Qld concerned about disaster funding

Federal funding given to Queensland to help rebuild after natural disasters could be dramatically reduced.

The federal government's Commission of Audit recommends replacing natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements with a grant for each disaster, limited to between 25 per cent and 33 per cent of the estimated reconstruction costs.

Under current arrangements, the commonwealth picks up 75 per cent of the bill.

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls is very concerned about the recommendation.

Cyclone Oswald caused $900 million damage to the state's roads in 2013, with the federal government picking up the lion's share of the tab.

"The commonwealth does have an ability to raise much more money but we have the obligation to fix those roads," Mr Nicholls told Fairfax Radio.

"In a state like Queensland which is subject to those natural disasters, to have such a significant cut to the payments would be a significant concern to us.

"That is one thing that we will be having a looking at very, very closely and having a good hard talk with the commonwealth about, because we don't think that's probably going to be justified."