Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It seems somewhat incongruous that we are debating the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022, a bill that changes its name, moves money from one pocket to another, from response to emergency management to mitigation projects, while across the eastern states we have thousands of people displaced by floods, children who can't go to school, parents who are probably a bit traumatised about what to do next, communities, including my home town, on evacuation orders and immeasurable losses that we're facing. We've had crop losses across the eastern seaboard, and not just the crops that are in the ground. But we have opportunity loss as well because we can't get the tractors on the paddocks to sow the summer crops, and we can't get the harvesters on the paddocks to take off or salvage any winter crops we may have had.

We have a town in the southern Riverina right now that is absolutely isolated. People had until one o'clock today to be escorted out of town. If they missed that window, they will remain in that town because, while the town is above the floodwaters, every road in and out of town is closed. Some properties will remain isolated for weeks, if not longer. The way the floodwaters move in the southern Riverina is slow—and I mean slow. Personally, my front driveway is about to be blocked off. We'll be taking a tinny across the main road to get the shops.

But against all that sadness and all the hardship, I am so proud to be part of a coalition who, when we were in government, established the Emergency Response Fund and the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements that are being used by the current government as we speak. These provide a method of partnership between state and federal governments so that we can respond without delay and so we don't have to wait for the layers and layers of bureaucracy to come into play. The Emergency Response Fund invested in this sort of work to help focus resources on the important work of both mitigation and—when we were in government—response.

For many at this present time, planning for prevention is not the front-of-mind issue. What people are asking is: how do we clean up, how do we patch up and how do we move forward? But I do agree that we do need to assess how we can be better, and this bill does help to do that. The two main policy changes in this bill are a renaming and a swapping of the primary responsibility of this bill from what we had as response to funding preparedness and mitigation activities so that communities can be better prepared for future disasters, be they flood, fire, cyclone or any other natural disaster.

Earlier this year, we would have liked to have thought the floods were behind us. March was dreadful. The Northern Rivers were devastated, and that region is looking not only at how to build back better but at how to mitigate for what the future may hold. There is so much work that needs to continue to rebuild Lismore and the Northern Rivers area. But now we're seeing flood after flood. We've seen the community of Broke in the Hunter have multiple floods in just months. We're seeing Forbes facing river peak after river peak. Then there's Echuca, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Deniliquin, Moulamein and Conargo—my little home village, where we've only just reopened our pub after eight years. Our pub burnt down eight years ago. We just reopened it in October, and they are now sandbagging as much as possible in the hope to protect the brand new flooring they put in.

In 2019 we set up the Emergency Response Fund—our government, the coalition government. The intention was for it to be an investment fund so that we had money ready for when disasters hit. This initial investment would grow over time—and it did grow over time. As at the end of December last year, the balance was $4.7 billion. That's an increase from a $3.97 billion initial investment. When the current minister, Senator Murray Watt, who I rate and who I work very well with, was shadow minister he—almost from the time the fund was established—criticised the government for not spending the money, even when we did haven't a disaster to respond to. He believed we had a crystal ball and that we could have predicted the level of damage caused by the one-in-500-year Lismore floods. He believed that we could have predicted that we would have three consecutive La Nina events that would lead to what is happening at the moment. We didn't think that. We thought we needed to be ready to pay for the repairs when natural disasters hit.

But I do acknowledge that preparedness and mitigation are very important, and the now government, when they were in opposition, made a commitment that they would spend $200 million annually on disaster prevention. This bill delivers on that commitment that they made, but what this bill lacks is the critical detail about how they will do that, what the money will cover, how potential projects will be assessed, transparency as to how funds will be dispensed, what prioritisation they will have and how it will be dispersed amongst the states. In introducing this bill into the House of Representatives it was evident that much of this important administrative and financial probity detail was missing.

As we know, the Senate Selection of Bills Committee raised concerns. The Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee held public inquiries, and while there was overall support for the intent of the legislation, concerns were raised about the why and how of its operation. The insurance industry believe $200 million annually is a bare minimum. The Red Cross in their evidence suggested there should be a significant proportion of the fund directed to building social and human resilience for people in communities. On the other hand the Australian Local Government Association suggested the bulk of the money is needed to be directed to local government for local mitigation projects and infrastructure and be allowed to build back better, because that's where it is needed to start.

Other witnesses raised a number of issues, from better database collection and improved accountability to accessibility and overall better access to information, but that's what's missing in this bill. I asked the Local Government Association about their reference to 'build back better' and whether there is a grey area between recovery and mitigation. Their response was clearly that it's very important to have a sharp and clear definition about the fact that this funding in the future, if this bill passes, can be used only for mitigation infrastructure and that local government advocates for a formula and needs-based funding arrangement that is transparent.

