As recovery from the devastating Queensland and New South Wales floods continues, there are calls for increased spending on flood mitigation and prevention methods across the nation.
The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) is warning the nation that more communities will be in the "firing line" as it calls on state and federal governments to take urgent preventative measures.
ICA's general manager public affairs Matt Jones said the recent disasters had brought the danger of increasingly extreme weather into sharp focus.
"The report we released a couple of weeks ago identified nine locations where we believed there's an urgent requirement for flood mitigation."
Lismore was among those locations, along with Rockhampton, Mackay, Dalby and Innisfail.
The ICA called on the federal government to double its investment in flood mitigation to $200 million a year, and for that to be matched by the states and territories, bringing the total to $2 billion over five years.
Mr Jones said the ICA had provided a comprehensive "shopping list" of what governments should be investing in and what they would get in return.
"I think that people understand the importance of having good community-level protections if they can be provided," he said.
Mr Jones was optimistic about the apparent change in attitude at the state and federal levels.
Funding requests knocked back
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the federal government had implemented a $4 billion Emergency Response Fund in 2019 — now $5 billion with accumulated interest — and had committed to spending $200 million a year on recovery and mitigation projects, but that had not eventuated.
"To date, only $50 million has been allocated under round one of the National Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program," Mr Miles said.
"The Commonwealth didn't support priority projects including upgrading the Flood Warning Infrastructure Network or fund to build the Bundaberg flood levee, which will protect more than 600 homes and businesses.
"We submitted 14 projects under round two, including $6 million for drainage on Archer Street in Rockhampton … we're waiting to see if this project has been successful."
'Waiting our turn for a while'
Rockhampton Mayor Tony Williams said he was hopeful the Archer Street project would be funded but believed the shelved $190 million South Rockhampton flood levee should be reconsidered as a top-priority mitigation project.
The proposed levee had received $50 million in state and federal government funding but was delayed by a series of cost increases that left it stranded in 2020 with a $105 million shortfall.
"It's great to see the federal government's talking about mitigations and funding projects that all levels of government can benefit from, but they need to work together to be able to achieve that," Cr Williams said.
"But taking into account cost escalation since around 2019 the costs would be in the order of around $200 million today.
The council has put aside $400,000 in the budget to keep the project "shovel ready" and is in a position to go to tender within 10 weeks — if and when a funding commitment is made.
"As you see in the south, it's these impacts of climate change where flooding is going to be [an] ongoing thing, but one that we've had to experience here for over 100 years," Cr Williams said.
"We've been waiting our turn for a while and it's only fair that we're in the mix when they start to talk about mitigation."
ERF used as planned, Minister says
Emergency Management Minister Bridget McKenzie has previously defended the use of the Emergency Response Fund.
"The Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was set up as a future fund to use when all other sources of funding have been exhausted," she said in an ABC report earlier this month.
"The ERF is being used exactly as it was legislated, as Labor supported it to be legislated."
There are rules in place around how ERF money can be spent — only $150m can be used each year for emergency responses, along with $50 million for long-term resilience projects.
The ABC approached the LNP member for Capricornia, Michelle Landry and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who is also the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, for comment.
They were unavailable.
