Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. I can assure him, yes, we have adopted a forward posture when it comes to the bushfire risk in Tasmania. I particularly want to take this opportunity to put on record my great thanks to the former Premier, Will Hodgman, a great Premier of Tasmania through whom most of that summer I was working with very closely before he announced his retirement. I am now working closely with Premier Peter Gutwein on exactly the same issues.

I can assure the member that the commissioners and chief officers of the strategic committee and the emergency meetings have met on nine occasions. It's brought together by the Director-General of Emergency Management Australia, who chairs that meeting. The Tasmanian chief officer, and/or the deputy, has been represented at all meetings, which have been conducted over the course of this terrible season. The Director-General of the EMA has also been in regular contact with Chief Officer Chris Arnold on several occasions to ensure that they have absolutely factored into pre-planning and decisions the advice that they're providing to the federal government.

I can also advise that the Australian Defence Force established a joint task force responsible for Tasmania and South Australia on 3 January 2020. It was then responsible for deploying personnel in response to the compulsory call-up, the first ever in response to a national bushfire crisis that has been implemented by a federal government. Joint Task Force 1111 is based on South Australia and Tasmania's 9th Brigade, and a reserve unit was spread across both states, commanded by Brigadier Damian Cantwell. An ADF emergency support force was stood up in Tasmania, responding to JTF 1111, which was based in South Australia.

On 9 January the commander visited Tasmania to conduct reconnaissance and brief the Tasmanian Premier on ADF capabilities available to support. A proactive and forward-leaning ADF posture was adopted in this state. The 17th Sustainment Brigade formed a force support team based on the 2nd Force Support Battalion and augmented with medical and communications staff from the 1st Close Health Battalion and the 145th Signal Squadron to provide the major logistics, assets and personnel to support a Tasmanian based response. The 145th Signal Squadron undertook state-wide communications checks—

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