Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Over recent weeks, Australians have been responding to bushfires across the continent. I would like to update the Senate on the fires, as well as our response in dealing with them.

In relation to New South Wales, dangerous fires continue to burn across New South Wales. More than 1.4 million hectares have been burned, and, as of this morning, there are more than 60 fires burning. More than 1,900 firefighters and support personnel, along with 95 aircraft, have been battling these fires. Tragically, four people have lost their lives and dozens more have been injured, including firefighters. Over the past two weeks, more than 555 houses and nearly 1,000 more outbuildings have been destroyed.

In relation to Queensland, fires are continuing to burn in South-East Queensland. They have burnt through 183,000 hectares since September. Fifty-five fires are still burning across the state as we speak. Twenty homes have been confirmed lost. More than 3,600 firefighters have been on the frontline for more than two weeks, along with aircraft. Nearly 50 firefighters have sustained injuries, including the pilot of a water-bombing helicopter that crashed near Toowoomba. The situation is ever-changing, and a state of fire emergency has been declared across 42 local government areas.

In Victoria, we have seen an easing in recent days, following the catastrophic fire conditions of last Thursday. This easing should assist firefighters in the coming days to battle the fires that continue to burn. Last week, parts of South Australia experienced catastrophic fire conditions. Sixteen houses had been destroyed, along with 21 other structures, and four firefighters were injured. While conditions have eased, fires continue to burn across southern parts of the state. In relation to Western Australia, we are continuing to watch Western Australia closely as severe fire dangers are forecast today for the west Pilbara coast, Ashburton inland and Gascoyne inland districts.

The government, through Emergency Management Australia, continues to work very closely with its state and territory counterparts. We acknowledge the tremendous national effort taking place, with firefighters travelling from every state and from New Zealand, as well as the United States and Canada, to go where help is needed most. The firebombing aircraft have been in action against these fires. These are national assets and ensure that the best possible aerial firefighting equipment is available to help Australians.

The RAAF have transported firefighters and equipment to and from centres across the country as well. Disaster recovery assistance is being provided under the jointly funded Commonwealth government-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. In New South Wales, on-the-ground assistance is coming from the state government. We are also providing extra financial assistance through the Australian government's disaster recovery payment, which is a non-means-tested payment of $1,000 for eligible adults and $400 for children. There is also the disaster recovery loan, which is a short-term income support payment to help those who have experienced a loss of income as a direct result of the bushfires. The disaster recovery payment has been activated in 14 local government areas in New South Wales, and the disaster recovery allowance has been activated in 32 areas in New South Wales. Both of these payments are administered by the Department of Human Services.

Yesterday in New South Wales, working with the state government, we announced a $48.25 million bushfire recovery package for the North Coast, Mid-North Coast and Northern Tablelands. This package includes $15,000 worth of recovery grants for small businesses and primary producers and a $18.25 million Community Recovery Fund to fund community projects to stimulate the economy, build resilience and provide needed mental health support.

In Queensland, we are providing disaster recovery assistance under the DRFA in seven local government areas. These include support for people suffering personal hardship to help with their immediate emergency needs, as well as things like concessional interest rate loans and freight subsidies for primary producers. We have also activated the disaster recovery payment and the disaster recovery allowance for people affected by the Queensland fires. This support is administered by the Queensland government. We continue to work very closely with the Queensland government.

I can report that every agency of the Commonwealth continues to be ready to help when and where they can. Across government, the necessary plans and responses have been activated. The ATO has activated their community disaster rapid response group to support impacted taxpayers and communities. The taxpayers affected by the fires do not need to worry about their tax affairs—first things first: get back on your feet. The Department of Health has been working with pharmacists regarding the supply of medicines to affected communities. The full resources of the Australian Defence Force have been available to assist when and where it has been requested. The Minister for Defence has directed and authorised all local base commanders to provide immediate assistance wherever it is required.

In a continent as big as ours, it's not a question of if a natural disaster will hit, but when, and that is particularly the case for fires. Since the aftermath of Black Saturday, Commonwealth, state and territory governments have actively maintained a level of national preparedness that should reassure all Australians. Our preparedness for natural disasters includes a $130.5 million investment by the Commonwealth over five years to reduce the risk and impact of disasters on Australians. As part of this work, $104 million is being distributed to states and territories under a new national partnership agreement on disaster risk reduction for investment in initiatives that reduce disaster risk at the state and local level. As well, we have developed closely, with state, territory and local governments, a national Disaster Preparedness Framework to ensure we're positioned to effectively prepare for and manage severe to catastrophic disasters. This framework is about developing a new national disaster capability so that people have access to the best information and guidance, needed to make risk-informed decisions.

