Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Minister for Regionalisation, Regional Communications and Regional Education
Joint Media Release
The Hon Sussan Ley MP
Minister for the Environment
The Liberal and Nationals Government has allocated another $50 million from the Emergency Response Fund (ERF) to continue to protect communities from the effects of natural disaster.
The new Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program is aimed at reducing the often devastating impacts on local communities of natural disasters and coastal hazards, such as storm surges and coastal inundation.
The Liberal and Nationals Government has now committed $150 million from the allocation that can be drawn down from the ERF for disaster mitigation and resilience.
Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Senator the Hon Bridget McKenzie said the Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program will drive long term resilience by delivering priority projects that mitigate the impact of disasters on communities.
"The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements highlighted the need to mitigate risks to low lying coastal communities due to predicted sea level rises and more regular and intense storm surges.
"The Program will also fund projects that support an integrated approach to coastal management through planning, such as regional risk assessments and monitoring of coastal hazards as they change over time. It will help address the growing cost nationally of coastal hazards management and adaptation.
"This Government is committed to investing more on mitigation so we do not have to spend as much on recovery and to support communities to be better prepared," Minister McKenzie said.
The Minister for the Environment, the Hon Sussan Ley MP, said one in two Australians live within seven kilometres of the coast and that it was important to help our environment adapt to a predicted increase in coastal storm surges, flooding, and associated coastal inundation.
"As climate change heightens the risk of such events, we are taking action to strengthen the resilience of our coastal environments and reduce the impacts on communities, property owners, local tourism economies and native species," Minister Ley said.
The $50 million for the 2022-23 Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program from the EFR is in addition to the $100 million that has already been committed from the ERF for flood mitigation infrastructure projects over two years from 2020-21. The second round of the National Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program, funded from the ERF, closed to applications on 4 February 2022.
"Through these investments we will continue to build Australia's resilience - a long-term strategy to reducing the risk and impact of disasters as natural hazards become more frequent and intense."
The Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program will provide $50 million in funding to state and territory governments to target projects such as grey infrastructure, including seawalls, groynes, storm surge and tidal barrages in estuaries, as well as nature-based solutions, such as protecting coastal wetland ecosystems, to reduce risk of inundation and shoreline erosion.
The Coastal and Estuarine Risk Mitigation Program supports action under the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and the National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy.
Applications for the program are expected to open in March to provide state and territory governments time to develop project applications outside of the high risk weather season.
In addition to the initiatives funded under the Emergency Response Fund, the Australian Government's investment in adaptation, resilience, risk reduction, and preparedness includes:
- $215 million Soil Package
- $66 million Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Package
- $100 million Oceans Leadership Package
- $4.5 million National Capability Package
- $2.8 billion for 2019-20 Black Summer bushfire recovery
- $85 million Natural Hazards Research Australia, a new natural hazards and disaster resilience research centre for the next ten years
- $261 million Disaster Risk Reduction Package, jointly funded with states and territories, with $130.5 million from the Australian Government.
For details on the program visit the National Recovery and Resilience Agency website.