Other witnesses and submitters indicated a need to determine who the stakeholders might be, how and what funds could be used for, how projects are prioritised and how the jurisdictions are all covered. My concerns expressed at the inquiry and since are around these grey areas and around the recovery and mitigation. We know some local government areas were in the process of building mitigation projects but have been delayed by the current floods, by the lack of labour or by the inability to get materials. Now, I know that we don't have that crystal ball. We can't predict. We can look at the models. We can make our best guess. But that is not a silver bullet, and we all need to always be prepared for disaster. But I am willing to support this bill with an amendment that improves the transparency of the bill and improves the accountability of whoever is in government in the future.

There are many examples of impacts that have not been expected or previously experienced. Take, for example, Eugowra. They were preparing for a flood. They thought the waters would come on. They didn't expect a tsunami. I agree that we do need to invest in resilience and building measures and risk reduction, and that's why our government committed out of our Emergency Response Fund $150 million for the Northern Rivers resilience and mitigation projects that will be advised by work that is currently being done by the CSIRO. But we don't have the luxury of doing that in isolation from current and repetitive events.

Right now our communities are asking us to rebuild. We are learning. The latest floods have shown us that we need to reconsider where and how we build houses, roads, bridges and other transport routes. I acknowledge that the current minister has finally accepted that. When the former National Recovery and Resilience Agency Coordinator-General said the same thing, the guy who is now our Minister for Emergency Management called for him to be sacked. There is much talk now about planning laws. Those discussions need to be had, but we also need to acknowledge that we have allowed planning and development on floodplains. We need to work with those communities on what works best for them.

The opposition will support this bill. We will be moving an amendment to make it more transparent. We cannot underestimate the current fragility of our rural and regional communities. We pride ourselves on our toughness and our ability to get on with the job, but large parts of Australia are at present struggling and they need to know that we are going to stand by them in both recovery and future mitigation efforts. I implore the government to make sure that, while moving this funding from recovery to mitigation projects, they don't turn their back on the funding that will be required following these floods. In this latest disaster the road infrastructure that needs to be repaired is going to require a significant commitment from the government, so I implore the government not to forget this hard task at hand. We will support the bill with an amendment for this Emergency Response Fund.

Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022. I acknowledge the experience of Senator Davey, the towns she spoke of and so many farmers and others in communities that are today dealing with disasters across our country. This bill is not spending any more money on natural disasters; it's simply reprofiling $150 million set aside for recovery spending to now be spent on public works to minimise the impact of disasters when they strike. Instead of $50 million for preventative work and $150 million for recovery, the entire $200 million will be spent solely on disaster readiness rather than mixed on pre and post disaster responses.

The Productivity Commission and the insurance industry have made it crystal clear that spending on disaster prevention saves much more money than just spending on clean-up after climate fuelled disasters strike. This will only become more obvious if we continue to let the climate crisis continue on its current path. A government's first duty is to keep its citizens safe, so we should be spending more on resilience. For this reason the Greens support the principle of recalibrating all of the Emergency Response Fund's allocations to predisaster preparedness. However, the funds on offer do not go anywhere near what is required to keep Australians safe from coal and gas fuelled natural disasters.

Further, this investment is completely undercut by the fund's investment in fossil fuels and the government's continued handouts to the fossil fuel industry. For example, we saw the government recently provide $1.5 billion in the budget to expand Australia's gas industry in the Northern Territory. You can't claim to be putting out the fire while pouring petrol on it. This is why the Greens will move amendments to increase the spending cap from $200 million to $300 million a year and to require the Future Fund in its management of the Disaster Ready Fund to ensure that the fund is not invested in fossil fuels. It's a rich irony which cannot be lost on so many Australians that the Disaster Ready Fund is invested in the very same coal, gas and oil companies whose activities are causing the climate emergencies that the fund has been set up to mitigate. These are companies like Woodside, Chevron, Santos and Whitehaven, which have no plans to diversify; they're just taking actions which are destructive of our planet.

When this bill passes the parliament and becomes the Disaster Ready Fund, it will start off by holding $21.2 million in coal, oil and gas companies. This is like a hospital being funded by dividends from tobacco companies. The Future Fund, which manages the Disaster Ready Fund, has a staggering $3.4 billion invested in the world's biggest 50 polluters. If the Future Fund isn't going to instruct its fund managers to engage with those companies to stop them opening new fields and to move away from destroying the planet, then they simply should divest.

