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

I also would like to take note of the ministerial statement regarding the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. I must respond to some of the things that my friend Senator Davey has said today. She has made a valiant effort to put forward her party and her minister's position on natural disasters and our preparedness for them, but I am afraid that there are some pretty important points that she missed in that statement and which do need to be put on the record.

We found out only yesterday evening that Minister Littleproud was intending to make this ministerial statement about the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. It can only be interpreted as another desperate attempt by this minister to distract attention from his failure and his government's failure to prepare for the coming disaster season. I have been on the record now for months—as has the Labor leader, Mr Albanese, and many other members of the Labor team—warning this government about the weather conditions we face this summer and our lack of preparedness for them. We are not doing that as some political manoeuvre. What we are doing is bringing to the government's attention a number of reports and pieces of advice that have been given to this government over the last few months about what we are facing this year.

The warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology, among other groups—the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, for instance—could not be clearer. This summer we face above-average bushfire risk in parts of Western Australia, particularly in the south-west, and also in western New South Wales. If we need any reminder that we need to take these warnings seriously, just have a look at what's happening on Fraser Island, in my home state of Queensland, right now. Almost half of the World Heritage listed forest is destroyed by bushfire, and this is before we get to the height of the disaster season in our country.

We know from these warnings that we face bushfire danger in a large proportion of the country this year. But potentially even more concerning is that, due to the La Nina conditions we're seeing, we face very serious and above-normal risks of cyclones, particularly in North Queensland and other northern parts of the country, and floods spreading basically right down the east coast. These are serious warnings. We remember the Prime Minister received similar serious warnings last year about the kinds of fires that were likely to occur in so much of the country, and that's exactly what happened. After last year, with the devastation, the loss of life, the loss of property, the loss of species, the loss of forests and the huge embarrassment and humiliation to this Prime Minister when it was demonstrated that he just didn't prepare and take these warnings seriously, you would have thought we would be facing something different this year. But we're not.

What the minister has attempted to do in this ministerial statement that he's delivered today, is say: 'It's all okay. Forget about what Labor's saying, because we have got this National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, which shows that the government is taking natural disasters seriously and is investing to protect Australians.' Well, let's have a look at what's actually happened through this National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. We all know too well that we can't take at face value statements that ministers in this government or the Prime Minister make about what they claim to be doing, because we know that what they do is they make an announcement, they make a statement, and it never actually happens. When you dig into it just a little bit, it crumbles, and it is exactly the same here.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework was announced by this government in 2018, two years ago. They didn't commit any funding whatsoever for it for another 12 months, till mid-2019, and took another year to get money out the door. So it took two years after this National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework was announced and was claimed to be the solution to protect Australians from natural disasters for a single dollar to be got out the door and, even now, two years on, not a single dollar has been spent in the Northern Territory, in New South Wales or in Western Australia. So there are a number of states which haven't received a single dollar and they just happen to be the states and territories that are most at risk from disasters this very summer. As I say, New South Wales and Western Australia are at above-normal risk of fire, and the Northern Territory is at above-normal risk of cyclones, and yet they haven't received a single dollar from this government to help keep them safe through this National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework.

So, yet again, we have statements from ministers in this government who say that they are acting to protect Australians from natural disasters, but you don't have to scratch too deeply to see that it's not actually true. That shouldn't be surprising to any of us because, as I say, we know there's a tendency by this government to make an announcement and not actually deliver. Even in this space of natural disaster management, it happens. The classic example is the Emergency Response Fund. The $4 billion fund that this government announced 18 months ago was set up to spend up to $200 million a year on disaster recovery and mitigation. Eighteen months on, how much has been spent? Zero.

We had this ministerial statement from Minister Littleproud today because he knows and the government know that they've been caught out failing to invest the funds from the Emergency Response Fund that are needed. He's trying to distract attention and point to anything that suggests he's doing something about natural disasters. But, as I say, the problem for him is that it's taken two years for money to get out the door and, even now, there are a number of states and territories that are most at risk from natural disasters this year that haven't seen a cent of it. This minister, this government and this Prime Minister have got to stop talking about doing things. They've got to stop claiming to have done things that they haven't. Just make use of the funds that are available.

There is a very serious risk of cyclones and floods, particularly in the north of our country, this summer. There is a bucket of funding that was set up with the opposition's support last year to prevent exactly the kind of damage that we're likely to see in a few weeks time. We shouldn't have to be coming into the chamber repeatedly to point this out to ministers—that they've got funds available that can be spent—and we shouldn't have to see what is likely to happen in a few weeks time, which is that Australians are impacted, yet again, by disasters that could have been prevented. It's not too late for the minister to spend some of those funds that are sitting there available. He should get on and do it now, rather than making ministerial statements that attempt to distract attention and overclaim for things that he has done.