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

by leave—The summer season represents a time for holidays and celebration for Australians. Unfortunately, it is also a time when we are most likely to suffer from natural disasters. The purpose of this statement is to update the House on arrangements implemented by the Commonwealth in preparation for this bushfire season which, as we heard at the end of question time, has regrettably well and truly started.

While states and territories have primary responsibility for dealing with natural disasters, under the Australian Emergency Management Arrangements, the Commonwealth can provide coordination functions, physical and financial assistance upon the request of states and territories. These requests often occur when effective response to a disaster is beyond the capacity of an individual jurisdiction. When it comes to bushfire preparation and response, the Commonwealth is committed to supporting the states and territories in their efforts.

The Commonwealth has worked tirelessly with the states and territories to help them bolster their preparations for this bushfire season. We have done so with the memory of the devastating 2009 Victorian bushfires in the front of our minds. They, of course, caused the greatest loss of life from bushfires since Federation. The Commonwealth is committed to assisting the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission. We welcomed the commission’s interim report and are implementing all the interim recommendations of the commission directed at the Commonwealth.

Continued above average temperatures are contributing to an early fire season this year, as we have quite obviously seen in Queensland and, indeed, if I could also recognise, in the fires that affected many people who live in northern New South Wales over the last week. As the Council of Australian Governments has recognised, climate change will increase the intensity and extent of many extreme weather events. Obviously, some impacts from climate change are unavoidable.

The government is determined to help ensure that Australia is resilient in the face of future natural disasters. We have adopted an integrated approach to managing emergencies and disasters across all levels of government, the private sector and the community. This comprehensive approach is designed to prepare Australia for all hazards that may arise and ensures that we implement measures to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

I will now outline the Commonwealth’s actions in each of these four categories.

Prevention

In terms of prevention, it is estimated that up to 50 per cent of all bushfires in Australia, are regrettably deliberately lit. In March this year I chaired a national forum to develop collaborative approaches to reduce bushfire arson in Australia. Following that forum, the Commonwealth drafted model laws with stronger, more consistent penalties for such offences—with prison sentences of up to 25 years. The government is strongly encouraging states and territories to adopt these model laws. We have also begun work in cooperation with relevant agencies to enhance training and procedures for bushfire arson prevention, investigation and public education.

Together with the states and territories, the Commonwealth is also developing a National Action Plan to Reduce Bushfire Arson, which will be considered at the November meeting of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management.

Preparedness

In terms of preparedness, the Commonwealth has implemented a number of arrangements to support states and territories in their preparation for this bushfire season. Under the Rudd government’s new Natural Disaster Resilience Program, the Commonwealth has committed $110 million, over four years, to assist the states and territories to prepare for natural disasters. The program includes a $2 million national projects fund, increasing to $4 million from next year. That fund will support key projects of national significance.

Recognising the importance of working together, the Commonwealth has also focused on building clear communication channels between all levels of government. On 25 September this year, again as recommended in the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission’s interim report, the government conducted a pre-season emergency management operational briefing for states and territories. The briefing covered this season’s outlook for fires and also cyclones as well as Commonwealth support arrangements including resources available to states and territories during disasters. I am pleased to report that these briefings will now occur annually, and I thank the states and territories for their cooperation.

The Commonwealth is also upgrading the Wireless Priority Service System to provide priority access during times of network congestion caused by a disaster event for up to 30,000 users on a 3G network. The Commonwealth has also enacted legislation to confer civil immunity on United States firefighters who render assistance during the Australian bushfire season. This will facilitate the conclusion of a firefighter exchange agreement with the United States, currently being negotiated by Victoria. Those negotiations are being conducted on behalf of all states and territories. This is a good example of how governments can work together to achieve real results.

The Commonwealth has also invested significant time, working with the states and territories, to implement emergency warnings measures for this season. Based on fire industry requirements, the Bureau of Meteorology will incorporate a new scale of fire danger ratings into its fire weather and warning services, with a catastrophic (code red) category of fire. This measure implements recommendations of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission’s interim report and was endorsed at the extraordinary meeting of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management on 25 September.

The Commonwealth has committed a total of over $26 million to assist the states and territories to develop a telephone based emergency warning capability. To underpin the system, the Commonwealth committed over $9 million for the establishment and ongoing operation of the Location Based Number Store, which is a secure, central database of telephone numbers that will underpin the system. This database is now operational and available for testing.

The Commonwealth has also committed $15 million for the establishment and operation of the National Emergency Warning System. The system is being developed by Victoria, and I welcome the announcement by the Victorian Minister for Police and Emergency Services that the system will be available after comprehensive testing, which I understand is taking place now. The system will be available by the end of November. The warning system will enable jurisdictions to send emergency warning messages to fixed-line telephones on the basis of service address and also to mobile telephones on the basis of billing address. Due to current technical limitations, the system will not be able to deliver warnings to mobile phones, based on the actual physical location of the user, in this coming bushfire season. To address this, the Commonwealth is working with the states and territories to research the feasibility of location based mobile phone technology. I am pleased to note that Victoria, again on behalf of the states and territories and with Commonwealth support and funding of $1.35 million, has sought information from the market about the possible technologies that are available to deliver that service. Information is requested by the end of this month and will be considered by the Council of Australian Governments in 2010.

