.

Right now everything is so saturated that if you walk around my house paddock, which is on the crest of a ridge 50 meters above the river flat, you leave little depressions 30 to 60mm deep, which immediately fill with water, that starts trickling towards the river if on even a minor slope.

It will be weeks before we could get a vehicle down to the river flat to start fence & diesel pump repairs if it stops raining now, & longer if we get the normal 100mm a month wet season rain. The forecast is for above average rain for the next 10 days.

individual: You are acting emotionally and not rationally.

To help the people with immediate necessities is decent community minded behaviour, there's nothing wrong with that. Eg: supplying emergency clean water, food, shelter, clothes.

But helping them rebuild/repair and refurnish their house with condition free government handouts is a a terrible idea. Because it will dramatically increase the moral hazard.

Forcing insurance companies to pay out when the contract doesn't cover flood is also a terrible idea because the insurance companies will never again offer *any* sort of house insurance to any house that has the slightest chance of flood damage.

If you really want to give people a freehand out to rebuild a destroyed house then at least do it on the strict condition that those that apply for the handout *cannot* rebuild in an area known to flood!
If they just need to repair the house and not rebuild then at least require that they have to sell the house once repaired (say within a year) and move to a flood free area.

However, for people who don't apply for any aid, they should be let to live wherever they like. But make it clearly understood that any future flood damage will be borne by them.

Indy,

Under your handout scheme, by how much will aged welfare be cut per fortnight, I would suggest $200 seems reasonable, What do you think?

Forcing insurance companies to pay out when the contract doesn't cover flood is also a terrible idea.
thinkabit,
I didn't say they should !
Paul1405,
I didn't say anything about any pay cuts, I said a Levy for every Dollar spent/made by everyone !

Are you woke people so utterly devoid of reason & integrity that you can't even read what's written in your haste to denounce others ? Are you so tight that you're against giving a pittance to help all ?

Hasbeen,
I'm gobsmacked on what I see on TV & what you tell us.
What can one say ?