Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I'd like to thank those senators who have contributed to this debate so far. I remember travelling to Mackay with now Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the middle of a Queensland summer earlier this year to announce that an Albanese Labor government would establish the Disaster Ready Fund. At the time, as a country, we were still facing the long recovery from Black Summer. We were still reeling from the lack of responsibility the former coalition government took in preparing for what would become a seemingly endless bushfire season. We said back in January, when I was with the Prime Minister, that Australia was facing more intense, more frequent natural disasters due to climate change and that we as a country needed to be much better prepared than how we had been left by the former government. But even then, back in January, we couldn't possibly have anticipated what was to come.

In February-March this year, we saw floods swamp South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales and bushfires hit Western Australia, and it hasn't stopped since. Over the last 10 months, we've seen towns and regions across Australia battered by devastating, unprecedented and compounding floods. Over the last few weeks alone, we've continued to see those floods smash New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, parts of Queensland and, increasingly, South Australia. We've seen lives lost, homes destroyed and communities traumatised.

As I say, we know we face more frequent and intense disasters due to climate change, and our government is acting on the root cause by reducing emissions. But we can also better protect communities from floods, fires and cyclones well into the future. Our government said that if we were elected we would try to switch the focus from only being reactive to being much better prepared as a country, and the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022 is a crucial part of that change in approach.

This bill will implement our election commitment and will replace the former government's failed Emergency Response Fund. In the three years since that fund was established in 2019, with what ended up being $4.8 billion in it, the fund did not build a single disaster mitigation project or release a cent in recovery funding. All it did was earn the former coalition government over $800 million in interest. This legislation will replace this failed fund with a dedicated ongoing natural disaster resilience and risk reduction fund, the Disaster Ready Fund. The Disaster Ready Fund will provide up to $200 million a year, matched where possible by state, territory and local governments, to mitigate the devastating impacts of natural disasters by providing funding for disaster resilience and mitigation activities. Now we are finalising this commitment and delivering on it by writing the Disaster Ready Fund into law.

Over the course of this debate, the opposition has made the point that we need to continue to fund disaster recovery, and we do. Funding for natural disaster recovery efforts will continue under the Albanese government with other dedicated Commonwealth programs—in particular, the joint Commonwealth-state disaster recovery funding arrangements. Those recovery funds are flowing right now across those disaster affected areas in Australia, and that will continue to occur regardless of what happens through this bill. The crucial distinction that this bill provides for is that we will at last have a permanent, dedicated disaster mitigation fund at a federal level to back up the recovery funding which we continue to provide

I want to thank the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration for reviewing this bill. The committee's report, which was published on 16 November, recommended that the bill be passed. I note that both coalition and Greens members made additional comments and recommendations for amendments to the bill. These have now been considered and addressed through the debate on amendments moved to the bill. The coalition also made a recommendation that guidelines be published that set out relevant eligibility criteria and assessment criteria, including wide consultation with key stakeholders on the allocation of funding from the Disaster Ready Fund. The government was already in the process of doing this and so we therefore support this recommendation.

I can advise that our new National Emergency Management Agency is currently developing Disaster Ready Fund guidelines in close consultation with stakeholders. These guidelines will detail the intent of the fund and set out the eligibility criteria for funding proposals, the application and assessment processes, and mechanisms for monitoring evaluation and learning. NEMA is developing these guidelines in consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including Commonwealth, state and territory agencies, local governments, insurers and the private sector. The guidelines are expected to be published in early 2023, with projects to be funded and implemented as soon as possible from 23 July onwards.

Again, I thank senators for their contributions and for their positive engagement on this bill. Australia has had a long and difficult three years when it comes to natural disasters, facing fires, floods and cyclones. An Albanese government can now begin the work in earnest to protect our community. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.