The Federal Government needs to work with the States to ensure clean-up and recovery support is rolled out to support already stretched and fatigued community volunteers according to Shadow Emergency Management Minister, Perin Davey.
Senator Davey said the wide-spread nature of the current floods means volunteer organisations are stretched to their limits.
“In Australia we have a really good culture of being good neighbours and usually in a crisis in one state they can rely on assistance from other branches of volunteer organisations like the SES or the RFS,” Senator Davey explained.
“This time around however every branch is busy dealing with their own crisis and they need help.
“We can’t leave the clean up to fester and create a public health hazard, we need to follow the receding flood waters and start the clean up as soon as safely practicable.”
“The States need to make sure they get requests for assistance in as early as possible and to make the disaster declarations so federal funding can flow.
Senator Davey said she had been in touch with Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt to confirm the opposition’s support for Federal assistance for the States.
“Through our experience in the devastating March floods, we made sure processes were put in place to get assistance out as efficiently as possible from funds to defence personnel, from a federal level, everything should be ready to go.
“I note some ADF are already on the ground to assist with evacuations, but we also need them to be around for the follow on to help with the clean up.
“I know it is not core business for the ADF, but when our volunteers are stretched to the limit we need to do all we can to support our communities.
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