THE Nationals WA have pledged to establish a new lead agency to manage disaster recovery and make WA communities safer and more resilient if returned to government in next year’s March state election.
When making his announcement Nationals WA leader Shane Love said a WA Resilience & Recovery Agency, modelled on similar agencies already operating successfully in other jurisdictions, would ensure WA communities could rebuild, recover and reconnect sooner and more effectively in the aftermath of a disaster.
This week when answering a range of questions about disaster readiness and mobile connectivity for Perth Hills communities, federal Hasluck MHR Tania Lawrence referred Echo News to the February 2024 Update on the government response to the Wooroloo Review.
Recommendation 1 of the review is the consideration of a dedicated Perth Hills incident management facility.
The review said following the completion of stage 2 of the options analysis the construction of a new incident control centre (ICC) in the Perth Hills had been placed on the Department of Emergency Services strategic asset plan and would be presented to the state government for consideration.
Mr Love said the state government’s woeful response to cyclone Seroja, which saw just $8.8 million out of a promised $104.5m disaster recovery funding arrangements package reach the ground as a clear example of why a standalone agency was needed.
“Many families, businesses and communities found the recovery grants offered following Cyclone Seroja difficult to access or too restrictive in how they could be used,” he said.
The proposed agency would take a proactive approach to keeping communities safe by reducing risks, helping communities prepare for disaster and building resilience capacity at a local level.
“The agency will also take the lead in administering funding following disasters, ensuring it reaches those in need in a timely manner, reducing the haphazard approach to recovery grants, and providing greater transparency and accountability.”
Agricultural MLC and opposition Emergency Services spokesman Martin Aldridge, who on Wednesday, April 17 announced he would step down at the next election, said the proposed agency would provide a dedicated recovery capability, taking pressure off local governments, emergency service volunteers, community groups and other agencies.
“Under existing arrangements, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services is often only responsible for immediate disaster response, leaving local governments, community groups and volunteers to do the heavy lifting with their long-term recovery,” he said.
“As we saw following the Wooroloo bushfire...recovery can take months or even years, and many local governments have limited capacity to coordinate and undertake recovery activities on such a significant scale.
“Numerous reports, including the Bushfire Royal Commission, have called for state governments to take a larger role in disaster preparedness and recovery, and that is something the Nationals will deliver by establishing a WA reconstruction authority.”
Mr Aldridge said the Queensland Reconstruction Authority was regarded in the emergency services community as a ‘best practice’ model for disaster recovery and had provided almost $1.5 billion in disaster recovery support and secured $670m funding for Queensland.
“This is (way) beyond what WA has been able to deliver to help disaster impacted communities build back sooner and stronger, showing just how inadequate our current recovery model is.”
