Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you again, Senator Sterle. Yesterday in the House of Representatives the Albanese government introduced amendments to the Disaster Ready Fund legislation. These amendments will ensure that $200 million a year allocated in the fund is spent on disaster mitigation while maintaining our commitment to support communities as they recover from disasters. I think members on both sides of this chamber will remember the comments that I had to make about the former government's Emergency Response Fund, set up over three years ago with the support of the then opposition with $4 billion in it. It was set up to spend money every year on disaster mitigation and disaster recovery. By the time we got to the election, after three years it hadn't built a single disaster mitigation project and hadn't released a single cent for disaster recovery. We're determined to change that, and I'm happy to report that this legislation has been welcomed by stakeholders across the community, from the Insurance Council of Australia and Suncorp to the RACQ and the Local Government Association of Queensland.