Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Emergency Management, Senator Watt. Last year nearly 70 per cent of Australians lived in a natural disaster zone. Can the minister outline what steps the Albanese government is taking to make sure that Australians are better prepared and better protected for natural disasters?

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

Thank you, Senator Sheldon, for another question on an issue that I know you are very interested in and work very hard on. Before I directly answer the question, I note that yet again in northern Australia we are facing serious rainfall over coming days, particularly in the Northern Territory and northwest Queensland, an area that I know Senator McDonald is very familiar with. Senator Green had spoken about this issue as well, and I know that all our best wishes go to people in those areas to stay safe. Please remain aware of emergency warnings in coming days and that famous slogan that too many people ignore: if it's flooded, forget it. Let's all take care over the coming days.

Senator Sheldon, as you know, the Albanese government knows that as Australia faces more intense and more frequent natural disasters due to climate change we need to be better prepared. That's why we've established the Disaster Ready Fund, our flagship disaster resilience and mitigation fund. The Disaster Ready Fund will invest up to $200 million in federal funding every year in disaster mitigation and resilience measures, and, where possible, that funding will be matched by states, territories and local governments where they are partners in these projects. These measures that this fund will provide funding for could be used for everything from seawalls to evacuation centres and drainage improvements; for things like community preparedness plans and training programs. I'm pleased to say that applications for the first round of our new Disaster Ready Fund closed on Monday this week, and they are now being assessed by an independent panel. That funding won't become available until 1 July this year, but we've deliberately got moving quickly early this year so that we're ready to go once that time frame arrives.

We also know that we need targeted support for communities still recovering from the devastating 2022 February-March floods, along with all of the other floods that we saw last year. As I mentioned earlier this week, we recently announced the first phase of funding for the Northern Rivers, and there's going to be a lot more to come because mitigation matters. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sheldon, first supplementary.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline how the Albanese government's approach to disaster preparedness compares to previous Commonwealth government approaches?

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

I can. One minute will absolutely be enough time to outline the Albanese government's approach and how that compares to what we saw from the former government. In fact, I could really just mention the former government's approach very quickly because the answer is 'not much'. Who could forget the former government's infamous nearly $5 billion Emergency Response Fund. Established in 2019, in three years the coalition's emergency response fund didn't release a single cent in recovery funding and didn't complete a single mitigation project. What it did do was raise nearly $1 billion in interest for the former government while actually doing nothing to assist Australians with disaster mitigation or disaster recovery. Who knows what kind of damage could have been avoided or what kind of loss could have been avoided if the former government had used that fund in the way it was constructed to provide for mitigation. Unlike the former government, the Albanese government believes in planning for future events, not waiting for them to happen.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Sheldon, second supplementary.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline any threats to the Albanese government's commitment to ensuring Australians are better prepared and better protected from natural disasters before they become humanitarian disasters?

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

We have known for years that the federal government has needed to significantly increase its investment in protecting communities from natural disasters. All the way back in 2015, the Productivity Commission recommended that the federal government should invest $200 million every year in disaster mitigation and resilience across Australia, but what did the former coalition government do? Absolutely nothing, as we saw in so many other areas of policy. For years they ignored the advice of the Productivity Commission before eventually setting up the Emergency Response Fund, which failed to release a single cent in recovery funding and didn't complete a single mitigation project. In fact, when the legislation had been passed to create the then Emergency Response Fund, the only reason it even provided for mitigation funding was that Labor insisted on it as an amendment when we were still in opposition. So it's no wonder that we have such a big backlog of mitigation projects right around the country. We're starting to work through that backlog with the Disaster Ready Fund, and I look forward to working with states and territories to implement it.