Our support of the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, an annual $15 million investment, is providing highly specialised firefighting aircraft that are available to states and territories. In December last year, we added another $11 million on top of our annual investment. We have also invested in Emergency Alert, supporting the national telephone based warning system. As well, we are investing over $6 million in the next-generation Australian fire danger rating system to deliver more accurate and local risk messaging.

Our efforts are all about working in partnership with the states and territories, particularly their fire and emergency service professionals. As the providers of police and emergency services, the states and territories take the lead, and we back them with our own capabilities. All work in such dynamic environments can be improved, but we are proud of the progress of our national efforts, preparing for the worst, wherever and whenever it may be.

Times like these remind us all of what truly matters. To the families of those who have lost their lives and to those who are injured, we send the thoughts of everyone in this place. We are in awe of our countrymen and countrywomen, who have all stepped up—firefighters and volunteers, service men and women, community members and neighbours, as well as the businesses who gave their staff leave passes to go and fight the fires. Everyone has played their part. We have prepared accordingly.

We know that, more broadly, there are debates and discussions about fires during droughts and times of climate change. This building is the place where these discussions, of course, should ultimately take place, but we do ask that, in these debates, we have the same generosity that the Australian people have shown through their actions over recent weeks.

There are still difficult days ahead, but we can draw strength from the way all of the people in our agencies are responding. Australians helping Australians—more than fires or floods, that's what defines our country, and we can all be proud of that.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Labor join with the government in extending our sincere sympathies to the hundreds of Australians who've lost loved ones, homes, farms and livestock in recent weeks due to the terrible bushfires we've seen around most of the country. I think all of us have been touched by the scenes that we've witnessed, and we send our very best wishes to those who are recovering. Last week I visited a number of areas that were badly affected by bushfires in Central Queensland and south-west of Brisbane, and I've seen for myself the long road to recover that many of our fellow Australians face. We also join with the government in thanking emergency personnel, volunteers, community groups and community leaders, who are doing a fabulous job to assist in that recovery effort.

Many have commented that these bushfires are unprecedented in nature, in their breadth, in their intensity and in their timing, starting earlier and going for longer than anything we've seen before. Indeed, the science is telling us that we are likely to see more extreme weather events, bushfires, floods and cyclones, in future, due to climate change. The government's own scientific advisers, CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and emergency leaders are all telling us this.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to listen to this advice and to act, and it's in that spirit that the Labor leader, Mr Albanese, has written to the Prime Minister, seeking an urgent COAG meeting to discuss disaster preparedness. Whatever we think about climate change—and I recognise, in this chamber, there are very many different views about climate change—we owe it to Australians to prepare for a changing future. Labor believe this is a serious challenge facing our nation and that COAG is the appropriate forum to deal with it. We hope the government will take up our suggestion and bring federal, state, territory and local government leaders together to ensure that all Australians are fully protected from the risk that natural disasters will pose into the future.

Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens to make a short statement. Just as we did in this chamber two weeks ago, we express our deep sadness and our grief at the lives, homes and habitat lost from these catastrophic bushfires. We again extend our deepest gratitude to the women and men who have been putting their lives on the line to contain these unprecedented fires from burning across multiple states. When you consider the level of containment of these fires in terms of damage to property and lives, it's remarkable given how extreme the fire and weather conditions have been. To put it simply, our volunteer and professional firefighters have behaved like heroes. We thank them very deeply for their wonderful efforts.

But thoughts are not enough. What our firefighters are telling us is that they're dreading the months ahead as we enter into what has traditionally been known as bushfire season. But that's a season that no longer exists in the age of our climate crisis, because our bushfire season now extends to an almost all-year-round threat. So let me be crystal clear: the Australian Greens will not stop talking about what is driving these fires. We will not be silenced, because we know that these disasters are happening with more intensity and greater frequency, and that's putting people's lives at risk. Let me be even clearer: what is driving these fires is the burning of coal, oil and gas, and we now know that Australia's greenhouse pollution from coal, oil and gas is the highest it has ever been. What Australian climate scientists who were working on bushfires said back in 2006 has now come to pass. Governments have had an opportunity to act and, at every stage, they have failed. If we don't face up to this fact, we will continue to put communities and, indeed, firefighters in harm's way.

