Prime Minister Julia Gillard announces $40 million fund for Queensland to rebuild flood-damaged infrastructure PREMIER Campbell Newman says Queenslanders will question why Western Sydney received the lion's share of Federal funds to rebuild flood-damaged infrastructure. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced a $40 million fund for Queensland councils but pledged $50 million to raise the Warragamba dam in Western Sydney. The Premier said dollars committed toward flood mitigation was "welcome" but fell well short of the amount requested. "My Government has been arguing for $140 million from the Commonwealth for roads and flood mitigation schemes,"" the Premier said. We need to get real. I note it was quite easy to provide $50 million for Western Sydney for Warragamba dam to protect houses that, as far as I'm aware, haven't flooded, certainly in the last two and a half years. So again that's what Queenslanders will be saying. $50 million can go to Western Sydney for houses that haven't flooded...and we're only just seeing money, less than $50 million, for houses flooded in the last two and a half years, in some cases up to three times. That's the way I'm afraid Queenslanders will see this. Asked if he understood the logic behind the funding, the Premier replied: "You good people might question the politics of it." Minister Assisting on Queensland Floods Recovery, Senator Joe Ludwig defended the Commonwealth's contribution. "This is the first time a Federal Government has ever made such a significant contribution to bettering our local roads," Senator Ludwig said. Instead of going through the usual application process, Councils will now be able to go straight to the QRA for money from the fund for betterment projects. What the State Government won't tell you is that they had insisted on making the fund available for both state assets and Local Council assets. This fund is targeted at local councils who need it the most. It is not about pumping millions to a State Government to do their own job. Local Government Minister David Crisafulli has blasted the announcement as an absurd move after the Newman Government had called for both the State and Commonwealth to contribute $100 million each to betterment. Ms Gillard was in Ipswich on Thursday to announce the $40 million betterment fund, which she said should be matched by the State, as well as $45 million for counselling and other flood recovery services and $100 million over two years for projects such as levees. The majority of that flood mitigation money, however, will be spent in Western Sydney. Ms Gillard defended the spending. She said more money could be made available for other betterment projects. "We have spent in Queensland more than $6 billion following the huge floods in the summer between 2010 and 2011...more than any other state around the nation," she said. There's more funding available than has been announced today. But Mr Crisafulli said the Federal Government was "cutting its nose off to spite its face" as providing more money for betterment would save taxpayers in the long run as infrastructure would not have to continuously be rebuilt. He also criticised the amount to be spent on levees and flood mitigation as falling short of the $40 million the Newman Government had requested as part of its floodplain security scheme. Mr Crisafulli said in all the Queensland Government had asked the Federal Government to match the $140 million for flood security and resilience as a minimum to help recover. "The large portion of that money, $100 million, would have been spent on betterment or improving infrastructure, with $40 million to go to mitigation," Mr Crisafulli said."Combined with our funds, that would have given us $280 million total, but instead the Federal Government's big flood announcement was only $57 million. At the same time, Julia Gillard announced $50 million for just one dam in Western Sydney. The cynic in me thinks these funds are more about stemming the flood of votes from Western Sydney than helping Queensland stem the floodwaters that have devastated our communities. He said it was the $40 million betterment fund applies only to council assets. In many cases, the top priority for the council is to rebuild important state arterial roads that send the community into gridlock when they are destroyed. The Federal Government should be falling over itself to grab Queensland's offer of a 50-50 split for betterment projects because the current model sees them paying three-quarters of the bill to rebuild time and time again.