Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I'm pleased to present the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022.

Those gathered in the House now know that due to climate change Australia is facing longer and more intense natural disaster seasons.

We have already seen the devastating consequences of not being prepared when unprecedented natural disasters hit. Think of the Black Summer and the long recovery time that that's taken or the recent floods in South-East Queensland and in New South Wales.

It's a sad national conclusion that the Morrison Government failed to prepare for these events. They ignored extensive warnings in the lead-up to Black Summer and left their $4.8 billion Emergency Response Fund untouched for years.

Over three years, Scott Morrison's Emergency Response Fund didn't complete a single mitigation project. They did not release a cent in recovery funding, and meanwhile that fund earned the government at the time $800 million in interest.

At the election earlier this year, Labor committed to making a big change to how this area of government is managed, and I want to talk about some of those changes and the bill that's before the House.

One of the commitments that we made was to create a Disaster Ready Fund out of this failed Emergency Response Fund.

Part of doing that was a commitment to improve Australia's disaster readiness by investing up to $200 million per year in disaster resilience and mitigation projects. We're only three months on from the election, but the bill that's before the House at the moment makes good on this commitment. The bill will transform the former government's Emergency Response Fund into a dedicated ongoing source of funding for natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives.

The bill will allow the new Disaster Ready Fund to provide up to $200 million per year for natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives. To ensure that the level of funding remains appropriate, this limit will be reviewed at least every five years. If it is determined that the limit should be changed, the responsible ministers will have the flexibility to do this through a disallowable legislative instrument. Prior to making a legislative instrument, the Future Fund Board of Guardians will be consulted to confirm that any proposed adjustment will not impact the board's ability to continue to comply with its obligations under the Disaster Ready Fund Act and the Disaster Ready Fund investment mandate. The responsible ministers will consult the Minister for Emergency Management as part of this process.

Funding for natural disaster recovery efforts will continue, most notably under the Australian government-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018. These arrangements provide for disaster recovery funding to be delivered through state and territory agencies to disaster affected communities. This, along with the recent appointment of Senator Tony Sheldon to the new role of Special Envoy for Disaster Recovery, demonstrates the government's commitment to strengthening disaster recovery and emergency management.

Dedicating the Disaster Ready Fund to natural disaster resilience and risk reduction will provide a clearer distinction between the different funding sources for recovery and resilience and enhance the focus on building resilience for future natural disasters.

In saying that, the government will honour the 2022-23 Emergency Response Fund commitments announced by the former government, including the recovery elements. This will ensure that important resilience projects, such as the $50 million Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program, which is designed to reduce the impacts of natural disasters and coastal hazards such as storm surges and coastal inundation, can achieve their objectives. The bill will also allow the government to provide the $150 million announced for the 2022-23 budget to fund recovery and post-disaster resilience measures in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

To ensure that these commitments can be met, while also promoting the long-term sustainability of the Disaster Ready Fund, the government will make new commitments to fund natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives from the fund from 1 July 2023.

On 1 September 2022, the new National Emergency Management Agency was established, merging the functions of Emergency Management Australia and the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. The agency is administratively responsible for all disaster related functions, including expenditure from the Disaster Ready Fund. To facilitate this change, the bill will transfer responsibility for Disaster Ready Fund expenditure to the new agency.

Combining the functions of Emergency Management Australia and the National Recovery and Resilience Agency ensures that all natural disaster programs and funding, including under the Disaster Ready Fund, can be administered effectively and efficiently to strengthen Australia's ability to prepare for, manage and recover from an increasing number and severity of natural disasters.

The bill will also streamline arrangements for transfers from the Disaster Ready Fund special account and make administrative improvements to the operation of the fund consistent with other Australian government investment funds.

In summary, this bill makes important amendments to ensure that Australia is appropriately funded for natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives. Investing up to $200 million per year on resilience projects was recommended by the Productivity Commission in its report into natural disasters, and it is supported by insurers, local government and disaster relief bodies. The bill provides the flexibility to change this limit, if appropriate, while promoting the long-term sustainability of the Disaster Ready Fund. The amendments made by the Disaster Ready Fund bill will improve Australia's disaster readiness into the future.

An Albanese government will be better prepared to respond to, recover from and prepare for the next natural disaster. The establishment of the Disaster Ready Fund is a really crucial step in this.

Having dealt with the detail of the bill, I want to make some broader contextual comments about the environment in which the Albanese government introduces this bill. We just had a federal election where the Australian people sent us a crystal-clear message, and that is that they are desperate for this parliament to draw a line under nine years of inaction and delay on one of the most important issues that faces our country: the management of climate change. In the work that I did leading up to the election, talking with my constituents about what mattered to them most, there was absolutely no contest. The set of issues around our changing climate is the No. 1 concern of the people that I represent in this parliament. They're worried about the natural environment that they see deteriorating around them. They are worried about disasters. We all remember, just a few short years ago, when my city of Melbourne was covered in unbreathable smog because of fires that were burning right across this country. And they are worried about their children, as I am worried about my children. Our obligation as citizens is to leave this country better than we found it. On climate change, we are failing, and we must stop failing.

We had nine years of disgraceful behaviour from those on the other of the House, where they failed to show a shred of leadership on these issues. There were 22 failed energy policies. That means not only that our country has been left with very little credibility globally in this discussion but also there is the very practical reality that people in my community are paying vastly more for power than they should be, when we have in abundance the cheapest source of energy that there is in the world.

We are starting by trying to clean up some of the mess that was left for us. It's no mistake that the bill I present today is happening in concert with the work that those in the other place are doing on Australia's principal approach to managing climate, which is to set a proper climate reduction target for our future. We are going to continue that important work of acting on climate change, but the tragic reality is that as humans we have let this go on too long and our climate is now warming in ways that we cannot manage. We cannot wind back the clock. We are dealing with a climate that is warmer than it should be and that will continue to get warmer no matter what we do about it today. We have set ourselves on a course where the future will have more floods, more fires and more natural disasters. We can't put our heads in the sand on that problem. So, while the Albanese Labor government is doing the important work of thinking about how we're going to confront our climate future from a policy and political point of view and how we are going to help our industries make that big switch to renewables, we also need to manage the brutal reality that our beautiful country is going to be subjected to more natural disasters than should have been the case.

How do we manage that? We are doing a lot about it. The bill that I'm presenting today is cleaning up what has been an abject failure of the former government to manage this issue of natural disasters. I want people to understand that the former government set aside $4.8 billion in an emergency response fund and didn't release a cent for recovery funding. During a period in which millions of people in our country suffered because of disasters, the former government had this money sitting there and didn't use it. We are going to take a very different approach. I really want to commend Senator Murray Watt, the relevant minister in the other place, who is leading this very important work.

The way that this parliament has conducted the debate on this matter over the past period of time is a record that leaves us nothing to be proud of. My fervent hope as a parliamentarian, as an Australian and as a parent is that we can do better in the years ahead. We finally have a Prime Minister in charge who wants to take on that leadership. I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.