Australia should not become dependent on the ADF to pick up the pieces after natural disasters, former security leaders warn.
As more Australian Defence Force personnel got their hands dirty assisting flood-stricken communities mop up on Thursday, former security leaders have warned Australia should not become dependent on the ADF to pick up the pieces after natural disasters.
Speaking in Brisbane the Prime Minister said that four times the number of ADF personnel had been deployed in the state compared with Queensland’s 2011 flood disaster.and the 60,000 members of Defence would not be enough to deal with increasingly severe and frequent disasters.“In the Black Summer bushfires, Shane Fitzsimmons had 78,000 volunteer firefighters in NSW. There is no way the ADF can be able to match that sort of capability,” Mr Barrie said.
Instead, Mr Barrie proposed forming a “nationally co-ordinated civilian-led rapid response infrastructure”, a disaster relief force – less specialised than the SES or RFS – that could be stood up to respond to severe weather events. “It was really traumatising and triggering for a lot of people to be around all these ADF personnel doing nothing while they’re covered in mud – homeless but still volunteering – and just watching these people do nothing for a couple of days.
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