Communities the Front Line for Crisis Response, Not Military: Australian PM

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at a press conference after a National Security Committee meeting at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 1, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian Defence Force (ADF) had moved as quickly as possible to help with the floods, but that no level of response was ever going meet the needs of a “1-in-500-year flood” event.

In an interview with Nine Network, Morrison said the first response to emergencies always comes from the local community.

“It always comes from the community, and then it comes from the SES, and then the ADF comes and supports that,” he said on Sunday.

“But on the Monday, after the floods hit on the Sunday night [in Lismore], ADF were winching people off roofs and risking their own lives.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) visits a flood-affected street in Milton with ADF personnel in Brisbane, Australia, on March 10, 2022. Jono Searle/Getty Images

The prime minister and the federal government have been receiving heavy criticism for the slow ADF response from the media.

The opposition Labor party also joined the criticism, with Party Leader Anthony Albanese saying that questions around people being left on roofs for long periods of time needed answering.

“I’m not critical of the ADF. That’s a decision for the federal government to make,” Albanese told reporters on March 8.

Albanese believed training civilians to provide assistance in extreme weather conditions was “worthy of consideration.”

He said the dangers in the increased level of disease involved in post-flood clean-ups could pose issues if people are unaware and lack the education and expertise in safely carrying out tasks.

“We know that Australians’ natural instinct is to help out,” Albanese said. “We know that people will provide assistance.”

Shadow Defence Minister Brendan O’Conner confirmed on March 13 that Labor would examine the need for a national civilian emergency task force to provide rapid response to future disasters so the ADF could focus on its military purpose.

Morrison said that during the North Queensland floods in 2019, the whole community “was out rescuing” each other.

“That is what happens in relation to every natural disaster. The SES or the Defence Forces, they don’t replace that community response. They add to it, they support it, and they bring in the heavy equipment,” he said.

Morrison noted that during his visit to the flood affected areas of northern New South Wales (NSW), he had been asked the question of why people had to go and rescue their neighbours.

“Of course, we need people to go and rescue their neighbours,” he said. “That is the first response because the community is always going to be the first ones there.”

It wasn’t realistic to have an ADF base located near every town and have the mobilisation of the forces with heavy equipment around the country turned “off and on,” Morrison said.

As of March 14, there are more than 7,100 ADF personnel on task or available across NSW and Queensland. Over 4,000 are assisting with the recovery efforts in northern NSW, the hardest hit area, and there are over 1,500 personnel in both the Sydney basin and Queensland.