David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

In the face of heightened bushfire risk and with firefighters at capacity, there is an urgent need for substantial and new federal government investment in technologies such as water gliders and drones for early detection of bushfires.

Today I bring an urgency motion about bushfire preparedness. We have now heard on multiple occasions from experts in this field, from firefighters, from forest ecologists and from bushfire survivors about the need for Australia to step up our bushfire preparedness. When it comes to stopping bushfires, we know that every second counts. The sooner we identify and address fires, the better our chance of avoiding things like the terrifying pyrocumulonimbus clouds that have become a regular occurrence with increasing climate extremes. These clouds are generated by the rising heat of megafires and can influence weather around them. They can create their own lightning and wind, even lighting and driving further fires. As many Australians have seen with their own eyes, they are utterly terrifying and devastating for people and property. We need to invest to be better able to monitor fires and ensure we are getting to them as soon as possible.

Thankfully we have some of the brightest minds in the country working on solutions to this. ANU researchers have built an automated algorithm that can detect smoke. Cameras running the algorithm could be mounted on fire towers and programmed to send alerts to emergency services when smoke is sighted. The ANU and a Sydney firm, Carbonix, are developing long-range drones that can fly over secluded landscapes day and night to detect bushfires early. A lightning storm can have thousands of strikes, so it would take a long time to act on all of those, but, if we can narrow it to tens of strikes using the new AI algorithms, we will have a better shot at stopping catastrophic bushfires. In collaboration with the ANU, the OzFuel satellite mission uses novel infrared technology to pick up what types of vegetation are more prone to catching fire. If we can identify areas at the highest risk, we can give firefighters more time and create the highest chance of being successful.

Autonomous GPS targeted gliders—which, built at full scale, could each carry 500 litres of water and saturate specific targets such as trees ignited by a dry lightning strike—could be built using dense cardboard and off-the-shelf avionic components at a low cost, around $500 each, and be launched from a high-flying cargo aircraft, decelerating by parachute and splitting open to disperse and mist the water right over the burning target. We're only talking about tens of millions of dollars here to support our brave firefighters, who are at capacity. Many of them have been getting back from the Northern Hemisphere fire season and are already fighting fires across the country here—and it looks to only get worse this year. If El Nino persists it could be catastrophic next year. We must step up. We have the resources to do this. For a country that is spending the lowest amount on research and development, as a percentage of GDP, in its history, it is urgent that the government steps up and puts money into funding these cutting-edge technologies to assist firefighters and communities who are being impacted by fires.

There are, of course, other things that this parliament needs to do when it comes to mitigation and reducing emissions, such as looking at things like native forest logging and how that increases the likelihood of forests igniting and burning. But we have an opportunity for this government to invest in cutting-edge research and technology that, once developed, could become a huge export industry as well as helping our firefighters and communities across the country as we enter uncharted territory when it comes to the climate.