So, again, of course we express our thoughts for the people who have suffered from these fires. We also know that government's highest priority should be keeping its citizens safe. That means no longer locking in behind the coal, oil and gas industry. What our communities desperately need now is a rapid transition to a renewable energy economy and to unlock the thousands of jobs that come with that investment. That requires a plan. Again, we reach out to the government and the opposition. We reach out to them and say we are prepared to work on a plan across party lines about how we can drive down pollution and create those jobs that will come with this planned transition and ensure that no person is left behind.

Since the last statements in the Senate on bushfires two weeks ago, we've seen more casualties, taking the total to four. We've seen insurance claims for destroyed property increase from 150 to 500. We have seen catastrophic code red warnings called in South Australia and Victoria. We know that conditions usually expected in January and February are occurring right now. Climate change is no longer something for future generations to be concerned about; it is happening right now, and we are experiencing the effects of the climate crisis.

So, again, let me say this: I know there are many politicians in this place, many people in the gallery and many journalists who want us to be silent. We won't be silenced. We'll continue to do everything within our power to keep the issue of the climate breakdown front and centre during these national disasters, because now's not the time for silence and now's not the time for appeasement. Now is the time to fight for those communities, for our firefighters and for all of the animals that live in habitat that's being destroyed. We will continue every day to remind the Australian community of this government's culpability and responsibility for these tragic events.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—My Country by Dorothea Mackellar talks about 'a sunburnt country'. That really does explain what Australia is all about, from drought to flood and fires. We can expect it and have done since the country was first founded. I was sitting here listening to Senator Di Natale's comments blaming it on pollution and coal and fire. That is far from the truth. The fact is that we do live in a very dry nation, and it is because of government interference, and locking up our national parks, not burning off the waste and not protecting our lands—that is why we find ourselves in this predicament—and, with an ever-increasing population, not supplying the water resources we need to fight the fires. Our national parks have grown; no-one can go in there, no-one can clean them up—even farmers are not allowed to allow animals in to graze on the lands. Debris is not allowed to be cleared or taken by Australians who may use it for some other purpose. It is drastic and devastating to all of us here in this place, because we all have electorates and people in our electorates that we are supposed to be representing and taking note of and caring about.

These fires have been absolutely devastating in Queensland. Up near Yeppoon, in Causeway Lake and Adelaide Park, around 20 structures were burned and countless families and bush businesses were evacuated. It wasn't because of climate change; it was because of the 16-year-old boy who lit the fire. We have another nine-year-old in New South Wales who lit a fire. We have many people out there—as young as nine—who want to cause havoc and trouble and do not care about the people around them. That causes the fires, not pollution. I feel for these people who have lost their structures, their homes, their belongings and their pets, and for the deaths that have been caused because of these fires. I do congratulate and honour the men and women, the firefighters and volunteers, who have risked their own lives to save properties.

But the Australian people and I are sometimes gobsmacked. We're going through devastation now with the bushfires, on top of the drought, and we see that the New South Wales government has earmarked $48 million for bushfire recovery. The community recovery package is a joint federal and state government initiative and includes grants of up to $15,000 to help the recovery of small businesses and farmers—and I'm sure they are very appreciative of that—and $18 million of the $48 million package has been earmarked for community projects—again, very good. But put it in comparison to what Australia has just announced: a $300 million loan for Papua New Guinea to help pay for economic reforms and government financing—to a country that we know is corrupt, and their members of parliament are corrupt. Or what about the fact that it follows the $500 million given to the Pacific Islands this year to deal with so-called climate change impacts? If Di Natale is saying that it's because of climate change, why are we not putting in as much money into this country? If it is so-called climate change, why do we give away half a billion dollars to other countries? This is what the people of Australia are fed up with. Australia is also paying $607 million in aid to Papua New Guinea in 2019-20. The whole fact is that we need to look after our own, first and foremost, and make sure the Australian people are given the aid and the assistance that they need, whether it's in drought, floods or fire. In our natural disasters here, let's look after our own first.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind senators to refer to each other by their titles in the chamber, please.