The Australian state of Queensland has put forward a new support package to financially enable the state government to buy back homes of up to 500 flood victims. Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said on March 19 that the state had asked the federal government to jointly fund a $771 million (US$572 million) support package under national disaster recovery arrangements. With the new package, Queensland’s flood-hit residents will have the option to retrofit, raise or sell back their homes. More specifically, the package will provide the state with $275 million to retrofit 5,500 homes, $100 million to elevate 1,000 homes and $350 million to buy back around 500 impacted homes. “This is the biggest potential buyback…fund we’ve ever had available to us. We anticipate that will allow us to buy back 500 properties if people want to,” Miles told reporters. However, the Queensland government will have to work out the …