We're experiencing the impacts of the fossil fuel-emitting activities of these companies across Australia right now. Nationwide, 200 local government areas are disaster declared—including about 75 in New South Wales alone. The floods have taken a toll on the national economy, with the agriculture industry—so many farms and farming communities—taking a sizeable hit. We're already experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, which will only be exacerbated by continuing floods affecting our food production and our supply chains. The effect of flooding will last for weeks, and even months. For some people, the impact will be for years as communities struggle to rebuild.

I'm constantly inspired by the strength of communities coming together to support each other. We see it every night on the news. But they can't keep doing this on their own forever. They need a government that has their backs. For these reasons, the Greens are moving amendments to require the Future Fund to sell off its future fuel shareholdings as quickly as practicable and to prevent future investments in climate-destroying companies or projects. The Future Fund, in its management of the Disaster Ready Fund, must ensure that the Disaster Ready Fund is not invested in fossil fuels. This makes sense; it is so obvious.

Governments need to spend much more than $200 million a year to keep Australians safe from climate damage caused by the burning of coal and gas. We need so much more than is offered by this bill. As Senator Davey pointed out, the Insurance Council of Australia has said that we need to spend $30 billion in large-scale coastal investment over the next 50 years—that is $600 million a year—to protect against storm surges, erosion and sea level rise. The ocean is a very slow-moving beast. From the heat absorbed so far, Australia will experience one-in-50-year storm surges every year by 2050, no matter what we do. That is what the science is telling us; it is locked in. But every extra tonne of coal and gas adds to the catastrophe and makes the damage worse.

This bill and its $200 million equals just one-third of what is needed to cover natural perils from the ocean. This is before we factor in the damage arising from floods, fires, heatwaves, droughts and cyclones moving southwards. For these reasons, we're moving an amendment to lift the spending cap from $200 million to $300 million a year, which we would hope the government will support. The PBO has advised that the fund would operate with this level of disbursement until 2047, in line with the government's net zero goal.

The Greens believe that coal and gas companies should have to pay to clean up the mess they're causing. In 2011, when the Brisbane floods hit, everyday Australians had to pay through a temporary increase in the Medicare levy. When the floods hit again this year, clean-up costs are being paid for by Australians through higher levels of government debt. Coal and gas companies can afford it; they're earning billions off the back of Putin's invasion. They don't pay enough tax, they shift 96 per cent of their profits offshore and they donate heavily to the major parties. That's why both the government and the opposition don't want to make them pay to clean up for the disaster that they're inflicting on the rest of us.

The entire outlays of the Disaster Ready Fund hang off how successful or unsuccessful the Future Fund is in the stock market. We should fund these investments into disaster prevention but it should be done directly, not off the earnings or losses of a capital fund in any given year and certainly not off the dividends of coal, oil and gas. We have concerns that the entire funding model of this bill is based around the Future Fund following Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan around the stock market paddock. Our climate resilience is hitched to the success or failure of global stock markets. Funding may go above or below the legislated $20 million per year, depending on how the stock market is travelling. That is not a recipe for success. It is not a good way to fund a fund like this.

Stock markets are erratic, in fast decline at times. If this happens, it's highly likely the Future Fund or the government will be wary about drawing down from the fund and committing even to the $200 million limit in this bill. This money should be provided as a matter of course to meet the necessity, not on the ebbs and flows of financial stocks and derivatives.

We also have concern that this bill doesn't even compel any spending. This fund was established in 2019 by the Nationals, by rebranding a $4 billion capital fund for education established by the Gillard government. However, from 2019 onwards, the Morrison government only made one payment of $200 million while the earnings accrued $809 million since its inception, leaving a current balance of $4.6 billion. In other words, the fund has earned $600 million more from the stock market than it's paid out to communities. That $600 million should be brought forward and spent on flood and fire affected communities next financial year.

We support the principle of this bill. The government has a duty to keep citizens and communities safe. We should be investing to develop climate disaster resilience and preparedness but this fund does not go far enough. Climate disasters are forecast to increase, and we can see them around us and around the planet. We need to ensure that we have the capacity to support communities by lifting the spending cap from $200 million to 300 million. We also need to require that the disaster fund does not invest in fossil fuels. We cannot have a fund invested in the companies that are responsible for causing the very same climate disasters that the fund is set up to protect against.

We urge the government to maintain the integrity of the intent of this legislation by supporting our amendments.

Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022. It will benefit thousands of Australians across the country. It will create what Australia should have had years ago: a proper disaster-ready fund. It recognises the reality that many Australians will be devastated and displaced by natural disasters, such as fire, floods and extreme weather—just as too many Australians on the east coast are right now. These conditions, we know, will only get worse as the climate continues to change.

