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

Maybe as a starting point the former government, when it was preparing its budget just before the election, could have thought: 'We've being having a lot of floods lately. We've being having a few bushfires lately. A few cyclones. Maybe we need to make sure that our national natural disaster agency has the funding to continue its operations.' But, no, their budget—Senator Birmingham's and Senator McKenzie's budget for the emergency management department—was actually going to cut 25 per cent of the funding for that agency from 30 June this year.

Since our election 10 months ago, the Albanese government has shown that no matter what state or territory you live in, when a natural disaster strikes we will be there with you and we will provide the funding that is needed to respond properly to natural disasters. That's why we've been fixing the neglect of the past decade. We're overhauling the Emergency Response Fund, the $5 billion fund that never built a single project. With our Disaster Ready Fund, we're overhauling disaster funding arrangements. We are fixing the mess that we have been left in so many portfolios, including disaster management. (Time expired)