Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Following eight weeks of floods and damaging seas in my mid-North Coast communities—the third summer floods in just three years—and with our community now dealing for the third time with incredibly frustrating category A to D natural disaster paperwork and all the oddities of the emergency management triggers for specific disaster relief payment, will you now urgently agree to work with state and local governments to overhaul what is a dog's breakfast of relief and recovery processes in Australia?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I certainly do understand the circumstances he is reflecting into this parliament on behalf of his community. Quite a number of communities have had to suffer over the past few summers on more than one occasion, facing floods and then seeing the devastation come a second time. And of course in this land of ours, at the same time that some of our communities are facing floods, others can be facing the devastation of bushfires. We have seen all of that play out across the nation and it has been very tough for people.

I think we need to be clear about what has been achieved through natural disaster assistance, what more we can do and what we can do better. We do have a system now where the state and federal governments do work quickly together in circumstances of natural disasters. Indeed, we do not actually wait for a natural disaster to occur. When it is becoming apparent that there will be extreme weather conditions, we have federal officials embed at that point with state officials, who are always the ones managing the disaster in the first instance. We do that so we can seamlessly do what we need to do to get assets, such as ADF assets, available for local communities. Then, in the days immediately after a natural disaster, hardship payments are made available. Sometimes that is done through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements between us and state governments, sometimes through the federal-government-triggered Australian government disaster recovery payment and sometimes through both.

Concerns tend more to come in when we get to the recovery and reconstruction phase. The member is right that there are various categories of assistance, as agreed between the federal and state governments. There is category B assistance, category C assistance and what is referred to as category D assistance, which is the exceptional circumstances assistance. The rules surrounding the circumstances in which those relief programs are triggered do, I think, cause community concern. We have worked through and will continue to work through the ministerial council dealing with emergency management. We are always in the business of talking to our state colleagues and counterparts and to local communities about what can be done better—not only what can be done better in the teeth of a natural disaster but also what can be done to ensure more resilience, more ability to withstand extreme weather events, the next time around.

The member has a genuine concern and I know he is not alone in this parliament in that regard. Many members representing natural disaster affected constituencies have the same concerns. We are always open to that local community feedback as we work with our state and territory counterparts.

Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. In light of the answer, I will ask the question a slightly different way. Prime Minister, are you satisfied with the current processes—not only for relief and recovery but for mitigation and insurance—and the lack of a national natural disaster fund? If you are not, what can you, the Attorney-General and other members of the executive do to fix it?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think there is always more we can do in considering questions of resilience and in building resilience for communities. Minister Shorten and I actually made some announcements about that a few weeks ago. There is always more we can do, in working with local communities, to consider resilience questions.

The member who asked the question would be aware that there was an inquiry following our worst summer of natural disasters—the summer in which we saw unbelievably extensive flooding across Queensland, which was the summer between 2010 and 2011. There were inquiries following those disasters which looked at different models for financing natural disaster responses. I know there are a variety of views but I am not persuaded of those models. But I think there is always more we can do, working with communities, on building resilience. Our emergency services and our community structures are very sophisticated on these questions now, but they too would reflect that they learn from every natural disaster and event. There is always something more you can learn for next time around. Certainly we—and on this I am confident I can speak on behalf of my state and territory colleagues—are always open to learning those lessons and to working through what can be done better next time.