Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The Commonwealth has worked tirelessly with the states and territories to bolster their preparedness for this bushfire season. States and territories have primary responsibility for dealing with natural disasters. This is consistent with the historical and constitutional responsibilities of state governments.

Operationally, state and territory emergency services organisations have good links and good understanding of local needs and conditions. It would be inappropriate and impractical for the Commonwealth to take a coordinating role in deploying state and territory assets for dealing with natural disasters. The states and territories have established command and control systems for deploying their assets in response to natural disasters.

The 2000 review of catastrophic disasters report considers arrangements for the possibility of dealing with a major catastrophic natural disaster which would overwhelm the ability of the Australian states and territories to respond. The Commonwealth is addressing key recommendations relevant to it, and is working with the states and territories through the officials’ level Australian Emergency Management Committee to address the remaining recommendations.

With adequacy of current arrangements for dealing with catastrophic natural disasters, the Commonwealth stands ready to assist the states and territories to respond to natural disasters. For example, the Commonwealth has made Air Force bases available for New South Wales to support aerial firefighting in the current New South Wales bushfires. The Commonwealth Government Disaster Response Plan, known as COMDISPLAN, describes the coordination arrangements for the provision of Australian government physical assistance to states, territories or offshore territories in the event of a disaster.

The meeting of the Ministerial Council of Police and Emergency Management on 20 November 2009, chaired by the Attorney-General, has now endorsed a national catastrophic disaster plan for submission to COAG. The plan describes the national coordination arrangements for supporting states and territories and the Commonwealth in responding to and recovering from catastrophic natural disasters in Australia. The plan is important to help government responses to the possibility of a catastrophic disaster which overwhelms the ability of a state or territory to respond. This is the first time that such a plan has been agreed to in Australia. It meets key recommendations of the 2005 review.