Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (26/03/25 11:28): I have a few things to say about natural disasters today, and I begin by acknowledging the devastation to Queensland and New South Wales by what was severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which claimed at least one life and caused serious injuries, including a road collision involving Australian Defence Force personnel during the height of the storm. The storm was remarkable because it hit the heavily populated South-East Queensland area, which is not unprecedented but has not happened for a very long time.

What my constituents in Mallee have also found remarkable is that what was meant to be called Cyclone Anthony—for reasons that may be uncontroversial, or maybe they are—to avoid embarrassment to the Prime Minister, was renamed Cyclone Alfred. That change has raised the eyebrows of quite a few of my constituents. Had it been Cyclone Peter, would the name have changed? We will never know.

My concern today is about the federal emergency management arrangements for regional Australians. Despite a royal commission on these matters, we seem to still have inconsistencies in how regional Australians are treated depending on the type of disaster and the state they live in. That is why, as the member for Mallee in north-west Victoria, ravaged by bushfires over the Christmas New Year's period in the Grampians and across the Little Desert region, I can say my constituents are also raising their eyebrows or even expressing their unhappiness—and I think that's putting it mildly—that they are not getting the same treatment as those in Queensland. Bushfires in the Grampians region began in December 2024, resulting in a period of evacuation and closure of towns to tourists. But category D funding, under the combined federal-state disaster recovery funding arrangements, was not announced until 11 March—almost three months later.

Before I go into detail, let me put on record my appreciation to the Minister for Emergency Management, who made herself available during the Grampians and Little Desert bushfires and worked constructively with me on many of the matters I am raising today. The Allan Victorian Labor government has been utterly incompetent in its handling of communities affected by bushfires like Halls Gap in my electorate. Disaster recovery funding arrangements—or DRFA for short—require a premier or chief minister to write to the prime minister seeking DRFA support. When flooding hit Townsville earlier this year, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli was very quick in seeking DRFA support and got it within weeks. Despite my repeated public calls and letters to the premier and Prime Minister about the Grampians fires, it took three months for equivalent DRFA funding to come their way—and I say 'equivalent' loosely. For Grampians communities, particularly Halls Gap, who lost their peak tourism season and in some cases one-third of their annual income, the critical question has been about financial support for lost income.

If time permits, I will return to the topic of insurance, but businesses have been unable to afford or secure business interruption insurance in the event of fire. Hence, they have turned to the DRFA. I was disappointed that ABC Central Victoria threw the question at me, 'Shouldn't those businesses just pay for it themselves rather than insurance for lost income?' It illustrates how disconnected the ABC has become from regional Australia. Fire insurance is not that easy to come by. Insurance companies run a mile from risk even though that is their job. Flood-affected Townsville businesses are eligible for concessional loans of up to $250,000 and concessional loans to support recovery and rebuilding to cover, among other things, loss of income and continuity of operations. Essential working capital loans are also available up to $100,000 to help businesses cover costs like salaries, wages, creditors, rents and rates. I don't know how much of that is a state government initiative and how much is DRFA, but it is the outcome that matters—and the inconsistencies. I'll come to what the Albanese government has offered Grampians businesses in a moment, but remember those figures of $250,000 in concessional loans for Townsville flood affected businesses and $100,000 in working capital loans. For those affected by Cyclone Alfred, the same disaster assistance loans of $250,000 and essential working capital loans of up to $100,000 are available. So in Queensland, under the LNP, there is the same outcome for flood affected businesses that lost income or are in hardship due to natural disaster.

What has the Albanese government offered Halls Gap, Grampians and western Victoria fire affected businesses? It has offered a business bushfire recovery grant of—wait for it—$5,000. That's it. There is also a business recovery advisory service that they're apparently spending somewhere in the vicinity of $20 million on. Who knows how that will operate? There are no $250,000 low-interest disaster assistance loans or $100,000 essential capital working loans. Why not? Under the former coalition government in 2020 we provided Victorian bushfire concessional loans of up to $500,000 to those who had, among other things, a significant loss of income due to bushfires that started on the 21 November 2019. Did Premier Allen in this instance simply not ask for that kind of support from the Prime Minister? We will never know. Plainly, the support is not the same for Victorians faced by bushfire as opposed to Queenslanders faced with flood and cyclone. Either all disasters are equal, or some disasters are more equal than others, or all Australians are equal but some are more equal than others. How can you read it any other way? All I'm asking for today is a fair go for all Australians affected by natural disasters.

I want to go back to insurance. Insurance costs for some Halls Gap businesses have almost quadrupled since the Pomonal fires in February 2024, with one business paying $55,000 for public liability insurance, which even then does not cover external fire and does not provide business interruption insurance. There are 120 businesses—or there were—that simply cannot get insurance in Halls Gap even though there is no instance in history where fire has struck the Halls Gap township itself. I am working continuously with locals, the insurance industry and my coalition colleagues to look at solutions to this emerging wicked problem. Under the Albanese Labor government, insurance costs across the nation have risen by 35 per cent. These fires, combined with the impact on global reinsurance markets of recent wildfires in Los Angeles, may push up insurance premiums further and make policies even less accessible.

Insurance pricing requires accurate data regarding risks and mitigation strategies undertaken at the local level, but in Victoria there is no transparency around the performance of Forest Fire Management Victoria and other responsible agencies against mitigation targets—no transparency. There is market failure in bushfire insurance for Halls Gap. As in other areas of public policy, market failure activates potential government intervention. The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation was expanded in 2022 by the former coalition government to provide insurance for insurers of cyclone risk in northern Australia without the profit margin of the private market and with a risk guarantee provided by the government. While it's early days, there are signs the pool is starting to address its aims. It is time to look at this model in other Australian contexts.

Spending in Halls Gap has dropped by 63 per cent since fires began compared to the same period last year. At the one-month mark, $13 million in business earnings had been lost. Can you imagine the desperation of those businesses? As the fires have persisted, an estimated $8 million further has been lost. The Grampians typically attract between 1.3 million and 1.7 million visitors annually; however cancellations are now extending through to May 2025, and the projections of loss in that region are between $34 million and $103 million over the year. The sustainability of small businesses in the Grampians is my focus, and I plan to keep fighting for it.

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