Swan sounds like he's on theback foot with "If we were to get really bureaucratic, with really rigid rules in the first 48 hours or so, then we would be having an entirely different discussion about how we were too rigid and weren't paying people who were in dire need."
It is nothing to do with the first 48hrs.
To qualify, you had to have been without power for 48hrs. If your house had been flooded, then even if the power came back on in the 49th hour, you still wouldn't have electricity because the house wouldn't have been passed for reconnection.
If you weren't flooded, then you would still have lost your freezer/fridge contents. Where's the big deal here? Why the rush to get $3,200 to a family with three kids? They can't replace that food immediately because the supermarkets have already sold out, and have no power for their freezers either (or to run the EFTPOS machine).
No rush at all. And if you were really stuck for cash, and had no identification, then there are plenty of community help centres where, if you are lucky, you can have a cuppa with Jools.