This government believes climate change is real. The previous government had nine years to prepare Australia for future extreme weather. Even when they did try something, it wasn't properly thought through. They established the $4 billion Emergency Response Fund in 2019. At the time, its stated purpose was to provide $150 million in recovery funding each year and $50 million in mitigation funding each year. In the three years the fund existed it did not complete a single mitigation project or release a cent in funding recovery. Instead, it earned the previous government more than $800 million in interest, taking the total towards $5 billion—with nothing to show for it. Too often, they were there for the photo opportunity but never there when the hard work had to be done. In a country prone to natural disasters, this attitude is truly unbelievable.

In contrast, the Albanese government is getting on with the job of building a better Australia, building a country that's ready to face the future. This bill will ensure that Australia is better prepared for future disasters. It will provide up to $200 million per year to invest in mitigation projects, like flood levees, cyclone shelters, firebreaks and evacuation centres around Australia as well as building natural disaster resilience.

By preparing for natural disasters, we can protect lives and livelihoods and lower damage bills from floods, fires and cyclones. We can reduce the physical, economic and psychological impact of disasters for the Australian community. With a specific focus on disaster resilience, the Disaster Ready Fund will help prepare Australians as best it can for future catastrophic weather. It's a policy that we need for thousands of Australians across the country, and it's a policy that's very close to my heart.

Earlier this year I had the privilege to visit communities in Mallacoota and East Gippsland, including community leaders from the Mallacoota & District Recovery Association, the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and volunteers from the local Country Fire Authority. The area was severely effected by the black summer bushfires and then by flooding. We all remember the harrowing scenes of devastation and loss in the aftermath of catastrophic bushfires and then floods. The scale of the devastation was almost unimaginable. From local people I heard what was important and what they need, and they told me that they need to be part of the solution. Rebuilding, recovery and resilience in the face of growing threats from natural disasters are best achieved when local people are put in charge of local solutions, including First Nations people, whose profound and deep understanding of the land and its challenges is invaluable to successful planning and management of disasters.

The Mallacoota community has rallied magnificently in the face of some really challenging times. Sadly, though, the circumstances that produce the Mallacoota fire and recent Gippsland floods are getting more common, as we're seeing today, with absolutely tragic consequences. In my state of Victoria, last month was the busiest month on record for Victoria's State Emergency Service, with volunteers responding to a staggering 13,700 calls for assistance after the recent floods, a situation reflected in communities across the country, even as we speak. This is our new reality.

The Albanese government is delivering on its commitment to ensure Australia is better prepared for natural disasters in the future. The Disaster Ready Fund builds on other measures by this government to strengthen Australia's disaster management response, including increasing the capacity and capability of our amazing volunteers, supporting up to 5,200 additional volunteers to join the existing disaster volunteer workforce by covering the costs associated with recruitment, deployment, equipment and training.

We know we have a big job ahead of us and we are tackling the root cause of all of this, which is climate change. We know governments, not only here but around the world, have to be part of the solution. That's why this government is taking strong action and showing new and real leadership on the global stage when it comes to climate. This government is working hard to catch up on the nine wasted years of the previous government. We understand the urgency of the problem, and the time for action is now. That's why we're working with all parts of the community—unions, businesses and community groups—to move to a renewable future, while also helping people through the disasters that we're facing today. The things that matter—climate, community and the future—are worth fighting for.

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

As I rise to speak to the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022, Australian communities are again behind sandbags, beneath flood water, covered in mud. We heard from Senator Davey about her community in Deniliquin—flooding, crops being ruined, livestock being lost, people being displaced and, in tragic cases, lives being lost. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe across the world. With the natural extremes in our climate, our country is more exposed than most.

It's not like we haven't been warned. For decades, our scientists have been telling us that our climate is at risk. For decades, we've been told about what climate breakdown will mean for our future. We know that natural disasters will impact our lives and our environment more profoundly and more frequently unless we take urgent action.

Today's children—those who come here on their school tours and watch this place from up in the gallery—will live through at least three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents. You don't have to look far to see this trend—turn on the evening news. We had one of the worst bushfire seasons in our history just a couple of years ago, and now we're seeing some of the worst flooding across the country. These disasters are imposing huge social and economic costs: $24.5 billion was spent on disasters between 2005 and 2022. But the overwhelming majority, 98 per cent, of that was spent on recovery and relief, with only two per cent on risk reduction. That is despite estimates from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, APRA, that every dollar spent on disaster preparedness saves us $11 on disaster relief. It seems like a pretty good return on investment to me. We've also had, from the Productivity Commission and the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, recommendations that we should be spending more on resilience and adaptation. We should be investing far more into adapting to climate change and preparing for natural disasters.

