Richard Di Natale (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister Cormann, representing the Prime Minister. Two years ago the combined emergency services put in a business case to the federal government for additional funding for firefighting aircraft that we currently lease from the US. They received no response. Now, with California fighting their own fires out of season, and with record high greenhouse pollution supercharging these megafires, we hear commissioners and assistant commissioners saying:

We're having a problem with resources. We need to admit that.

We also know that the federal contribution to these emergency responses is declining. Minister, why does the government continue to underresource our emergency services?