Improving Emergency Management
Thursday 20 March 2025
Second Reading Debate - Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill 2025
Ms CLANCY (Elder) (12:01): I rise today to speak on the Emergency Management (Miscellaneous) Amendment Bill. The Emergency Management Act establishes the legislative framework and principles for coordinating the necessary activities before, during and after identified major incidents, emergencies and disasters. It assigns key accountabilities and provides authority to effect response and recovery operations.
The act has been crucial to our state time and time again over the nearly 20 years since it was first put in place. It was needed in the management and response to COVID-19, the recent River Murray floods, the statewide blackout in 2016 and a number of bushfires, including those in late 2019. It is likely it will be needed even more as we continue to see the effects of climate change through an increase in natural disasters.
The horrific fires in California might have been happening when we were sweltering through our summer, but it was in winter for them—horrific fires blazing for weeks in winter. Climate change is real. Our farmers have seen the changes for years, and cities are now experiencing its effects more and more. We do not have to look far to see the damaging effects of climate change. I am sure many, like me, refreshed the BOM radar over and over again looking at Queensland and northern New South Wales as Tropical Cyclone Alfred loomed.
I want to thank all the incredible people who worked so hard to keep people safe during the extreme weather faced up there, including many volunteers. Back in 2011, I witnessed the inspiring determination of Queenslanders following the floods that started in late 2010. My friend Ryan was doing so much to help people and I wanted to contribute as well, so I flew up to Brisbane and helped sweep sludge out of people's homes near Goodna.
It was awesome to see communities coming together to support one another, people helping others when they have lost everything themselves. The Mud Army, as it became known, formed in the thousands, and there is a beautiful story in Trent Dalton's book Love Stories about what the Mud Army meant to a woman named Moana, so please add it to your reading pile.
I would like to now share part of a statement on ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred by Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, which is a coalition of former fire and emergency service leaders from every Australian state and territory. Here it is:
As 38 former Australian fire and emergency service chiefs who have directly responded to countless extreme weather events over the past five decades, we are deeply concerned about the trend of worsening extreme weather disasters, fuelled by climate change.
The ongoing impact of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred on communities in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland highlights that many Australians are increasingly being impacted by consecutive, compounding climate disasters including heatwaves, drought, fires, storms and floods, leaving little time for recovery. Many people impacted by flooding and damaging winds from Alfred are still re-building from the record breaking catastrophic 2022 floods.
Queensland has had to deal with many disasters in the last seven years, including bushfires and floods in 2018, Black Summer in 2019/20, floods in 2022, bushfires in 2023, more bushfires in 2024, floods in January 2025, and then TC Alfred in March 2025. The climate is changing and this is becoming our new reality.
Make no mistake, this is climate change in action and as the world warms at record rates, impacts unfortunately will worsen, whether it be catastrophic bushfires like our Black Summer, Maui in 2023, the winter firestorms that devastated Los Angeles this year, the deadly 2024 Spanish floods, and now the major impacts of a slow-moving ex tropical cyclone that reached as far south as northern NSW, something we can expect more of in future.
Scientists are very clear: climate pollution from the burning of coal, oil and gas has intensified not only hot, dry weather that fuels catastrophic fires, but also the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events.
TC Alfred was made more intense by record hot ocean temperatures, higher levels of atmospheric moisture, and higher sea levels. Similarly, the successive storms and intense rainfall that led to the devastating 2022 floods in many parts of Queensland and NSW were intensified by climate change.
Scientists have tried to warn us for decades but were not listened to until after the change of Federal Government in 2022. We are now living through the predicted consequences of increasing climate pollution and inaction for many years by governments worldwide.
Fire and emergency services and the Australian Defence Force are now having to respond to more frequent and extreme natural disasters, stretching their capacity. More intense, frequent extreme weather events put emergency responders in greater danger, for longer and more often. As former emergency service leaders, this fills us with dread, particularly when selfless, brave responders lose their lives trying to save others.
All Australians are suffering from the ravages of the climate crisis right now, and Governments at all levels must acknowledge that prolonging the use of fossil fuels will make future disasters even worse. This is why slashing climate pollution this decade must be a top priority. At the same time governments must invest heavily in adaptation and community resilience measures to keep people safe. Australia has made progress in recent years, but we must go farther and faster. The safety and wellbeing of all Australians, courageous emergency responders, and our kids' futures depend on it.
As we approach a Federal election, Australia can't afford to slip back into climate denial, inaction, and far-off 'solutions' that will actually increase climate pollution.
Despite the massive impacts of ex-TC Alfred, in some ways this time we 'dodged a bullet'. Its slow movement meant that residents of northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland, as well as emergency services and Federal Government agencies including the ADF had time to prepare. This helped save lives. We acknowledge the focus that the Prime Minister and dedicated public servants in rebuilt agencies, like the National Emergency Management Agency brought to the response effort, working hand in hand with the Premiers of Queensland and New South Wales. This was in stark contrast to the previous Coalition government's mismanagement during the Black Summer bushfires, as well as the devastating floods in early 2022.
Time was on our side for this cyclone, but we are fast running out of it when it comes to staving off much worse impacts.
We no longer have the luxury of time to put off dealing with climate change.