I sit in this place and see a lot of finger-pointing across this chamber, and it points to the political short-termism that needs to be overcome in developing policy solutions for disaster preparedness that invest in the long term and invest in our communities across the country. Clearly, we see the political will when communities are confronted with natural disasters and are grappling with losing homes, losing livestock and losing livelihoods. This same care and urgency is lacking, or even missing, when we're talking about preparedness and ensuring that our communities are as resilient as they can be, given that we know that more natural disasters are coming.

This bill is a step in the right direction. I commend the government and, in particular, Minister Watt for the change. This starts to shift the focus to preparedness, and I commend Senator Sheldon for the work that he's been doing with flood affected communities in how they prepare for the next flood—because we know that the next flood will come; it's simply a matter of time. Earlier we heard Senator Walsh blame the coalition for not doing enough. That may well be the case, but both major parties have failed us when it comes to climate change. This has been something we've been warned about for decades, and we're now seeing the results of inaction. I urge people in this place to stop the finger-pointing and begin to work on this issue.

Two hundred million dollars is a great start to begin to prepare communities, but, when you compare that to the $3.5 billion that APRA estimates we need to be spending annually to effectively reduce the impact of natural disasters, we've got a long way to go. I understand the argument that we are in a tight financial situation. We do have a big debt, and clearly the government is trying to rein in spending. But, at the same time, we're happy to give fossil fuel subsidies of $10 billion plus. And then we see more investment in the Middle Arm Petrochemicals hub of $1.9 billion. Our efforts to mitigate and adapt really pale when we look at how much we're spending on perpetuating the very problem that we're trying to solve. The other Senator Pocock has rightly pointed out that our Future Fund is invested in industries that are causing the very problem that this part of the Future Fund is aimed at helping communities address.

We've clearly seen an underinvestment in disaster preparedness, and the flooding in central west New South Wales over the past fortnight is the most recent example. My office has heard from a number of those affected, including Sue. Sue owns the chemist in Molong which was under water and suffered extensive damage. She recounts the terror of a rapidly rising river in the middle of the night and the windows shattering as water came into her shop. But there's not a word of complaint or self-pity; she describes the strength of the community and the army of cleaners who pitched in to clean her shop and make sure that vulnerable people can still receive the medication they desperately need. There are hundreds of people like Sue across this great country. They deserve the best solutions, not only after disaster strikes but also beforehand to ensure their communities are better prepared when these disasters inevitably come their way.

Our obligation to support those worst affected by worsening natural disasters does not end at our geographical border. Global warming is driving the increased severity of natural disasters around the world, and we've seen flooding in Australia, Pakistan and Nigeria. We've seen record-breaking wildfires in Europe, and we've seen the conditions set for huge hurricanes in North America. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world and one of the highest per capita emitters, we have a duty—a moral obligation, I would argue—to help those suffering on account of our contribution to heating this planet. I'd like to read a brief statement from Nakeeyat Dramani Sam, a 10-year-old girl from Ghana. She told COP27 delegates last week about flooding where she lives in the capital city of Accra:

Cars were under water, people were paddling canoes where there had been streets. Thousands fled their houses. It was very scary for us. If it is going to get much worse, then I think we fear how much our future is on the line.

…   …   …

… Decide now, … if you are rich and powerful nations, to provide funds to help the ones who suffer most the costs of climate disaster not caused by us.

Having lived and been involved in community development projects in incredibly poor rural communities in Zimbabwe, that sentiment is shared. This is a problem that has not been caused by billions of people who share this planet with us. But it's a problem for all of us to bear, and I would argue that Australia needs to step up and show more global leadership on this.

Clearly, this fund is not dealing with that, but I think this is all connected when we're talking about disaster preparedness and response. The good news is that we have so many of the world's leading scientists and experts in all of these fields to help us deal with this, to help us better both mitigate emissions and prepare for the natural disasters that are coming our way. The ACT, in particular, has a lot to contribute in the disaster resilience field. Last week I visited the CSIRO's National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory, just across the Molonglo River at the base of Black Mountain. I talked to scientists there who are working to better understand bushfire dynamics and are running a whole range of experiments that they can't run in the field to better understand the likely movements of bushfires and inform firefighter crews and emergency personnel on both how to extinguish fires and then also how to prepare surrounding communities.

The CSIRO are also doing work with the ANU's Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions in developing tech-based interventions targeting bushfires. They are doing some incredibly exciting stuff, like using drones to identify fires ignited by lightning strikes, or by another source, and then using disposable, GPS-guided water gliders to control remote bush ignitions. It's our responsibility as a nation to invest in this science and to back these scientists in ideas that are going to help us deal with the kind of world we are living in and the future we are going to continue to be faced with.

