Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I rise to speak on the Boots on the ground: raising resilience report. I want to thank my fellow senators and say a big thankyou to the secretariat of the Senate Select Committee on Australia's Disaster Resilience. The committee was established in November 2022 to inquire into Australia's preparedness, response and recovery workforce models, as well as considering alternative models for disaster response and recovery.

There have been an unprecedented number of natural disasters over the past few years, and the science is clear: it is only going to get worse. Some of these communities have not only got hit once or twice; they're now, I reckon, about today, getting hit a third time—just one after another after another. Research by KPMG found that, in 2022, 18 million Australians were living in areas impacted by at least one natural disaster, and, in some cases, multiple events within three years.

Over the last 18 months, members of the committee have heard firsthand from Australians struggling to get communities back on track after floods and bushfires. The committee and I met with many of these impacted communities, and I would like to thank all those Australians for sharing with the committee their thoughts, their experiences and their advice and, at some times, their heart and their soul. For some that had been hit two or three times, I can assure you it took psychological strength to come in and go back over their tragedy. I give all credit to those Australians who did that, and I say, 'Thank you.' Some of those Australians had lost everything. Some of them were still living in caravans and tents, 12 months, 18 months or two years later. Some of them had given up and just moved away. And many—too many—are still starting to rebuild their lives. Hearing from these Australians at the coalface of these disasters was powerful. Their resilience, quick thinking and downright bravery brought a lot of us to tears—let alone the lives that were saved when ordinary Australians put their own on the line.

The committee cannot direct the government to back our recommendations in, and of course we can't direct where they put their funding, but I would encourage them to take a close look at the committee's report. If the government is serious about protecting communities across the country, they are going to have to find a lot more money to make this happen, I can assure you.

According to the CSIRO, the concept of building back better would be a good start. And, if you actually did it properly, it would be phenomenal, because I was not seeing that during our time out there. If you do not get that infrastructure correct in the first place, you will continue to rebuild, and that will cost us a lot more money in the long run. Stop taking shortcuts. You have no time left for shortcuts. You've got to do it properly in the first place.

We need to know what money is available and what more needs to be done, and the money has to be distributed transparently and fairly so it's available to all communities that need it. All levels of government need to be better connected. Our three tier system creates a lot of problems. There is a big disconnect between federal, state and local government, especially local government. We need a national asset register so we know what we have and what can be deployed quickly to communities in need. We are miles off this. And not only do we need to think about the federal and state government assets; we need to think about the suitable local community and private assets that are out there. I don't think you're joining the dots very well, I'll be honest with you. The disaster recovery funding arrangements need to be amended so money can be set aside for emergency payments that can be available a lot quicker than what they're getting right now. Time is not on your side, when you are hit with flood and fire.

We heard from the councils, who are being left with huge bills because they had to clear huge piles of rubbish off the streets. There aren't many councils out there with a lot of money to spend, and, when they get fire trucks and other equipment, they have to pay to maintain them. That includes servicing and parts, and it also includes operators. It's great that you guys in here or at state level are providing this equipment, but you don't provide anything else with it, when the local councils out there, many of them in rural and regional areas, have hardly any money at all to sustain them. That's rubbish. I don't know what planet you're living on. That's never going to happen. It's just not. At lot of this equipment is sitting there and has hardly never been used. It's really shameful.

What's more, they often have to spend hours filling out grant applications, and it often takes weeks for them to get a response. When you're sitting in floodwater, you don't have time to apply for grants. Come on! It shouldn't be that difficult when people's lives are in despair, when their lives have been turned upside down. We're really doing a miserable job of it. We seriously are. I'm not having a go at you guys over here. I know it's been everyone in this, but we've got to do so much better at this. We really do.

This is what really bothers me more than anything: the biggest message the committee got from everyone was the lack of volunteers and the ageing population of our volunteers. We have a problem in this country with volunteers. It's not happening. When a disaster hits, the Australian emergency service agencies act as the first responders protecting life and property, but this workforce is often underpinned, once again, by volunteers. The role of these volunteers cannot be understated; they are some of the most selfless, amazing Australians around, and I thank each and every one of them.

One of the committee's recommendations is that the Australian government consider amendments to the Fair Work Act 2009 to legislate time off for volunteers and for volunteers to be granted leave from employment like the provisions reservists get under the defence reserve service act. Volunteers need to be properly trained. Where the cost of relevant training is not, the Australian government should consider amendments to legislation, policy and guidelines so that volunteers working in organisations, such as state emergency and rural bushfire services, can claim at a minimum, at this point in time, deductions, training and courses that are part of their emergency volunteering.

I have to be honest with you, we are doing a really bad job at this. We are not doing enough work on the corporates. And the government of the day could do something about what is going on here with the Public Service. Start leading by example. Get these guys to put some boots on and encourage them to do it. You have to lead from here—and I'm sorry to tell the Public Service that—and say, 'Here are some boots; you need to go and put them on.' But we have to do something. One of the most critical things that I found in doing this for the 20 months was the volunteerism. We have a huge Public Service in this country, yet we're not preparing them and getting them ready and able to combat disaster. My goodness! How shameful are we. And I'll tell you what: there would be a few of us in these chambers that could actually go and put some boots on too and get trained up to be ready to go. It's got to be 'one in, all in'; otherwise, it's never going to work.

The government must consider how it can further support Disaster Relief Australia and other similar organisations with funding beyond 2026. They need stability. They can't plan for two years and then be left wondering whether they've got funding. It's just not working. It's an absolute failure. The other question is how the Australian government can further incorporate Disaster Relief Australia into its national disaster response arrangements and boost its numbers through partnerships with the Australian Defence Force and the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

We must find a way to incentivise young Australians to participate in volunteer organisations that provide support for disaster response and recovery. Once again, we are losing the volunteers; we're not gaining them. The numbers are falling, and they are falling quickly. Unfortunately, my generation and below are not signing up. How about that? You've got my generation, the next and the next out there. We have a massive gap; we have a hole. And, with all due respect to this generation that has been doing all the heavy lifting up here, they're getting on. It's not because they don't want to do the heavy lifting; their bodies just won't allow them to do it anymore. So we have a real problem and we need our young Australians. They're going to need to get on board. We need to be open and honest with them. We need to take responsibility for climate change and for what's happening out there and ask them to help us. We need to ask for their help.