Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed he met with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) last year to discuss the potential for cyclones and floods over summer.
His comments come after high-ranking former emergency services chiefs attacked the Morrison government for ignoring advice and "bungling" the flood disaster still affecting communities along the nation's east coast.
The Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) argue Australia is "under-prepared" for "climate-fuelled disasters".
Greg Mullins, a former commissioner of Fire and Rescue New South Wales, said the ELCA is made up of 37 former emergency services leaders with "hundreds and hundreds of years" of combined emergency management experience.
The floods are the latest in a line of "escalating" natural disasters, according to a statement released today by the ELCA.
The group claims the government has a track record of neglect in relation to disaster preparation.
Former ACT Emergency Services Authority commissioner Major General Peter Dunn said he was ignored when he and others flagged 2019 as a potentially very dangerous bushfire season.
"We were ignored," he said.
"Late last year, the federal government was similarly briefed about the high risk of this year's floods. Yet they were not prepared."
"This is where national security starts – right here, at home. There will be nothing left to defend in 30 years if we don't do something now."
According to Mr Mullins, the Morrison government "sat on its hands" prior to the floods.
"It ignored the warnings yet again — its own agency, Emergency Management Australia, were briefing states and territories and charities in October and November that we could face flooding catastrophes, and the maps showed the very areas that were impacted," he said.
"The biggest failing is they're doing nothing about what's driving these unprecedented disasters, and that's climate change."
Mr Morrison said today he was pleased to have taken advice last year from experts at the BOM.
"The issues we were going to be facing over this summer were going to be cyclones and floods. No-one was predicting a one-in-a-500-year flood, I should stress, which is what impacted in Lismore," he said.
"So, yes, I took the initiative, arranged for that meeting and ensured that National Cabinet was briefed on those matters, and I was pleased to have done that."
Mr Morrison said the federal government had learned from past flooding disasters and embedded ADF members in state emergency services for a faster response.
But Mr Mullins said the government consistently "fails to listen to expert advice".
"There are 80 recommendations of the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements gathering dust. The government has failed to implement them," he said.
Major General Dunn agreed.
"After every disaster, the federal government initiates an inquiry but fails to implement the recommendations," General Dunn said.
"It's clear the lessons of Black Summer have not been learned."
Former Queensland Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Lee Johnson said the flooding in his home state was proof of a degrading climate.
"We live in Australia's most disaster-prone state, but the disasters of today are not like the disasters of the past," he said.
"The records keep tumbling. This is climate change in action and we're all in danger."
Reduce emissions '75pc by 2030'
Mr Mullins said the ELCA was calling for an independent oversight body to implement the recommendations of the royal commission because the federal government had "dropped the ball".
"The Australian Climate Service should have the shackles taken off it so that it's allowed to actually do climate research and do a national risk assessment that is tabled in parliament and given to the public about what climate change will do," he said.
"Most importantly, now that the Morrison government has acknowledged worsening disasters are a direct result of climate change, we need them to change their policies before their next election to reduce emissions by 75 per cent by 2030, with net zero by 2040 at the latest."
Mr Mullins said fossil fuel subsidies should be terminated and the funds should be put toward bolstering state emergency services instead.
He said ELCA is also calling on the federal government to provide sufficient funds and support for communities "to get back on their feet".
Mr Morrison said the federal government was committed to a net zero target by 2050 on greenhouse gas emissions, and had reduced emissions by more than 20 per cent so far.
"Responding to climate change is not just about reducing emissions, [it is] about boosting your resilience and your adaptation, and that’s why building dams and reducing fuel loads in bushfire-prone areas is so important," he said.
Mr Morrison said the federal government has committed more than $100 million to water management projects in flood-ravaged Lismore as part of "resilience initiatives".