Another amazing person at the CSIRO is Dr Deborah O'Connell. She is building on the work of the great Dr Brian Walker and his amazing work in the field of resilience-thinking and practice. He has been working on helping to further our understanding of how to deal with complex adaptive systems, how to best know when to intervene, and how we can deal with them. Dr O'Connell is in that field and is an expert in systems leadership and in helping people think through preparedness and responses to natural disasters. For too long we have ignored scientists' warnings about climate change, and climate change is now here. It's crucial we listen to scientists now in terms of reducing our emissions as fast as we can—as a developed country we have more of a moral obligation to do that fast.

During the committee inquiry into this bill and into the Emergency Management Fund in 2019, concerns about transparency were raised. The bill is unclear on whether there will be publicly available information about how funding has been allocated or whether funding has been allocated at all. I welcome the government's commitment to set out guidelines on how projects will be funded. I will move amendments that promote greater transparency and address the risk that grants under the disaster relief fund will be used for politics rather than for people.

I highlight the work of Senator Barbara Pocock, who has raised concerns about the way that the Future Fund is invested. I urge the government to consider this. To me, it does not align with the objectives of the Future Fund. I welcome the government's decision to give greater focus to resilience in Australia. I call on the government to continue to invest more so we can better adapt to our changing climate and invest in the clean industries of the future—not the emissions-intensive polluting industries of the past. There is a lot more to do in this country and a lot more to do internationally. This is a massive challenge but what an incredible opportunity for us in this place to be part of.

Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022 and about one of the Albanese government's key election commitments, the Disaster Ready Fund, which is designed to help communities better prepare for the impact of natural hazards. We are increasingly reminded of the need to strengthen Australia's disaster management capacity. Communities are regularly hit hard by natural hazards which then become humanitarian disasters. But with better advanced planning we might be able to avoid or at least mitigate the disastrous outcomes.

Disasters are neither natural nor inevitable.

Last week, I visited Eugowra, Parkes and Forbes in the New South Wales Central West to hear from communities affected by the ongoing devastating floods there. Eugowra is a small town with a population of 779 people that was absolutely smashed a week ago by what locals described as a 'tsunami of floodwater'. They were blindsided by the wave that roared through their town. One in five residents in Eugowra were rescued by boat or helicopter after that tsunami hit last Monday, and, sadly, lives were lost.

Just today, the Prime Minister visited Eugowra with the New South Wales Premier to meet people affected by the crisis and to announce recovery grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses and not-for-profit organisations affected by the September-October flooding events in New South Wales. That is an important quick-response aspect of this government's approach to dealing with the disaster.

But a vital point was made to me in Eugowra last Friday that reminds us why the resilience focus of the Disaster Ready Fund is just as important as the immediate recovery after a disaster. We need to build resilience ahead of time and not just respond to natural hazards when they get out of hand and become disasters. In Eugowra last Friday I spoke with small-business owner Greg Agustin, who owns a small auto mechanic shop in the main street of the town. Greg is a local SES incident controller, and he and his wife have been with the SES for decades. I asked if he had ever experienced a disaster of this scale, and he said, 'No flood like this.' Greg's workshop was absolutely devastated by the wall of water that hit Eugowra. He said he was initially thinking of just walking away from the business, such was the devastation, but he said he was already having second thoughts about that decision. He said: 'It depends on how the town goes. If they still need work done, well, I can still do it.' With each day that passes, there is a growing sense of optimism that the people of Eugowra will stick around and rebuild and that businesses will open up again.

Today's visit by the Prime Minister to announce the $50,000 business grants is a step on the path to recovery. I met with Mark McMullen and Sandra Arnold, local emergency service officers from the Australian Red Cross who had been first responders on the ground in Eugowra. Mark said, 'We need to continue to build community resilience through cross-training of services so we can adapt to the changing circumstances.' He was talking about improving the ways in which we respond to disasters by better coordinating our relief groups and working together.

Sandra told me of the importance of letting others know when you are safe in an emergency. The Red Cross Register.Find.Reunite service lets family, friends and emergency services know that you are safe in the event of an emergency. Sandra said that, during the summer bushfires of 2019-20, a staggering 71,000 people registered with the service and over 650 people were reunited thanks to it. It was used by agencies to learn the whereabouts of people who had fled the fires and to follow up with them.

We know that natural hazards such as floods, bushfires and violent storms are becoming more frequent and more severe, but there is much we can do individually and collectively to prevent them from turning into disasters. The Disaster Ready Fund seeks to curb the devastating impacts of natural hazards by investing in important disaster prevention projects. The Disaster Ready Fund will provide up to $200 million per year for natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives, as recommended by the Productivity Commission in 2015.

