Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. You spoke earlier of the Queensland floods. We're seeing, yet again, the impacts and escalating risk of the climate crisis. Over in the US, the damage from the Californian wildfires will exceed $135 billion. Clearly, we cannot insure our way out of the climate crisis. Action on preparation and resilience must occur now. Will the government commit to a round table to bring together construction, insurance, banking, local government and civil society to ensure better investment in climate resilience and adaptation?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Warringah for her question and for her genuine commitment to action on climate change. The member should be pleased to know that we're acting precisely along the lines of what she asks about in her question. We're developing both the national adaptation plan and national risk assessment as we speak. We know that the impact of climate change means that, while Australia has always had natural disasters, if you look over a period of time, they are more intense and they are more frequent. That is occurring as we speak.

We have made sure as well that we're addressing the issue of insurance availability. For example, one of the election commitments that we had was to establish $200 million a year, every year, in disaster prevention resilient projects through the Disaster Ready Fund. That's doing things such as raising levees around Mackay. That's making sure that the cost of building bridges—for example, the discussion I spoke about earlier today, building back better so that you don't have the same bridges washed away every time there is a flood, like what used to happen with the Einasleigh River Bridge up in the Gulf Country. Every time that occurred, food and medical supplies had to be choppered into Normanton and Karumba and into those communities. I spoke to Bob Katter just this week; some of those communities in Far North Queensland are cut off as we speak. So we do need to invest in those measures.

We also need to invest in projects that help reduce the risk of damage to homes and businesses. That will put that downward pressure on insurance premiums. When I was in Darwin on Christmas Day, one of the things that occurred was the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the tragedy that was Cyclone Tracy. As Darwin was built back, it was built to be more cyclone resilient, as opposed to 50 years ago, when there was massive damage, which could have been lessened had that occurred earlier. So we do need to invest.

We also are working with insurance companies. For example, the Hazards Insurance Partnership brings together the Australian government and the insurance sector. The forum has been created so we can talk about how we can reduce those insurance premiums, because we know that they are having a real impact, and I thank the member for her ongoing interest in these very serious issues.