David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

As I rise to speak to the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022, Australian communities are again behind sandbags, beneath flood water, covered in mud. We heard from Senator Davey about her community in Deniliquin—flooding, crops being ruined, livestock being lost, people being displaced and, in tragic cases, lives being lost. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe across the world. With the natural extremes in our climate, our country is more exposed than most.

It's not like we haven't been warned. For decades, our scientists have been telling us that our climate is at risk. For decades, we've been told about what climate breakdown will mean for our future. We know that natural disasters will impact our lives and our environment more profoundly and more frequently unless we take urgent action.

Today's children—those who come here on their school tours and watch this place from up in the gallery—will live through at least three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents. You don't have to look far to see this trend—turn on the evening news. We had one of the worst bushfire seasons in our history just a couple of years ago, and now we're seeing some of the worst flooding across the country. These disasters are imposing huge social and economic costs: $24.5 billion was spent on disasters between 2005 and 2022. But the overwhelming majority, 98 per cent, of that was spent on recovery and relief, with only two per cent on risk reduction. That is despite estimates from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, APRA, that every dollar spent on disaster preparedness saves us $11 on disaster relief. It seems like a pretty good return on investment to me. We've also had, from the Productivity Commission and the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, recommendations that we should be spending more on resilience and adaptation. We should be investing far more into adapting to climate change and preparing for natural disasters.

I sit in this place and see a lot of finger-pointing across this chamber, and it points to the political short-termism that needs to be overcome in developing policy solutions for disaster preparedness that invest in the long term and invest in our communities across the country. Clearly, we see the political will when communities are confronted with natural disasters and are grappling with losing homes, losing livestock and losing livelihoods. This same care and urgency is lacking, or even missing, when we're talking about preparedness and ensuring that our communities are as resilient as they can be, given that we know that more natural disasters are coming.

This bill is a step in the right direction. I commend the government and, in particular, Minister Watt for the change. This starts to shift the focus to preparedness, and I commend Senator Sheldon for the work that he's been doing with flood affected communities in how they prepare for the next flood—because we know that the next flood will come; it's simply a matter of time. Earlier we heard Senator Walsh blame the coalition for not doing enough. That may well be the case, but both major parties have failed us when it comes to climate change. This has been something we've been warned about for decades, and we're now seeing the results of inaction. I urge people in this place to stop the finger-pointing and begin to work on this issue.

Two hundred million dollars is a great start to begin to prepare communities, but, when you compare that to the $3.5 billion that APRA estimates we need to be spending annually to effectively reduce the impact of natural disasters, we've got a long way to go. I understand the argument that we are in a tight financial situation. We do have a big debt, and clearly the government is trying to rein in spending. But, at the same time, we're happy to give fossil fuel subsidies of $10 billion plus. And then we see more investment in the Middle Arm Petrochemicals hub of $1.9 billion. Our efforts to mitigate and adapt really pale when we look at how much we're spending on perpetuating the very problem that we're trying to solve. The other Senator Pocock has rightly pointed out that our Future Fund is invested in industries that are causing the very problem that this part of the Future Fund is aimed at helping communities address.

We've clearly seen an underinvestment in disaster preparedness, and the flooding in central west New South Wales over the past fortnight is the most recent example. My office has heard from a number of those affected, including Sue. Sue owns the chemist in Molong which was under water and suffered extensive damage. She recounts the terror of a rapidly rising river in the middle of the night and the windows shattering as water came into her shop. But there's not a word of complaint or self-pity; she describes the strength of the community and the army of cleaners who pitched in to clean her shop and make sure that vulnerable people can still receive the medication they desperately need. There are hundreds of people like Sue across this great country. They deserve the best solutions, not only after disaster strikes but also beforehand to ensure their communities are better prepared when these disasters inevitably come their way.

Our obligation to support those worst affected by worsening natural disasters does not end at our geographical border. Global warming is driving the increased severity of natural disasters around the world, and we've seen flooding in Australia, Pakistan and Nigeria. We've seen record-breaking wildfires in Europe, and we've seen the conditions set for huge hurricanes in North America. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world and one of the highest per capita emitters, we have a duty—a moral obligation, I would argue—to help those suffering on account of our contribution to heating this planet. I'd like to read a brief statement from Nakeeyat Dramani Sam, a 10-year-old girl from Ghana. She told COP27 delegates last week about flooding where she lives in the capital city of Accra:

Cars were under water, people were paddling canoes where there had been streets. Thousands fled their houses. It was very scary for us. If it is going to get much worse, then I think we fear how much our future is on the line.

…   …   …

… Decide now, … if you are rich and powerful nations, to provide funds to help the ones who suffer most the costs of climate disaster not caused by us.

Having lived and been involved in community development projects in incredibly poor rural communities in Zimbabwe, that sentiment is shared. This is a problem that has not been caused by billions of people who share this planet with us. But it's a problem for all of us to bear, and I would argue that Australia needs to step up and show more global leadership on this.

Clearly, this fund is not dealing with that, but I think this is all connected when we're talking about disaster preparedness and response. The good news is that we have so many of the world's leading scientists and experts in all of these fields to help us deal with this, to help us better both mitigate emissions and prepare for the natural disasters that are coming our way. The ACT, in particular, has a lot to contribute in the disaster resilience field. Last week I visited the CSIRO's National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory, just across the Molonglo River at the base of Black Mountain. I talked to scientists there who are working to better understand bushfire dynamics and are running a whole range of experiments that they can't run in the field to better understand the likely movements of bushfires and inform firefighter crews and emergency personnel on both how to extinguish fires and then also how to prepare surrounding communities.

The CSIRO are also doing work with the ANU's Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions in developing tech-based interventions targeting bushfires. They are doing some incredibly exciting stuff, like using drones to identify fires ignited by lightning strikes, or by another source, and then using disposable, GPS-guided water gliders to control remote bush ignitions. It's our responsibility as a nation to invest in this science and to back these scientists in ideas that are going to help us deal with the kind of world we are living in and the future we are going to continue to be faced with.

Another amazing person at the CSIRO is Dr Deborah O'Connell. She is building on the work of the great Dr Brian Walker and his amazing work in the field of resilience-thinking and practice. He has been working on helping to further our understanding of how to deal with complex adaptive systems, how to best know when to intervene, and how we can deal with them. Dr O'Connell is in that field and is an expert in systems leadership and in helping people think through preparedness and responses to natural disasters. For too long we have ignored scientists' warnings about climate change, and climate change is now here. It's crucial we listen to scientists now in terms of reducing our emissions as fast as we can—as a developed country we have more of a moral obligation to do that fast.

During the committee inquiry into this bill and into the Emergency Management Fund in 2019, concerns about transparency were raised. The bill is unclear on whether there will be publicly available information about how funding has been allocated or whether funding has been allocated at all. I welcome the government's commitment to set out guidelines on how projects will be funded. I will move amendments that promote greater transparency and address the risk that grants under the disaster relief fund will be used for politics rather than for people.

I highlight the work of Senator Barbara Pocock, who has raised concerns about the way that the Future Fund is invested. I urge the government to consider this. To me, it does not align with the objectives of the Future Fund. I welcome the government's decision to give greater focus to resilience in Australia. I call on the government to continue to invest more so we can better adapt to our changing climate and invest in the clean industries of the future—not the emissions-intensive polluting industries of the past. There is a lot more to do in this country and a lot more to do internationally. This is a massive challenge but what an incredible opportunity for us in this place to be part of.