“The fact that the fund has earned that much interest means it’s doing exactly what it’s designed to do. In fact, it’s expected to grow to up to $6.6bn over the next decade,” the NRRA said on its website.Nico Padovan, NRRA chief operating officer, told Senate estimates on 14 February “no requirement has been identified to spend money” from the ERF on disaster recovery.
But the federal National Recovery and Resilience Agency (NRRA) claimed the ERF “isn’t there to be accessed every time Australia sees a severe weather season”
“The Emergency Response Fund was set up with Labor’s support and is operating as envisaged. It is only to be accessed once all other sources of funding have been exhausted.”McKenzie said state and federal governments “have only just begun” rolling out recovery support.
