{"id":"F2025L00381","name":"Social Security (Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment—North Queensland Floods) Determination (No. 7) 2025","slug":"f2025l00381","collection":"legislative_instrument","jurisdiction":"commonwealth","status":"in_force","isInForce":true,"actNumber":null,"makingDate":null,"administeringDepartment":null,"currentVersion":{"id":337250,"registerId":"commonwealth-F2025L00381-current","compilationNumber":null,"startDate":"2026-04-08","status":"InForce","reasons":null,"registeredAt":null},"sections":[{"sectionNumber":"1","sectionType":"section","heading":"Name","content":"#### 1 Name\n\n  This instrument is the Social Security (Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment—North Queensland Floods) Determination (No. 7) 2025.","sortOrder":0},{"sectionNumber":"2","sectionType":"section","heading":"Commencement","content":"#### 2 Commencement\n\n  This instrument commences immediately after it is signed.","sortOrder":1},{"sectionNumber":"3","sectionType":"section","heading":"Authority","content":"#### 3 Authority\n\n  This instrument is made under subsection 1061L(2) of the Social Security Act 1991.","sortOrder":2},{"sectionNumber":"4","sectionType":"section","heading":"Definitions","content":"#### 4 Definitions\n\n  (1) In this instrument:\n\n> Act means the Social Security Act 1991.\n\n> destroyed means damaged to the extent that:\n\n    (a) for a residence—it must be demolished; or\n    (b) for a major asset or assets—it is unusable.\n\n> immediate family member, of a person, means:\n\n    (a) the person’s partner; or\n    (b) the person’s natural child, adoptive child or step-child; or\n    (c) the person’s natural parent, adoptive parent or step-parent; or\n    (d) the person’s legal guardian; or\n    (e) the person’s brother, sister, step-brother or step-sister.\n\n> Note: This term is used in a different sense to that used in the Act.\n\n> major asset means:\n\n    (a) an asset, with a market value of at least $20 000, located at the person’s principal place of residence; or\n    (b) assets, with a combined market value of at least $20 000, located at the person’s principal place of residence.\n\n> Note: Examples: Building, large fixed structure, motor vehicle, caravan, water tank, large scale machinery, heavy equipment.\n\n> major damage means:\n\n    (a) for a residence:\n    (i) damage to the interior of the residence; or\n    (ii) that the residence is structurally unsound; or\n    (iii) damage to the residence that exposes the interior of the residence to the elements; or\n    (iv) sewage contamination of the interior of the residence; or\n    (b) for a major asset or assets other than a water tank—that the asset is flooded or has water damage to the extent that it needs to be replaced; or\n    (c) for a major asset that is a water tank—damage to the extent that the tank needs to be repaired or cleaned, or the water contained in it needs to be replaced.\n\n> seriously injured, for a person, means:\n\n    (a) the person has sustained an injury; and\n    (b) because of the injury:\n    (i) the person was admitted to hospital; or\n    (ii) under normal circumstances, the person would have been admitted to hospital.\n  (2) A place of residence is a person’s principal place of residence if:\n    (a) the person regularly lives at the place with a degree of settled purpose; and\n    (b) the person has a lawful right to reside at the place; and\n    (c) the place is not:\n    (i) a prison or a place of detention; or\n    (ii) a secondary residence used for holidays.\n\n> Note: It is possible for a person to have more than 1 principal place of residence.","sortOrder":3},{"sectionNumber":"5","sectionType":"section","heading":"Person adversely affected by a major disaster","content":"#### 5 Person adversely affected by a major disaster\n\n  (1) This section applies to the major disaster being the floods that commenced on 29 January 2025 and continued up to and including 28 February 2025 in North Queensland and which have affected, or are affecting, one or more of the areas mentioned in Schedule 1.\n  (2) For subsection 1061L(2) of the Act, a person is taken to be adversely affected by the major disaster if any of the following circumstances apply:\n    (a) the person is seriously injured as a direct result of the disaster;\n    (b) the person is an immediate family member of an Australian citizen or resident who is missing and presumed killed, or killed, as a direct result of the disaster;\n    (c) the person’s principal place of residence has been destroyed or has major damage as a direct result of the disaster;\n    (d) a major asset of the person has been destroyed or has major damage as a direct result of the disaster;\n    (e) the person is a carer of a child to whom paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) applies.","sortOrder":4},{"sectionNumber":"6","sectionType":"section","heading":"Repeals","content":"#### 6 Repeals\n\n  (1) Under subsection 1061L(2) of the Act, the Social Security (Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment—North Queensland Floods) Determination (No. 6) 2025 is repealed immediately after the commencement of this instrument.