Australians, and the emergency services that protect them, cannot afford our country once again slipping backwards on climate action. This is the time all political parties and candidates should be pressed on how they will act immediately to deeply cut climate pollution, and how they will build up (certainly not cut back) the public service in critical areas including climate research, weather forecasting, and emergency response and recovery agencies that we rely on to protect us all.
For those who tuned in halfway through, that was a statement from Emergency Leaders for Climate Action.
As a state government, we are committed to doing what we can to address and mitigate the effects of climate change. Last year we introduced a bill to modernise the Climate Change and Greenhouse Emissions Reduction Act to provide a more contemporary legislative framework to deliver South Australia's climate change policy objectives.
The bill, which passed the Legislative Council on Tuesday with amendments and then this house yesterday, enshrines in legislation South Australia's short-term and long-term emissions reductions targets to help limit the extent of climate change. The bill also provides for improved climate risk assessment and climate adaptation measures, including sector planning to support South Australians to respond and adapt to the impacts of climate change that are already in train.
When that act came into operation in 2007, it was the first of its kind in Australia. It has guided policy and planning in our state to achieve world-leading outcomes in renewable energy generation and climate mitigation. The bill is an important part of the South Australian government's broader policy agenda to deal with climate change and respond to the declaration of a climate emergency. It replaces the South Australian target of at least a 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with our current state target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
A net zero target was first adopted by the Weatherill government in 2015 and aligns with Australia's national target and commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement. A short-term target for at least a 60 per cent reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is also enshrined in the act as well as a state target of 100 per cent net renewable energy generation by 2027.
Our federal counterparts, the federal Albanese government, is doing a lot too, setting the target of net zero emissions by 2050 in law while working towards reducing Australia's emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 and maximising cheap, clean, reliable, renewable energy to get our energy grid to 82 per cent renewables by 2030, with 750,000 rooftop solar systems installed since they were elected. It delivered a 25 per cent increase in renewables in our national energy grid in two years and ticked off enough renewable energy projects to power almost seven million homes, with record numbers in the pipeline.
The Albanese government is investing in battery storage and transmission to ensure reliable power everywhere, rewiring the nation with $20 billion to modernise our national energy grid. It is improving charging—
Mr Whetstone: She must be speaking on the wrong bill.
Ms CLANCY: Do you want to make a point of order?
Mr Whetstone: I wasn't talking to you.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Ms CLANCY: I will not respond to that but I would like to make it very clear that climate change is leading to more emergencies, so it is very, very relevant to the bill that is before us currently.
Members interjecting:
Ms CLANCY: Get up. Up you pop! I did not say the pandemic.
Members interjecting:
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey, you have a chance to speak. I think you have exercised your chance to speak, so I suggest you listen to others like others listen to you, even if they disagree with you.
Mr Whetstone: I am listening.
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Quietly. No, quietly.
Members interjecting:
The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey, do you wish to leave the chamber?
Ms CLANCY: I think that a flood is an emergency, so I think it is worth talking about climate change and the increase in events like floods and bushfires when we are talking about emergency management. An emergency is not just a pandemic, but if the member for Chaffey, who has the River Murray flowing through his electorate, thinks that the only type of emergency possible is a pandemic, I note that.
Other things the federal Albanese government is doing to mitigate climate change are ensuring the benefits of reliable renewables are shared with households and businesses and creating thousands of jobs. It has established a new vehicle efficiency standard to give people more choice of cheaper and cleaner cars, established a Net Zero Economy Authority to help regions and workers adjust to the move to a low-carbon economy and has secured a strong future for Australian-made aluminium with a $2 billion green aluminium production credit.
Knowing climate change is resulting in more intense, frequent emergencies, this Emergency Management Act must be as effective and fit for purpose as possible. To ensure that is the case, an independent review of the act was conducted by PG Consulting, the first full-scale review of the Emergency Management Act since its commencement 20 years ago. The proposed legislative amendments are informed by the extensive stakeholder engagement undertaken throughout the course of the review.
The review received feedback from the emergency management sector, multiple levels of government, non-government and volunteer organisations and the general public. The government considered the recommendations and observations contained within the final report and chose to publish the final report with an accompanying government response which accepted, or accepted in principle, all of its recommendations.
This amendment bill has been developed to incorporate all 28 recommendations made in the final report of the independent review. Two of the significant amendments are introducing the role and powers of a state recovery coordinator and introducing a new declaration category that would support the scale up and down of emergencies.
The State Recovery Coordinator will strengthen emergency management arrangements, with them responsible for, among other tasks, leading state-coordinated recovery planning and recovery operations when it is determined a state-recovery response is required for an emergency outside of a declaration period.
Part of the impact of an emergency declaration is the message it sends to communities about the seriousness of an emergency. The current declaration is quite a blunt instrument, as we are either in a declared emergency or we are not. In the act, we have a declaration framework where we have identified major incidents to a major emergency to a disaster. Each category brings with it a different understanding of the severity of the situation.
These changes made within this amendment bill will strengthen the act and ensure our legislative framework provides a basis for effectively managing all stages of emergencies into the future, whether that emergency be a pandemic, a flood, a bushfire or a number of other potential natural disasters, or otherwise. I commend the bill to the house.
