| Popis: |
This chapter outlines the results of work carried out to assess the economic impact of National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangement funding for restoration work on local government infrastructure (mainly roads) following disaster events (mainly tropical cyclones and intense tropical “low” rainfall and flooding events), in the Tropical (Far) North Queensland region of Australia over the period 2010–17. This chapter identifies the extent and patterns of the expenditure in relation to a “core” area that has relatively well-developed road and stream-crossing infrastructure, and a large “remote” area with sparse population and relatively underdeveloped infrastructure. The causes, extent, and pattern of funding are provided. At an average of $150 million per annum, it is estimated to represent about a 4% per annum investment in keeping a road system with replacement value of $3.6 billion operating efficiently. Reconstruction works are estimated to contribute 0.9% to gross regional product and methodology to assess impacts if the restoration works did not take place. It is estimated that a number of industries identified as “vulnerable,” if restoration work did not take place, would only need to contract the economy by 3.7% in the core area to equal the cost of the restoration work and by 12.5% in the remote area. Councils in the remote area were in a poor position to meet restoration costs. |
