Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I absolutely agree, Minister. It's my understanding from communities in Victoria that your forward-leaning posturing as a federal government with that jurisdiction would be much appreciated, as there has been with other jurisdictions. As the DFRA arrangements have become more sophisticated over time and the emergencies these communities have faced over time have become more complex and more critical some state governments have been better than others at actually understanding their responsibilities under the DFRA arrangements to access the critical funds that we have available at a federal level. We saw that obviously with New South Wales in the Northern Rivers situation where there was confusion about who was doing what. That has obviously been ironed out, which is great. Thanks.

I would appreciate you leaning very forwardly into the Victorian jurisdiction to assist them. Queensland is very highly developed. Unfortunately, Queensland is a jurisdiction that experiences more than its fair share of natural disasters, but as a result it has a very highly developed and professional response to those disasters and a very nuanced understanding of the opportunities available between state and federal governments.

I want to finally address an issue that was raised with me by ALGA and by local governments more broadly about the changes the government is bringing in for the Emergency Response Fund. Did we change the name?