Dedicating the Disaster Ready Fund to natural hazard risk reduction and resilience initiatives will provide a clearer distinction between funding sources for recovery and resilience and will enhance the focus on building resilience for future natural disasters. This will include investments in a broad range of infrastructure initiatives. Two areas for this could be so-called grey infrastructure, which includes human made structures, such as dams, sea walls, roads and water treatment plants; and green-blue infrastructure, which is the use of vegetation, soils and natural processes.

Both of these infrastructure approaches seek to mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural disasters on communities. These kinds of activities help deliver on the government's agenda for climate adaptation by implementing projects that futureproof Australian communities against future disaster impacts. The bill will transform the former government's inadequate Emergency Response Fund into a dedicated, ongoing source of funding for natural disaster resilience and risk reduction initiatives. Over three years their Emergency Response Fund didn't complete a single mitigation project or release a cent in recovery funding, which at the same time earned the former government over $800 million in interest. This left us dangerously unprepared, and the Albanese government won't repeat the mistakes of any previous government.

I also want to take the opportunity to congratulate the opposition and those within the Senate. Whilst there are some amendments moved, the essence of this bill is being supported, to the credit of the opposition as well, because not only is it important to hold us responsible for decisions that we all make in this place, including those in the past, but it's important that we are forward thinking for how we move together on this very important issue of dealing with these terrible disasters. By preparing for natural disasters we can protect lives and livelihoods and lower damage bills for floods, fires and cyclones. We are committed to better protecting towns—like all of us here—like Eugowra, for people like Greg, Sandra and Mark. We support the bill.

David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Emergency Response Fund Amendment (Disaster Ready Fund) Bill 2022. While we're debating this bill, communities across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia are experiencing record floods, with lives lost, properties destroyed and towns in shock after what has been a devastating 12 months. While we're here, major flooding is swelling and overflowing the Lachlan, Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, amongst others. Residents in Forbes, Condobolin, Deniliquin, Eugowra—and just stopping on Eugowra, think about that tsunami that just swept through that town last Monday and the damage and the devastation that was caused. As Senator Sheldon pointed out, one-fifth of the town was rescued in boats in just one town, as the floodwaters washed down through the river system. But we've seen flooding in Bourke, Walgett, Hay, Albury, Echuca, Mildura, Wentworth—town after town either flooded or watching as those slow-moving inundations pour across the west and south-west of New South Wales into Victoria, into South Australia. People have lost everything, and we know this is the devastating impact of worsening climate change.

People who have lost everything deserve serious, considered support, they deserve urgent support and they need a government that's going to address this problem head on. Whilst this bill does do some good work, it does nowhere near enough. The government says that it's taking action on climate change, but we know, while we're debating this bill and talking about a $200 million annual measure, that governments across the country are handing out a staggering $11.6 billion a year in subsidies to fossil fuel companies—$11.6 billion making the problem worse, making the next floods more severe. The response is $200 million of additional public money to try and address a tiny amount of the damage. To get $11.6 billion a year in context, that's $22,000 every minute of every day for the entire year. Just imagine if that money were invested in preventing, mitigating and adapting to climate change, instead of making the problem worse. We know that this Disaster Ready Fund will provide some $200 million a year—not new money; repurposed money.

But to give some idea about what the cost of climate change is, let's look at what the Insurance Council of Australia says. They've calculated that the investment needed just to protect against coastal storm surges in this country over the next 50 years is some $30 billion. That's $600 million this year and every year for the next 50 years just to deal with one of the natural perils we face from exacerbated climate change. The response from the government is $200 million a year, in total, of repackaged, rebadged moneys.

The Disaster Ready Fund is peanuts compared to the crisis we're facing. It's floods today. Next month it'll be fires, droughts, storms and cyclones. We need the kind of investment and joined-together policy that will keep Australians safe from coal and gas and climate fuelled natural disasters. Again, to focus on my state, New South Wales, we've seen the flooding in the north of the state—the savage flooding in Lismore. I've been up there twice since the floods, once in the very near aftermath of the devastating rain bomb that destroyed Lismore in February. It's hard to think that was just nine months ago. I went there and the town looked like a mixture of a disaster scene and a film set. You could walk through the whole of the centre of Lismore, and they'd cleaned out the worst of the debris, but every shop was empty, for block after block after block. Lismore is a town that's been there well over a century, and it was destroyed in a climate fuelled rain bomb the likes of which they'd never seen before.

