Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the bushfire interim report. It's been a privilege to chair the committee that has dealt with this and to work with the secretariat and the other senators who have participated in the work of the inquiry.

Of course, the committee conducting the bushfires inquiry is doing its work in the shadow of the 'black summer', the 2019-20 bushfire season. The Prime Minister and this government failed to prepare for the 2019-20 bushfire season. We knew it at the time. The warnings weren't just private warnings to the government; they were public warnings to the government from public institutions that understood the magnitude of the bushfire risk that was posed right across the Australian continent. Of course, at this very moment in the Northern Hemisphere, bushfires are raging across the United States, and the continuing escalation of bushfire threat around the globe intensifies the challenge for Australia. We knew it at the time. The Commonwealth government, the Morrison government, should have known it at the time and should have taken steps to prepare bushfire communities. Ultimately, we saw the tragic consequences, and the evidence submitted to the inquiry has confirmed that all over again.

I want to thank those organisations and individuals that have made submissions to the inquiry, many of whom we've heard oral evidence from. Despite what some senators in this place say about the role of the CSIRO and the other key credible scientific institutions in Australia, the scientific experts have said conclusively once again—just in case people needed reminding—that rising emissions have contributed to a changing climate, which has meant increasing drought conditions, longer fire seasons, drier fuel, less opportunity for hazard reduction and more intense risks of more dangerous and bigger bushfires right across the Australian continent. Australia is uniquely vulnerable to this kind of climate risk.

That's why there's no shirking the responsibility here. The idea that the Commonwealth government doesn't hold a hose should be completely dispelled, not just by this inquiry but by the other inquiries, including the royal commission, that are doing their work. The recommendations handed down in the interim report are especially focused on ensuring, firstly, that the government recognises its responsibility—doesn't shirk it and doesn't point at the states—in terms of bushfire mitigation, adaptation and doing the work to secure the safety of Australians in bushfire communities.

We must urgently invest in resilience and mitigation works to keep bushfire communities safe. We must raise the rate of the Australian government's disaster recovery payment to assist survivors to recover. We must build a sovereign aerial firefighting fleet so that we can cope with longer and more intense fire seasons but also eliminate bushfires in remote parts of the country that are inaccessible for our professional and volunteer firefighters—eliminating those fires before they become the giant conflagrations that have threatened communities, particularly on the east coast of Australia. We should reverse the cuts to the ABC and particularly safeguard their emergency broadcasting funding. And we must invest in hardening the transmission sites that have been so crucial to keeping bushfire communities safe.

There is disagreement, I think, amongst the senators on the committee about some elements of the issues that confront us. But I do have to say that there has been agreement across all members of the committee that the work of the bushfire Senate committee is important work. It's important that we continue to engage in that careful work of sifting through the evidence and the material that is supplied to us so that there isn't this sloganeering about hazard reduction on the one hand and climate change on the other, as if they are two things that we cannot deal with at the same time.

Many of the recommendations in the interim report are intended to be enacted immediately. We can't leave these communities behind like they were last year. We're seeing the same failure to prepare that we saw last year, when the Prime Minister and his government ignored warning after warning from the Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC, the opposition, their own departments and dozens of former fire chiefs. It can't be allowed to happen again. Key recommendations include recommendation 3 and following:

…that, as a matter of priority, the Commonwealth Government release funding for mitigation projects through the Emergency Response Fund.

Recommendation 4

2.141 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government review, with a view to increase, the rate of the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment and the Disaster Recovery Allowance as a matter of priority.

…   …   …

Recommendation 7

4.95 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government make the Better Access Bushfire Recovery initiative and the Better Access Bushfire Recovery Telehealth initiative permanent mental health support services, with both initiatives properly funded over the forward estimates.

I can't tell you, from visiting bushfire communities, just how crucial extending those initiatives is. And, finally:

Recommendation 8

6.59 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government develop a business case to progress the establishment of a permanent, sovereign aerial firefighting fleet, …

We just can't have any uncertainty in the context of overlapping Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere bushfire seasons—that uncertainty of being unable to deliver sovereign aeroplane bushfire fighting capability.

The committee notes in this report that this is just the interim report. It's by no means exhaustive, and it's intended to catalogue the evidence and make recommendations that deal with bushfire preparedness and the lessons learned from last summer. There is much more work to be done.

When travel restrictions are relaxed the committee will visit bushfire affected regions to examine the progress and effectiveness of the recovery that we know will be long and arduous for many communities. I'm deeply sorry that, because of the public health restrictions, we weren't able to conduct that work over the course of the last six months. It would have been of immense benefit to the committee's work but I think also of some benefit to those communities to have the parliament out there in their communities, listening carefully to them about their experiences.

We will examine the ongoing impacts of the fires on the physical and mental health of people directly impacted by the fires and those exposed to hazardous levels of bushfire smoke. There is a lot of emerging evidence of the impact on people and communities and, recently, of the impact on pregnant women and their unborn children from exposure to hazardous levels of bushfire smoke.

In a rapidly changing climate appropriate hazard reduction regimes are becoming increasingly problematic. Evidence presented to the inquiry so far indicates that historical methods of hazard reduction are increasingly problematic. For example, there are just fewer days in the year when hazard reduction work can occur safely. It is true that state governments have cut the capacity of National Parks and Wildlife and State Forests to do some of that work. There is much more work and investment required and further research. In the meantime, the committee will continue to engage in a thoughtful way with experts in the field.

We're very concerned about evidence that insurance in fire prone areas is becoming increasingly expensive and could become unavailable unless strong mitigation is undertaken. We're concerned by the effect of the increasing frequency and severity of climate-change-driven natural disasters on the financial stability of the insurance industry and the apparent preparedness to make policyholders carry the burden through increased premiums. For that reason, we've made recommendations relating to APRA's supervision of the industry and monitoring of the natural perils component of insurance premiums by the ACCC.

Finally, I thank the committee secretariat for their assistance and their hard work in the conduct of the inquiry so far, particularly in the challenging circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.