OPINION
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After holidaying in Hawaii as the bushfires bore down, Scott Morrison is making up for lost ground in a cash splash that appears looser and more difficult to track by the day. He wants nothing to stand in the way of money hitting pockets, so whatever else he can be accused of, it will not be fiddling while south-east Australia burns.
For Morrison, it's the uncapped largesse and the speed with which it can be spent that counts. The bureaucracy that inevitably comes with the spending of taxpayer money is an unwelcome roadblock. While there are good reasons for delay in getting money to the towns and people - Australia has layers of government, and public money must be spent according to rules. He is trying to bypass and reshape both. And you can expect this will come back at him when auditors or inquiries of the future take a look at how his $2 billion was spent.
"Two billion down now; if more is needed, more will be provided," he said, like a tipsy Santa of the spendy 1980s, when he announced his new national agency to bypass the states and get money on the ground.
He quickly realised it was not so simple. So to get things rolling, within three days he had decided to hand $1 million to each of 42 councils to spend as they choose. The money would be in state bank accounts the next day, he said, with only one condition - that councils "develop a program of works within three months and report back to the Commonwealth in 12 months' time".
"What I want to happen is if you're a mayor in one of those areas today, if you are out in your community, seeing needs that you know need to be met right now and people are asking you to meet them, I want to give them the confidence and support by providing this cash assistance right now so they can say 'Yes, we can do that'," Morrison said.
But isn't there a danger the money could be misspent, a journalist inquired?
"To be honest, that's not what is concerning me right now," Morrison bounced back. "What concerns me right now is that they need the cash, not paperwork."
It's a cheerful lack of proscription that will send a shiver down the spine of any bureaucrat.
Those $1 million grants were minuscule in the big picture of the $2 billion to spend, and Morrison was eager to find new ways to get money out in a hurry.
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On January 10, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud talked up the progress being made with cash grants of $400 per child, "just to get the essentials of life". By January 15, that amount had been doubled to $800 a child, to help with "going back to school and the additional expenses and the anxieties and concerns around those issues".
On January 12, $76 million was announced for mental health, some to solid initiatives such as expanded Headspace centres for young people, but much in the form of grants, a less controllable way to spend. There would be 10 free counselling sessions immediately for anyone affected, plus Medicare rebates for another 10 psychology sessions on top of the 10 sessions already available (this, by the way, is something that people desperate for more mental health help, including people with eating disorders, have long been crying out for). No need for the usual mental health care plan or GP referral. Without minimising the trauma of people caught up in the bushfires, this abrogation of process is ripe for wastage and needs justification.
As Morrison continued merrily abolishing the need for actual checks and balances, his freshly announced compensation for volunteer firefighters was next. Barely three weeks after the payment of up to $300 a day was announced, Morrison effectively scrapped the rules. Firefighters would not need to show lost income to get the money after all. If they're self-employed or work in a small or medium business, they can get $200 a day with "no substantiation requirement".
"That should speed this up considerably and I think particularly give a good shot in the arm," he said.
From the start, Morrison has struggled to clearly identify where his $2 billion sits in the panoply of disaster funding, labelling it "category D-plus". Category D funding is normally for gaps after the impact of a disaster has been assessed, and is normally requested by the states. Neither of these criteria will evidently apply, and nor will the $2 billion require matched funding from states.
Morrison was still staggering towards clarity last week when he announced $75,000 grants for farmers. These are broadly in line with the payments to Queensland farmers made after last year's floods, and Morrison said he had been working to align the Category A, B and C funding between the states, "enabling us to then better define what our Category D support is".
Farmers can spend the money on fodder and water, fencing, water pumps, irrigation systems, horticultural netting, generators, sheds, fences and solar panels, as well as carcass disposal and vets, he said.
Not to mention tradespeople to do farm inspections, rubbish fees, and property repairs, Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie added.
"The eligibility criteria will be incredibly simple because our goal is actually to get cash on the ground," McKenzie promised, ominously.
"I need to stress this is an uncapped program," Morrison said. "If more is needed under the demand, then more will simply be paid without the need for any further decision."
As with the firefighters, "I think that will be a real shot in the arm," Morrison said.
Morrison ended the week with another change to his funding that spoke of more administrative headaches. He was not especially clear in describing the problem, but it seems ministerial discretion will solve it.
If you're a farmer who has lost assets, be they vehicles, sheds, water pumps, or fences: "where issues are being presented, where there may be difficulties around payments, they are being elevated and they are moved quickly, and they've been elevated to the minister who is making recommendations", Morrison said. So, whatever that might mean, it is under control.
When Morrison announced the $1 million grants for local councils, he gave the first hint of the trouble he was facing getting a structure in place for the big spend.
"We are going to be disciplined and careful and consultative in the way we make sure that additional support is rendered into these communities," he said.
Littleproud also sounded a note of caution.
"We can't rush in with huge announcements straight away," he said. "But that doesn't mean we are kicking it down the road. This is going to happen in weeks, not months."
His promise was hit with an impatient prime ministerial interjection.
"In days," Morrison corrected.
"In days, exactly," Littleproud said, getting back on script.