Scott Morrison’s bid to boost defence force disaster powers

Scott Morrison has flagged strengthening federal powers to allow PMs to declare national disasters and call in the army.

Scott Morrison attends a Drought Advisory Board meeting in Orange, NSW, on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison has flagged strengthening the constitutional and legal powers of the commonwealth to allow prime ministers to declare national disasters and call in the Defence Force rather than waiting for the states to ask for ­assistance.

The Australian understands the Prime Minister will also shift the Coalition’s posture on ­climate change and ­elevate preparation, resilience and adaptability to ­increasingly ­extreme events to a national security footing.

In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday that would otherwise have been ­expected to outline the government’s agenda for the year, Mr Morrison will focus on the government’s longer-term response to the devastating bushfire season and the future national emergency response plan.

He will also focus on the government’s economic plan as a successful formula by making a virtue of fiscal discipline that has given the government the ability to ­respond to disasters.

Mr Morrison will claim that the budget plan and the road back to surplus have meant the government now has the ability to deal with the recovery without ­imposing new taxes or levies, as he says a Labor government would have done.

The address, titled An Even Stronger, More Resilient Australia, will be the first headland speech for the year, ahead of the return to parliament next week.

Mr Morrison will call for a more immediate role for the ADF in future disasters and consider an overhaul of constitutional and legal frameworks to hand greater powers to the commonwealth to respond to natural disasters.

“I believe there is now a clear community expectation that the commonwealth should have the ability to respond in times of ­national emergencies and disasters, particularly through deployment of our defence forces in circumstances where the life and property of Australians have been assessed to be under threat,’’ he will say.

The Prime Minister will promote a three-point response to protect Australians and the economy from fires, floods and ­cyclones following an unprecedented bushfire season that has left more than 30 people dead and thousands of homes destroyed in multiple states and territories. Mr Morrison, who came under pressure in the lead-up to Christmas over his handling of the emerging bushfire crisis, said decisions needed to be made in relation to state and federal ­responsibilities, and committed to changing the law “where necessary”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews called for Defence help in late December at the height of the bushfire crisis and the navy evacuated stranded holidaymakers from Mallacoota.

The NSW government early this month declined an offer from the Prime Minister to deploy a fleet of naval ships and military helicopters to help with evacuations from the state’s south coast.

The speech will not include new announcements on climate change policy but will pitch his message to middle Australia by ­focusing on practical measures.

It will recognise climate change and broader environmental issues as threats to people’s livelihoods.

Natural disaster response and climate resilience will now feature as key planks of the Coalition’s broader approach to national and economic security.

While res­ponses to natural disasters are ­already an issue for cabinet’s ­national security committee, Mr Morrison is expected to say they will now have greater emphasis.

He will say that findings from previous inquiries into natural disasters have been “forgotten and de-prioritised over time”.

“One of the first tasks of a royal commission will be to audit the ­implementation of previous recommendations, drawing on work that has already been done in this area,” Mr Morrison will say. “As the years pass, the bush grows back and fuel loads increase, people move in still larger numbers to live in fire-prone areas and dangerous fires occur again in a cycle which must be broken.

“We must continue to learn from this fire season so we are ­better prepared for the next one, whether that be the deployment of the ADF, local hazard ­reduction, access to resources such as aerial firefighting equipment, consistency of disaster recovery ­arrangements or resilience in the face of a changing climate.”

With the government’s $5bn surplus under pressure following the bushfire disaster and ongoing drought, Mr Morrison will say it is crucial to clarify how the commonwealth’s resources and capabilities are engaged in future crises. “The scale of the bushfires this season — not least their simultaneous reach across state borders — has unequivocally demonstrated the limits of those arrangements,” he will say.

“As I’ve said ­before, I have been very conscious of testing the limits of constitutionally defined roles and responsibilities this bushfire season.”

The Prime Minister will also pledge to introduce an enhanced national accountability for “natural disaster risk management, resilience and preparedness”.

Mr Morrison last week called for a national standard for bushfire hazard reduction burns and declared that tracking measures to cut fuel loads was at least as important as monitoring Australia’s carbon emissions.