Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. In summary, what we need from the government is more than just announcements. We need more than a headline about the creation of a new emergency response fund. We need more than a photo op for aerial firefighting. We need more than false claims that this government is taking action on climate change. We need real action on all of these things to make sure that Australians are kept safe.

We commend the government on bringing this legislation forward. We will vote for it. We have secured amendments from the government, particularly to the explanatory memorandum, to address a number of the issues that the Greens and other civil society groups have raised and to make sure that these powers can't be abused in the future. We cannot kid ourselves into thinking that this is all that needs to be done. There are practical steps that this government could be taking right now, using funds that it has made available for this express purpose, to keep Australians safe. I can tell you that, if we see these cyclones hit and if we see more bushfires hit, we're going to be reeling out every single time that we warned the government that they could have done something about this. They've really got to get moving. We're running out of time. We're already seeing bushfires around the country, and cyclones are only weeks away. Time is running out. It's time to do more than make announcements. It's time to actually deliver.