President’s column – 18 September 2020

It has been nearly eight months since I toured
bushfire-affected local governments in NSW with LGNSW President Linda Scott,
and my impressions of that time remain vivid.

We saw councils doing extraordinary things for
and behalf of their communities – helping coordinate fire-fighting response,
providing equipment to the NSW Rural Fire Service, opening major evacuation
facilities, and organising food supplies, mobile laundries, creches, pet
storage, mental health counselling, and confidential financial help.

We glimpsed councils as they set out on the long
road back from natural disaster – assessing damaged infrastructure, clearing
roads, implementing recovery plans, and contacting state and federal government
agencies to explore options for funding recovery activities and getting local
businesses back on their feet.

That initial disaster recovery activity I saw in
NSW, ACT, and closer to home in South Australia, was capable and enthusiastic
but it was also frustrated or held up on occasion – through no fault of local
government.

For example, funding to allow councils to begin the
rebuilding process arrived quickly for some councils, but took months for most.
When monies did eventually appear in bank accounts, there was insufficient
clarity around how the amounts had been calculated or could be challenged.

Councils which suffered from fires in October were only just starting to receive funding in March, well after relief and initial recovery works were completed and rebuilding commitments were largely in place.

Undertakings given by the Prime Minister for
recovery to be “locally led” were compromised by this tardiness and the lack of
eligibility clarity. Furthermore, only 3 percent of the $2 billion fund was
being channeled to local government, hardly giving credence to recovery being
“locally led”.

The Black Summer fires were unprecedented in
their ferocity and range, so it was always to be expected our capacity to fight
them and deal with the aftermath would be found wanting at some level or other.

But it shouldn’t have been that way.

Cast your minds back to the 1967 Tasmanian
fires, the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, or the Black Saturday fires of 2009 –
or go to Wikipedia and read up on these and other epic natural disasters.

The historical record, global warming, and the
many predictions that Australian summers are getting hotter and drier should
have better prepared us for what eventuated in 2019-20.

The feedback we got from NSW councils was that
while the emergency phase of the disaster was relatively well administered,
recovery was less successful in the early stage.

The key take-home message from mayors and CEOs
was the need for:

• better coordination between all
  levels of government to enable financial support to start flowing sooner;
• greater resourcing of state and
  territory government agencies to, for example, undertake the necessary hazard
  reduction burns; and
• Renewed focus on betterment
  funding and critical infrastructure, including definitions and legislative
  enshrinement to ensure political goodwill isn’t obstructed by bureaucratic road
  blocks.

ALGA raised these and other issues with the
Morrison Government shortly after, and we canvassed them again in our
submission to the National Natural Disaster Royal Commission.

Late last month, the inquiry published its
interim observations, many of them endorsing ALGA’s long-standing advocacy for
adequate resourcing, coordination, resilience-building and betterment.

Even though bushfires, tropical cyclones and
flooding are part of Australia’s natural fabric, they are increasing in
frequency and intensity, as climate scientists predicted.

This week, Federal Environment Minister Sussan
Ley advised communities across the country to start preparing for the impacts
of severe weather, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of increased tropical
cyclone and flooding risks.

The Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook is less
threatening this year than last, but if we’re to be in the best possible
position to weather the next natural disaster, the Royal Commission’s
recommendations (due next month) must be accepted unequivocally and – more
importantly – implemented.

If we start with the premise that “successful
recovery is community-centred” – as the Royal Commission has rightly pointed
out – we can break the cycle of natural disaster recovery history repeating
itself.

But we must move past expedient rhetoric at the
next disaster media opportunity.

Local government has to be genuinely recognised by other levels of government as a key agent of community relief and recovery, and provided with the necessary support and resources to succeed. This is particularly important in regional areas where councils are central and other governments’ capabilities are thin on the ground.

The road to recovery is always long, and complex. For those of you still on it, thank you, and keep up the great work.

David O’Loughlin,
ALGA President