The role of the Department of Home Affairs is clear
The Administrative Arrangement Orders sets out Commonwealth Minister’s and Department’s responsibilities .
The role of the Department of Home Affairs is set out-
‘Part 8, The Department of Home Affairs. Matters dealt with by the Department……
Commonwealth emergency management ; Natural disaster relief,recovery and mitigation and financial assistance including payments to the States and Territories and the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment’
( These AAO’s were signed and sealed by Peter Cosgrove on 29.5.2019. They are repeated on 5.12.2019 ,signed and sealed by David Hurley and operative from 1.2.2020)
One would expect that Peter Dutton would be front and centre in almost every respect of the bushfire emergency. But he is no where to be found as far as I can ascertain.
Dutton is not at all shy about his public profile- attacking asylum seekers or misleading us about boat arrivals, South African farmers or African youth gangs in Melbourne. But on the bushfire emergency he is as silent as the grave
Abul Rizvi pointed out in this blog on 13.1.2020 that
‘Around 18 months ago, Urgency Management in Australia(EMA) ,a division of the Department of Home Affairs warned in its National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework that climate change was exposing the country to natural disasters on ‘‘unimagined scales, in unprecedented combinations and in unexpected locations…As a result, the cost of disasters is increasing for all sectors of society – governments, industry, business, not-for-profits, communities and individuals’’.
So what did Dutton and Pezzullo do in response to this very clear warning?
Very little is the answer according to Mark Crossweller, the senior public servant responsible for developing the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework. While $130.6 million over five years was allocated to the Framework, Crossweller told the Australian Financial Review (AFR) that it had been impossible to get proposals adopted “so that significant work can be done in preparation and mitigation.’’
Nothing concrete has been done with the $130.6 million according to the AFR. See
publish.pearlsandirritations.com/abul-
There are possible explanations for Dutton’s and Pezzullo’s failure in the bushfire emergency.
The first is sheer incompetence and the collapsed morale in the Department of Home Affairs. In this blog Abul Rizvi has cited numerous examples of just that.
The second explanation is,as an insider in EMA told me, the focus in EMA has been the possible threat of terrorism to the neglect of other threats like bushfires. Presumably this focus has been at the direction of Dutton and Pezzullo. This is consistent with the way we know how Dutton and Pezzullo have operated for many years- frighten us about the threat of terrorism because that delivers more political dividends.
Or is there just confusion in the Government about who is responsible? Is there shared responsibility with the Minister for Agriculture and Water.
At least one thing is very clear and that is the responsibility of the Department of Home Affairs for Commonwealth Emergency Management. It has failed in that responsibility.
John Menadue is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Pearls and Irritations. He was formerly Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, Ambassador to Japan, Secretary of the Department of Immigration and CEO of Qantas.
Comments
7 responses to “JOHN MENADUE. Who is responsible for ‘Commonwealth emergency management”?”
As the Department of Home Affairs website makes clear, ‘We lead the Australian Government disaster and emergency management response. We work to build a disaster resilient Australia that prevents, prepares, responds and recovers from disasters and emergencies.’ It is well worth reading the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, developed in Dutton’s Portfolio under the auspices of the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management (‘Ministerial Council’). It appears a very sound framework for future action, at the admittedly high level appropriate for intergovernmental cooperation. There are several drivers for action, noting that (to quote the Framework) ‘with the driver of a changing climate there is growing potential for some natural hazards to occur at unimagined scales, in unprecedented combinations and in unexpected locations.’ How prescient. In October 2018, the Ministerial Council (then chaired by Dutton) agreed to align future disaster resilience funding with the Framework. The Framework itself was formally endorsed by the Ministerial Council in June 2019.
It is also worth reading the Communiqué issued following the meeting of the Ministerial Council held on 20 November 2019. Relevant discussions were led by ‘the Hon David Littleproud MP, Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management’. It was noted that, ‘Australia and New Zealand continue to experience the impact of more frequent and intense disasters, as evidenced in the early start to the bushfire season this year. The Council endorsed a number of [unspecified] initiatives and the continuation of ongoing work in recognition of this ongoing challenge.’ On the issue of the Implementation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework, it was reported that ‘Ministers noted the draft inaugural National Action Plan [not disclosed] to implement the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and tasked the Australia-New Zealand Emergency Management Committee to finalise the National Action Plan as soon as possible. Ministers also agreed in principle to fully match the Commonwealth’s funding commitment of $130.5 million to support the objectives of the Framework.’ It was noted that ‘This will deliver a combined package of $261 million over the next five years for local, state and national initiatives to reduce the risk and impact of disasters on Australians, and strengthen their resilience in a changing environment.’