\n  (2) This instrument is repealed on the day after the end of the period of two years that begins on the day the instrument commences.","sortOrder":5}],"analysis":{"flash_summary_failed":{"failed":true,"reason":"A positive credit balance is required for all requests, including BYOK, so fallback providers remain available. Add credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up to continue.","source":"analysis-cron"},"kimi_summary":{"content_quality":"ok","complexity_score":3,"scope_assessment":{"changed":false,"description":"This instrument serves its original purpose precisely: it declares specific flood events as a 'major disaster' and defines who is 'adversely affected' for the purpose of triggering the existing Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment scheme. It does not expand the scheme beyond its statutory framework — it merely applies the established template to a new disaster (the North Queensland floods of early 2025), replacing a previous determination (No. 6) for the same event. The scope remains tightly constrained to disaster-specific eligibility activation."},"complexity_factors":["Short instrument: only 6 sections plus a schedule (not shown in extract)","7 defined terms in section 4, but all are straightforward and concrete","Simple conditional structure: single trigger event (floods 29 Jan–28 Feb 2025) with 5 alternative eligibility circumstances in section 5(2)","No nested exceptions or complex cross-referencing — only references back to the parent Social Security Act 1991 for the enabling power","Self-terminating: automatic repeal after 2 years (section 6(2)), reducing ongoing interpretive burden","Geographic scope limited to specific listed areas in Schedule 1 (not shown, but implied to be a discrete list)"],"plain_english_summary":"This measure creates a one‑off Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment for people affected by the North Queensland floods (late Jan–late Feb 2025), specifying who qualifies — e.g. those seriously injured, bereaved immediate family, owners of homes or major assets destroyed or seriously damaged, and carers of qualifying children. \n\nIt defines key terms (principal residence, major asset, immediate family), activates Social Security Act payment powers so Services Australia can deliver lump sums, replaces an earlier determination, and expires automatically after two years."},"flash_summary":{"complexity_score":5,"scope_assessment":{"changed":true,"description":"This instrument expressly repeals the earlier Social Security (Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment—North Queensland Floods) Determination (No. 6) 2025 on commencement (s6(1)) and sets fresh eligibility rules and definitions (s4, s5). It fixes the disaster period and affected areas (s5(1)) and imposes a two-year expiry after commencement (s6(2)), thereby substituting prior scope with the updated temporal, geographic and definitional scope set out here."},"complexity_factors":["Detailed definitional thresholds require factual assessments: 'major asset' uses a $20,000 market-value threshold and combined-values test (s4), which requires valuation;","Ambiguous assessment points: 'destroyed' (demolition/unusable) and 'major damage' (extent requiring replacement/repair; interior exposure; sewage contamination) require evidence and administrative judgement (s4);","'Seriously injured' includes a subjective counterfactual—'would have been admitted to hospital'—creating scope for medical judgment (s4);","Principal place of residence test requires establishing settled residence and lawful right to reside (s4(2)), which may involve documentary proof and borderline cases;","Temporal and geographic specificity: disaster period (29 Jan–28 Feb 2025) and affected areas are fixed by reference to Schedule 1 (s5(1)), so eligibility is tightly time- and place-bound;","Legal integration: instrument operates by deeming persons 'adversely affected' for subsection 1061L(2) of the Social Security Act, so administrative effect depends on interaction with that statutory scheme (ss3, 5(2));","Instrument replaces a prior Determination (No.6) on commencement and includes automatic expiry after two years, requiring tracking of successive instruments and time-limited entitlements (s6)."],"plain_english_summary":"This Determination identifies who is taken to be \"adversely affected\" by the North Queensland floods (29 Jan–28 Feb 2025) for the purposes of the Social Security Act, so they can access the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment. It sets clear eligibility circumstances (serious injury, death/missing relatives, destroyed or major-damaged principal residence or major assets, and carers), defines key terms (destroyed, major damage, major asset, seriously injured, principal place of residence), repeals the prior Determination and expires after two years."}},"importantCases":[],"_links":{"self":"/api/acts/f2025l00381","history":"/api/acts/f2025l00381/history","analysis":"/api/acts/f2025l00381/analysis","conflicts":"/api/acts/f2025l00381/conflicts","importantCases":"/api/acts/f2025l00381/important-cases","documents":"/api/acts/f2025l00381/documents"}}