The defence department warned the incoming Labor government it was under intense pressure due to the need to respond to “near persistent” natural disasters, and noted “the impacts of climate change” when requesting more cost-effective ways to manage the continual callouts.
The incoming government brief prepared by the defence department – obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws – makes repeated references to the Australian defence force being under pressure.
Troops have been increasingly deployed to civilian roles in recent years. They were sent into aged care homes during the Covid pandemic and have responded to numerous floods and bushfire events.
Then-shadow defence minister Brendan O’Connor earlier this year floated a new civilian disaster response agency to take pressure off ADF resources while the new defence minister, Richard Marles, and the emergency management minister, Murray Watt, have acknowledged the increasing strain on staff.
The brief states that giving assistance to the civil community is one of the “competing pressures” the defence department has to balance with strategic challenges such as “regional contingencies”.
“The ADF has supported, in near persistent fashion over recent years, the civil community at home and partners abroad in managing a wide range of natural disasters,” the document states.
“We need to consider more cost-effective ways for managing what is rapidly becoming a consistent concurrency pressure for Defence, potentially through enhanced community-based disaster response arrangements, which are outside Defence’s remit.”
The federal government on Sunday announced another $58m for disaster relief in the Pacific region on the eve of an international conference. It also confirmed the new head of its emergency management agency.
Watt last month praised the work of the ADF in disaster recovery but said Labor was considering alternative disaster response arrangements.
“We think that there will always be a role for the defence force, but we do have concerns about how far they are being stretched … their core job is the defence of the nation,” he told the National Press Club.
The incoming brief states a new defence strategic mobilisation plan would identify how to bolster the department’s ability to respond “to a range of contingencies including large-scale domestic natural disasters and national emergencies”, as well as conducting a risk assessment of the national security implications of climate change.
It stated the defence department would engage with other groups to “manage concurrency pressures and maximise the capability available to respond” – noting natural disasters were expected to increase in frequency and strength. The other organisations were redacted as part of the FoI release.
“Defence recognises the impacts of climate change and is committed to both sustaining the estate and implementing measures to mitigate the impact of our operations,” the brief said.
“Climate and disaster resilience are considered in our strategic guidance and planning, force structure, preparedness, estate and infrastructure planning, and capability development.”
The Labor government has pledged to spend more on disaster mitigation and resilience, with plans to overhaul existing federal funding structures and legislate a new Disaster Ready Fund of at least $200m a year. Watt is overseeing the merger of formerly separate disaster agencies into the new National Emergency Management Agency (Nema).
On Sunday, Watt announced Nema’s new coordinator general would be Brendan Moon, formerly the chief executive of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. The minister praised the new hire as “one of Australia’s foremost natural disaster professionals” and said the new agency was already working to prepare for the summer high-risk weather season.
“By working together with state and local governments our primary goal will be building resilience to future disasters and supporting any response to unfolding events, while remaining deeply connected with communities still recovering from past disasters,” Watt said.
“The best way we can collectively deal with more frequent and severe disasters is to be better prepared and adapt to the effects of climate change.”
Brendan Moon is the best in the business when it comes to disaster resilience and recovery - we’re proud to be announcing him as Australia’s first Coordinator-General for National Emergency Management. pic.twitter.com/fk1E2tu3NT
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) September 18, 2022
Some 3,000 delegates from 40 countries are in Brisbane this week for the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. Australia is hosting the event in partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.
On Sunday, Watt and the minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, confirmed $50m in government funding for the DisasterREADY risk reduction program, the Australian Humanitarian Partnership’s risk reduction program delivered through the Pacific.