The government has also established an ongoing forum of peak broadcast media organisations to facilitate improvements in the effectiveness and consistency of national arrangements between the government and the media for the broadcast of emergency warnings. The National Best Practice Guidelines for the Request and Broadcast of Emergency Warnings, which have been developed and endorsed by all participating bodies, are now forming the basis for work being undertaken by the states and territories to refine media agreements and arrangements at the local level in preparation for this bushfire season.

The Commonwealth is also working with jurisdictions, the CSIRO and the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre to assess intelligent remote fire detection systems. I want to acknowledge the valuable work and research undertaken by the member for McEwen, the Hon. Fran Bailey MP, into these technologies and recognise her presence in the House. A trial of relevant fire detection systems will be conducted this season, recognising that such technology, if proven and cost-effective, could improve our management of fires and better target community warnings.

The implementation of the Commonwealth Operational Response Coordination Arrangements provides a single ‘all-hazards’ crisis management and coordination point, for all of Australia, within my department. This will enable the Commonwealth, upon request, to coordinate the provision of support from other jurisdictions to a disaster affected jurisdiction. The Commonwealth can also provide a range of technical capabilities to help the states and territories respond to disasters. These include a full range of Defence capabilities which, although not specifically developed or held for emergency response, can be made available pursuant to the Defence Assistance to Civilian Communities program. In addition, Geoscience Australia also manages a satellite based monitoring system of fire hot spot data for use by the states and territories.

In the crucial area of aerial firefighting, the Commonwealth has committed an additional $12.8 million over four years for the National Aerial Fire Fighting Arrangements. This commitment increases the annual Commonwealth contribution to $14 million each year to provide greater access to aircraft and greater participation by smaller jurisdictions in those arrangements. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority also has two aircraft with infra-red surveillance capabilities to bolster state and territory resources. These combined resources are invaluable for firefighters in deploying resources in response to overnight changes in fire conditions.

The Commonwealth is also working closely with the states and territories to ensure that the triple zero emergency service operates effectively in crises. As agreed at the extraordinary meeting last month of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management, the states and territories are reviewing their procedures for dealing with a surge in demand in their triple zero emergency call centres as occurs in the case of a crisis.

Triple zero connects emergency callers to fire, police or ambulance services. It is not a general information line. To reduce pressure on the triple zero service, the states and territories are working to reduce the number of non-emergency calls to triple zero during crises. My department is working with Telstra to develop a national protocol for activating ‘extreme event’ recorded voice announcements, which would redirect non-emergency triple zero callers to other information sources during extreme crises to leave the triple zero service available to deal with those who are genuinely facing an emergency. The Commonwealth is also working with industry to progressively limit calls from mobile phones that make repeated hoax calls to triple zero. The Commonwealth is also making additional call centre capability available to the states and territories for emergency information lines where their local capacity has been overwhelmed in a disaster.

The Commonwealth has robust arrangements in place to help individuals and communities recover from natural disasters.

These include:

• funding support through the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements that were described by the Acting Prime Minister at the end of question time,
• funding support to individuals through the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment,
• sharing of identity related information following a disaster, and
• helping locate people separated by an emergency through the National Registration and Inquiry System.

Following the tragedy of the Victorian bushfires, the Commonwealth government provided and continues to provide national leadership in the recovery effort. In total the Commonwealth is providing around $450 million to help affected communities rebuild and recover. This support has included direct financial assistance payments, assistance with funeral costs, an income recovery subsidy and the provision of mental health and counselling services.

The Commonwealth has also worked with the Victorian government in the clean up of fire damaged properties, a comprehensive case management service, small business and primary producer assistance, community hubs and the construction of memorials, amongst a number of other projects and programs targeted at supporting local communities in the response and recovery effort.

I would like to acknowledge the work of Minister Macklin and Parliamentary Secretary Shorten in that effort.

In the coming months, COAG will also review the Commonwealth’s disaster recovery framework, to ensure that it is appropriately adapted to help communities recover from emergencies. The Commonwealth will ensure that lessons learnt from the Black Saturday recovery effort will be reflected in this review. This unprecedented disaster must be used to strengthen recovery arrangements in preparation for the increasing threat posed by factors such as climate change.

A simple and flexible suite of response measures at Commonwealth, state and territory level should be the overarching objective, including direct emergency financial assistance, counselling and information services, and case management.

The Commonwealth, through COAG, the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management, or MCPEM, and at agency and operational levels is working cooperatively to assist the states and territories to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters.

To this end, I have written to my state and territory colleagues seeking their advice, if possible by 23 October 2009, as to any other measures within the Commonwealth’s responsibility that may require the Commonwealth’s consideration in this coming bushfire and cyclone season.

The government remains committed to assisting states and territories to continually improve their emergency management arrangements and capabilities in order to effectively build individual and community resilience to disasters.

I thank honourable members for their attention. I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Farrer to speak for 17 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Ms Ley speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 17 minutes.

Question agreed to.

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