Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Counter-Terrorism. What emergency management measures does the federal government have in place to assist the communities likely to be affected by Tropical Cyclone Debbie?

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Flynn for that question. As the House has already heard from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Defence Industry, the level of preparation by both the state and the Commonwealth governments leading up to Tropical Cyclone Debbie has really been unprecedented. There are more than 1,000 emergency services personnel deployed, including SES, fire, police and ambulance officers. We thank them for their tireless efforts in protecting our communities and we acknowledge that they are selflessly putting themselves in harm's way to assist others in need.

I have been in regular contact with the Queensland minister for emergency services, Mark Ryan, to receive operational updates from the perspective of the Queensland government and to continue to coordinate Commonwealth support. In addition to this, the Commonwealth has taken action to ensure that resources are available to assist communities who will be affected by this cyclone. We have pre-activated the Australian government disaster response plan, which will allow us to accelerate requests for non-financial assistance from the Australian government. This includes requests for ADF capability but also unique Commonwealth capabilities such as satellite imagery.

We have been reminded this morning by the member for Capricornia about not just the capability that the ADF brings when it deploys after a disaster but the enormous boost to morale that it has for a community that has been battered by a natural disaster as well. We have sent two of our emergency management experts to be embedded within the Queensland response, and they have been providing 24-hour support to the Queensland government.

Once this cyclone passes, our efforts will as ever move to helping those who have been impacted by this dangerous storm. Whilst the Queensland government will lead those recovery efforts, the coalition government will work side by side with them to help those communities in need. We do this through the jointly funded Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, under which we will reimburse up to 75 per cent of state expenditure for recovery costs. The NDRRA enables state governments to activate certain types of relief and recovery assistance immediately following a disaster without approval from the Australian government. This will assist people to meet their immediate needs such as emergency hardship or distress payments, support for local councils to conduct counter-disaster operations such as sandbagging, and assistance for state governments to rebuild essential assets. This enables those state governments to act quickly.

We will assist Queensland with what will be significant costs after Tropical Cyclone Debbie. These arrangements have seen $12 billion flow to the Queensland government in the past decade alone. We will continue to talk with them and work closely with them to see what we can do to activate the NDRRA and make sure that that assistance flows as quickly possible. Our thoughts are with those currently at the heart of the storm. Please do what the Prime Minister has suggested: go to safety and listen to what emergency management authorities tell you to do.