Military deployment to Queensland floods divides experts

The deployment of personnel to rescue Cairns residents cut off by devastating floods in far north Queensland has reignited debate surrounding the role of defence in natural disasters.

Defence said it would transport 150 emergency service personnel and equipment to Cairns and provide air support to rescue isolated residents.

The deployment of Australian Defence Force personnel to rescue Cairns residents cut off by devastating floods in far north Queensland has reignited debate surrounding the role of defence in responding to natural disasters.

Less than a year after the Defence Strategic Review warned that governments needed to decrease their reliance on the military to help during natural disasters, Anthony Albanese has committed the ADF to assisting Queensland authorities with the flood response on Monday.

Defence said it would transport 150 emergency service personnel and equipment to Cairns and provide air support to rescue isolated residents, pledging to deploy two army heavy-lift Chinook helicopters and two twin-­engine AW-139 helicopters from Townsville.

HMAS Cairns personnel were deployed to provide emergency small boat assistance in the region on Sunday, a spokeswoman said.

Military strategist and retired army major general Mick Ryan said defence assistance was often necessary in the acute phase of a natural disaster when local emergency services were “overwhelmed”, but the increasing intensity of fires and floods meant a better solution needed to be found. “There is no real choice, if you have soldiers who aren’t on exercises or deployments there is no way you can leave them to sit around when people are drowning or houses are burning,” he said.

“But we’re going to have to look at a different model as the ADF just isn’t big enough to support the community and focus on the strategic competition with China.”

The Australian Defence Force provided assistance to the WA government in the Kimberley Region where heavy rainfall from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Ellie has isolated communities.

Strategic Analysis Australia founder Michael Shoebridge said as long as the ­defence force was not actively ­deployed in a war it should be on hand to assist the community when disaster struck, arguing that it would be challenging to staff and establish an effective civilian emergency service.

“Defence is much better to recognise that it is going to be called upon and at least prepare itself for, rather find itself to be called up and be unprepared,” he said.

University of NSW associate professor and former ADF senior officer Ian Langford said it made sense in the context of the Queensland floods to deploy the military due to the proximity to the Townsville defence base.

“The DSR made it very clear the ADF shouldn’t be the first response option in the event of a natural disaster,” he said.

“But given the proximity of the Townsville garrison and this particular crisis there is some value in using the military as its response time will be quicker than any ­civilian agency.”

Australia Defence Association executive director Neil James said it made sense for the ADF to lend assistance in this disaster, but cautioned against the expectation that defence should always be called in to help in any emergency.

“The underlying problem is the expectation that such help will always be available anywhere in the continent and that isn’t feasible,” he said. “If there are no defence force people close by, they’re not going to show up quickly.”

The DSR, released in April, argued that defence should be the “last resort” when it came to domestic disasters due to the increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, following a turbulent period which saw the ADF called to assist during bushfires, floods and the Covid-19 pandemic.