Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Griff, for the question and for some advanced notice on the topic. As you rightly point out, the royal commission interim report in relation to the natural disaster arrangements was brought down yesterday and made reference to Australia's capacity to deal with natural disasters, particularly in relation to bushfires. It also did make the point that bushfires are not the only natural disaster which we have to address.

In relation to aerial firefighting, Minister Littleproud has made it very clear that the Australian government understands that we do need to address aerial firefighting capability on the basis of what is going to be the new normal when it comes to bushfires. In fact, I think the royal commission itself acknowledged the fact that the conditions leading up to last year's bushfires were absolutely unprecedented, but we should never expect them to be unprecedented again. As part of that, the Australian government has made a commitment in this year's budget to over $26 million to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre, and this money will contribute towards the lease of 150 firefighting aircraft. They will be made up of a number of different types of aircraft, some of which will be dedicated to the response to the smaller fires that you refer to, whilst others, like the large, fixed-wing aircraft and air tankers, are much more dedicated to delivering a service to fight fires on a much wider scale. The government has absolutely acknowledged the need for and the commitment to supporting our amazing firefighters out on the ground to deal with what has proven to be over recent years a continuing worsening of our bushfire season. I also acknowledge the extraordinary on-the-ground support that we received from the ADF.