Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Dawson for his questions and I look forward to visiting his electorate on Sunday week as part of the community cabinet visit to Mackay. I congratulate the member for his excellent and tireless work on behalf of his constituents during the devastating floods earlier this year. I received a number of phone calls from the member during that period, despite the fact that I understand his office was flooded, making representations through me to Emergency Management Australia in my portfolio.

A key priority for the Rudd government is to ensure that all levels of government work together in partnership to prepare for disasters such as the one visited on the honourable member’s electorate this year. The better we become at preparing for and mitigating disasters, the less adverse impact they will have on Australian communities. This government understands the impact in particular of climate change, which makes dramatic weather events more frequent and more intense. Both internationally and domestically, it is going to have an impact.

In this context, recent studies into the impacts of climate change show that the intensity, frequency and overall impact of some natural disasters are an inevitability well into the future. That is why this year’s budget provided $19.2 million over the next 12 months to facilitate projects such as structural works to protect against damage, including levies, retarding basins and channel improvements, permanent firebreaks and also disaster warning systems. The funding will be delivered through the Natural Disaster Mitigation Program, administered by Emergency Management Australia.

Of course, this will complement other programs that assist communities such as those for the honourable member’s electorate. For example, funding will also be provided to the Mackay region through the natural disaster relief and recovery arrangements, following the flooding earlier this year—and the honourable member made considerable and very forceful representations on behalf of his constituents in that respect. It will include funds for cleaning up and recovery grants for eligible small business and primary producers, as well as personal hardship and stress payments for Mackay region residents.

The honourable member also asked, appropriately, about protecting critical infrastructure against both natural hazards and human threats such as terrorism. Indeed, we have seen the consequences of the gas explosion in Western Australia—that was addressed in question time. There is no doubt that natural disasters and indeed man-made threats threaten critical infrastructure, 90 per cent of which is in private hands. It is therefore important that government work in partnership with business to build resilience against such threats, including natural and man-made threats—most concerningly, terrorism. We saw this threat vividly evident, for example, in the case of Faheem Lodhi, who was convicted of threatening to attack an electricity supply station.

For that reason, the budget provided an additional $23.4 million over the next four years to obtain cutting-edge critical infrastructure protection modelling and analysis capability, known as CIPMA. CIPMA is world-leading technology. It is a computer program which enables sophisticated modelling to be undertaken of the consequences of different disasters, to ensure better preparation and more effective responses. The funding in this year’s budget will ensure that the current pilot CIPMA program becomes an operational part of Australia’s national security architecture. Importantly, industry has been instrumental to the success of the pilot program, and government is committed to strengthening and building on these relationships to ensure that we have a critical infrastructure protection program that is second to none. I thank the honourable member for his interest and his concerns in asking these questions.

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