I want to give a shout-out to the Koori Mail for their work and for the organising work of the First Nations community up there, who formed the hub of the community response when government wasn't anywhere to be found. They came together, like First Nations communities know how to do. They don't expect government to help. They came together and formed the hub of that amazing community and the disaster relief up there in Lismore. They stepped up when governments failed.

I remember speaking to one of the employees of the Koori Mail. He was in a second floor apartment in an old shop in the centre of Lismore. They'd marked on the side of the wall where the earlier record flood from the seventies had been, and they knew that they could get above that and be safe. But, when this rain bomb hit, the waters kept rising and rising and the 1970 flood level just got inundated. He put himself and his partner and his dog on a surfboard, and they rose up inside their house as the floodwaters were rising. It was at night, in the dark. As they were rising up, they had to smash a hole through the ceiling to get into the roof cavity. They were pulling their dog up while they were on the rafters in the roof cavity, having smashed a hole in the ceiling. And then they had to knock a hole through the tin roof.

Imagine the chaos and the panic. That was repeated hundreds or thousands of times across Lismore. They knocked a hole in the tin roof. They were there on the roof and they got rescued by a bloke on a jet ski. Thank God he turned up. But where was the disaster relief? Where was the planning? Where was the acknowledgement that what we're doing with fossil fuels is creating that problem for Lismore and for towns and communities all across this country?

So, yes, let's talk about the $200 million, and let's say something has been done. But let's acknowledge the scale of the human suffering—the trauma that we're going to see from climate disaster after climate disaster. Let's be honest about it, and have an honest, genuine response. This bill does not get there. It doesn't tick the box of 'honest, genuine response'.

You can go back to the Brisbane flooding. Again, it's hard to remember that was 2011. The country had to pay—taxpayers had to pay—through a flood recovery levy. In the end, I think, it was some $5.6 billion to try to recover from just that one flood in Brisbane. Now we're making our children pay, again, for increased government debt. All the while, coal and gas companies aren't paying; they're receiving $11.6 billion a year in collective subsidies. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Labor's climate test—I think it's one of the big climate tests we've seen in this parliament—came just yesterday. And they failed that test when they voted against the Greens' disallowance to stop what I thought was the Morrison government's but is now the Albanese Labor government's $32 million loan to a gas company in Victoria to destroy part of that coastline. The Golden Beach gas project certainly fails Labor's own weak test on coal or gas projects, which apparently have to stack up financially and environmentally, although how the hell a coal or gas project could ever stack up environmentally is a mystery to me! But they're meant to stack up financially before they receive any subsidies. The only way this project gets off the ground is if the Albanese government gives a cool, sweet, interest-free $32 million loan to create more gas extraction, make the problem worse and drive the floods more. So, yes, we have the Prime Minister in Eugowra—good! Let's see him down at Golden Beach, talking to traditional owners and explaining how making the problem worse with public money is good public policy! I'm yet to understand how that works.

Labor's first budget included that $1.9 billion investment of public money—and I say the word 'investment' in inverted commas—as a subsidy to open up a gas export terminal and petrochemical precinct in Darwin Harbour. I note your work, Acting Deputy President Cox, in opposing that ridiculous project. You worked with First Nations traditional owners there. I note that when the government went to COP27 recently that that was the exact project on which the world was saying: 'Stop! Don't do that.' But there they are, the Albanese Labor government, enabling gas to be fracked and exported out of the Beetaloo basin against the wishes of traditional owners and against the rhetoric they took to COP27 and the rhetoric which we keep getting here in the chamber on climate action.

The Australian Greens support the principle of recalibrating the Emergency Response Fund's allocations to pre-disaster preparedness, and I do acknowledge the genuineness of Senator Sheldon and his work in trying to turn the beast around and get preparedness, mitigation and adaptation as public policy and get the funding we need. I acknowledge that; it's genuine work and it's hard work. But this bill does not come close to what is needed to prevent the coal and gas field natural disasters.

We're calling on the Albanese Labor government to end the handouts to coal and gas companies. Instead, make them pay, not taxpayers, for disaster preparedness and to rebuild and support devastated communities. It's those fossil fuel companies that are creating the problem in the first place. Communities suffering the deadly impacts—and they are deadly; we've seen that just this week—of climate change deserve so much more than what the Albanese government is offering them here. We should work together in this place. We have a new parliament, a new chance and a new opportunity. Between Labor and the Greens there's a powerful opportunity here to come together and keep coal and gas in the ground. We could make the fossil fuel industry, not taxpayers, foot the bill for the damage it causes. But we can only do that if we focus on the needs of flood, fire and drought impacted communities instead of cashed-up multinational fossil fuel companies. That's the test that matters, and that's the test that the Albanese government is failing with this bill.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to 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.