Ministerial and departmental responsibilities seem fairly clear to me (and of course, as you note, the AAOs are clear too!). Moreover, all governments, at the appropriate level of ministerial responsibility, would seem to share the view that a principal driver of natural disasters is the changing climate. It would seem that Dutton and Littleproud have indeed taken the lead in the appropriate ministerial forum, and secured commitments to funding, which should be a good news story. Maybe Dutton is lying low in the face of the PM’s changing commentary on the likely causes of the latest set of natural disasters and related views in his power base?
So now we understand why a cowed public media outlet (the ABC) and most media (over 70% in Australia) in the hands/under the control of Murdoch/NewsCorps and his attack dog shock-jocks. NOT DOING THEIR JOB to inform us/hold the political ideologues to account – serve the nation. Too busy sending our tax moneys to “mates” in the WMD industries in the US – Joe Hockey, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison – all in line with the ugliest of Trump callousness to the resources of our world! I say traitors, – Dutton and Pezzullo along with the others named. But the worst is the lack of in-depth news coverage and investigation by ABC 7.00pm news/News 24
It is not only Natural Disasters where Dutton and Pezzullo are culpable, but also in policing Australia’s quarantine laws. Until the swine fever epidemic engulfed China our border surveillance for the entry of unprocessed food and agricultural products had almost completely broken down. At the 11th hour as swine fever outbreaks in our near north neighbors erupted the Minister for Agriculture Bridget Mc Kenzie did manage the get the Dept. of Home affairs to rapidly reverse their quarantine inertia and deploy extra staff and new sniffer dogs to neglected quarantine matters. Whilst this probably saved Australian Agriculture from the introduction of the swine fever virus, the diversion of funds from Dutton and Pezzullo’s fear campaign on boat people would not have been appreciated. No browny points for McKenzie in Cabinet there!
However the principal motivation for Dutton and Pezzullos “absent in action” over the fires is obvious.- Let ScoMo take the flack. The sooner ScoMo falls over the sooner Dutton can seize power and Dutton and Pezzullo can proceed with racking up their fear campaign, -moving ever closer to a police state.
I would’ve thought that a proto-fascist like Herr Kipfler could’ve forseen opportunity in cataclysims of any type. Nasty and stupid is our Spud.
I doubt that the Gestapotato could perceive that but there is no doubt that the man-without-a-navel, Pezzullo does.
It’s just a matter of putting it in terms simple enough for his ex Qld walloper to grasp.
The current Ministry list dated May last year shows David Littleproud as Minister for various things, including Emergency Management https://www.pmc.gov.au/resource-centre/government/ministry-list (His full current title is Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management.) He appears under both the portfolios of Home Affairs (Dutton as senior Min) and Infrastructure (McCormack). When the Ministry list is reissued in Feb when new portfolios take effect, he will likely appear under the revised portfolio of Agriculture, Water and Environment also, given his responsibility for Water Resources. (His responsibilities will presumably include all of his other current ones.) The tendency to lumber some ministers with a wide range of responsibilities, not necessarily matching single portfolios, has made documents like the AAO and Ministry list increasingly problematic. As for the distribution of responsibilities within the Home Affairs portfolio between Dutton and Littleproud there might be a letter from Dutton asking Littleproud to look after Emergency Management but I doubt it, given that Emergency Management appears in Littleproud’s title. Such a letter would be appropriate if Littleproud was an Assistant Minister for Home Affairs but probably not otherwise.
David, I seem to remember ‘commissioning letters’, from the PM to (all?) ministers, at least to senior portfolio ministers. I also seem to remember that the ‘senior portfolio minister’ would write to his assistant ministers setting out their responsibilities and perhaps priority tasks. My experience is now dated, so things may have changed. Regardless, as MHA, I would think that under those AAOs he has oversighting responsibility (at least) for EMA and the bushfire response.
I would hope we could see some pointed questioning in Senate Estimates of Home Affairs/EMA, hopefully clarifying whether either or both Dutton and Littleproud have been AWOL in the leadup to, and the duration of, the bushfires, and if (?!) so the magnitude of their dereliction.