Labor will consider establishing a civilian natural disaster agency rather than use defence forces to respond to floods and bushfires, as recovery focus in New South Wales turns to mental health support for the victims of the floods.
The shadow defence minister, Brendan O’Connor, cited the “increased incidence of natural disasters and also the need for our defence force to be trained for military purposes” as reasons to consider a separate agency.
O’Connor’s comments to the ABC on Sunday come as Scott Morrison continued to defend the pace of the Australian defence force emergency response, arguing that the community “are always the first” on scene because it is not possible to have “an ADF base around the corner in every town”.
O’Connor told the ABC’s Insiders that “the incidence of natural disasters [is] increasing as a result of climate change” resulting in more “non-military deployment” of the ADF.
“And that’s at the same time … that we have increased instability in the region, where we require … more significant effort in terms of potential military investment.”
If elected in May, the Albanese Labor government would look at the climate change threat assessment and make “a series of decisions” in the first four months, O’Connor said.
“One of the matters that would be under consideration is whether, in fact, we would continue to deploy the defence force in the way we are, or whether we need to think of some other means to respond so rapidly to the scale of the natural disasters that we’re experiencing.”
O’Connor said Australia may need a “national emergency taskforce”. Although ADF assistance is helpful, he said he was “not sure it’s sustainable in the way in which it’s currently operating”.
O’Connor said proposals had been put forward by the former chief of the defence force, Chris Barrie, Peter Cosgrove, and defence analyst John Blaxland.
He argued the Queensland and New South Wales floods were the latest instance of the prime minister “failing to act on national disasters”, suggesting the ADF could have been in place sooner if he had “made clear from the outset” they would be used and declared a national emergency.
The Sunday Telegraph reported the NSW SES had twice rejected ADF offers of assistance on 25 February, before ADF helicopters were requested and sent to Lismore on 28 February.
NSW SES commissioner, Carlene York, defended the decision, arguing the forecast at the time for the northern rivers was minor to moderate flood levels. She said at that time, the NSW SES resourced to those levels.
“Now history would tell us when we look back in hindsight, those flood levels went past the maximum flood reward level and went to almost 14.4 metres, which is 2 metres above anything we have ever experienced in that area.”
She said they were relying on local experience, and experienced volunteers in the area had not seen floods at this level.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the delayed call would form part of the review into the floods, and said he welcomed “honest feedback” about what could be done better.
“There’s no doubt that this event was not predicted. Was not predicted that was not what [BoM] was saying … I don’t want to have anybody in our state feel that they were isolated or abandoned. And we will look through that and I think that there are many lessons that come from it,” he said.
“Our SES, RFS and all those teams have done an amazing job through this. I don’t want there to be any sense that that there were failures in that spot and I’ve been with the commissioner during that period of time. They have to make the assessments based on the evidence and information that’s in front of them.”
Perrottet announced $25m over three years in funding for trauma and recovery services in the communities hardest hit by the floods, including $7m for primary health networks to boost access to psychological and clinical support, $5m in grants for non-government organisations to fund trauma-based programs targeting youth, older residents, and Aboriginal communities, $3.5 for Headspace and Lifeline, $5m for state-wide resourcing and support and $3.5m for 10 local recovery coordinators.
The government has also set aside $1m to set up four pop-up safe havens in the hardest hit locations for people who are experiencing suicidal thoughts or in distress.
Perrottet said it was clear after visiting the evacuation centres that the funding was needed.
“This additional funding of $25m, I believe will ensure that we don’t just focus on the here and now, but that care and that support will be there now and into the future,” he said. “And my message is we will get through it.
“I know for many people this event, this destruction can be overwhelming. But we will be there, side by side with you every step of the way. We will get through this. We will get the housing we will get the cleanup completed and we will get every single community and every single person back on their feet as quickly as possible.”
Earlier, Morrison told Channel Nine’s Today that “we moved as quickly as the defence force and agencies can”.
Morrison said that in comparison to the callout after the 2011 Queensland floods, the current response has seen four times as many ADF personnel mobilise one week sooner.
The first response “is always from the community”, followed by the SES then the ADF, he said.
Asked about scenes of Australians rescuing their neighbours, Morrison said “we need people to do that”.
“The community are always the first ones there. To deploy a nationally positioned defence force, to mobilise with heavy equipment and provisioning, you can’t just turn that off and on. We don’t have an ADF base around the corner in every town.”
Morrison said the floods were “one in 500 years”, but conceded that climate change has affected the severity and frequency of such events.
The Coalition has “always been very clear on the issues of resilience and adaptation”, he said.
Morrison also boasted that Australia has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, a reduction driven in part by Labor’s carbon price, which the Coalition repealed in 2014, and by cheaper renewable energy.
Morrison rejected “Labor commentary” that the government had been slow to act on bushfires and floods, citing a series of other crises it had responded to quickly including jobkeeper wage subsidies and closing the borders to China at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and building a “web of protection” against regional threats.
