The commonwealth says ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred has blown a billion-dollar hole in the federal budget. The immediate recovery is continuing with power restored, and schools and beaches reopening.
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00:00South East Queensland's first tropical cyclone in 50 years left a trail of destruction in
00:08its wake.
00:10It's now brought black clouds to the federal coffers and grocery baskets.
00:16Treasury expects there will be about a $1.2 billion hit to economic output just as a consequence
00:22of XTC Alfred, that there will be some impact on fruit and vegetable costs.
00:29The Commonwealth will allocate funds in next Tuesday's budget to build back local communities
00:34and for financial support.
00:36The disaster recovery allowance has been extended to an additional two LTAs, Bundaberg and Toowoomba.
00:43The Premier went back to school, announcing all South East classrooms are open.
00:48To have all 661 state schools back up and running a week after the event just shows
00:56the tenacity of Queensland state schools.
00:59And the lights are back on after the largest loss of power from a natural disaster in Queensland's history.
01:06All of the impacted homes where it's safe to be able to reconnect are back on mains power
01:11and that is a Herculean task.
01:14We're dealing with something in the order of half a million connections at one time or another.
01:1822 beaches from Surfers Paradise to Koolangatta have reopened.
01:23The Queensland opposition has criticised the state government's support of homeless people
01:28during the disaster.
01:30It's called for the release of an independent review into homelessness services due in January.
01:35But the government's yet to set a date.