Thread by @AusPolMate

1/🧵FAIL: RC-National Natural Disaster Arrangements
🌊Big disasters-no longer 'unprecedented'
🌊Upcoming floods-more than just houses inundated
🌊Shane Stone is remarkable
🌊Key new departments: 'Australian Climate Services' & 'National Resilience & Recovery Agency'
#Auspol

2/ The 2 new departments and the existing EMS make up the Liberal governments design for disaster management. Shown in the freshly minted disaster management document (1st created by Labor in 2012 as part of the 1st ever COAG disaster agreement).

3/ A bit more on that document.
Who updated a key document in the middle of 'storm/xmas season'. The document does not appear to have been given to or endorsed by the states.

4/ Given so much of the responsibility sits with the Commonwealth, it may not need endorsement (good idea to circulate though)
It is very clear what Minister is responsible, including who can declare Category A, B, C & D funding

5/ A quick look back at what Labor did, they created the first ever COAG National Partnership agreement for disaster resilience (COAG is what the Morrison govt removed and replaced with dodgy secret national Cabinet). ALP worked with all states and got funding/projects sorted.

6/ On the funding topic, Labor provided more funding for disaster resilience a decade ago, than what the Liberal government is providing now.
NOTE: The current government still haven't worked out what to do with that $4.8B Emergency Response Fund

7/ Now look at that brand new 'Australian Climate Service'. Not much to look at, the website has very little information. No phone numbers, no detail on what/how/when it will pull together real time data from 10 agencies. I wonder why the BOM wasn't chosen to do this?

8/ The ACS website gives a clue that it's an empty vessel. Only 1 'announcement' FB post by S Ley with an animation a 10 year old could make. Copy of vid on the last tweet in the thread. Govt directory has 1 F/T staff & unknown 'seconded' staff (Budgets don't mention any staff)

9/ This is a real doozy, in the Morrison governments response to the RC report, they restate the identified need for a unilateral power to declare an emergency. BUT, they keep the original recommendation to have 'a high threshold', LNP hate accountability so they dropped that.

10/ As @MurrayWatt & many others have pointed out, the declaration can be done without any involvement of the states and without any 'threshold test'.
It seems everyone but the media know this fact.

11/ The RC recommendations are being tracked in a spreadsheet. Tracking s/sheets usually have lists deliverables, not Scott Morrison who track the delivery to the 'Media Release'. As we have seen the Climate Service looks far from up and running, but it got announced✅🙄

12/ With the 🐂💩'National Cabinet' secrecy, we are clueless about government planning. Thanks to 1 page in the BOM annual report we can see they workshopped flooding in Lismore. Will they ever release the outputs from that workshop? If we knew would lives have been saved?

13/ Been posted before, but it's worth repeating. The ADF have played a role in disasters in Australia for many decades. The government's own website proudly details the role played in the 1974 cyclone in Darwin.

14/
All done, here is that appalling animation that accompanies the governments 'announcment' that they created the "Australian Climate Services". I think the ACS are even embarrased by it, they haven't put a copy on there own website or even a link to it.
#Auspol #AlboForPM