[Greens-Media] FW: GREENS PLAN FOR NATURAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

[Klug, Georgie (Sen C. Milne)]

MEDIA RELEASE:

Thursday 25 July 


GREENS PLAN FOR NATURAL DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

The Australian Greens today launched a new plan to help communities prepare for extreme weather events such as floods, cyclones and fires with government spending to be boosted by a levy on the coal industry.
       
"The Greens plan is to save lives and money by substantially increasing spending on preparing for natural disasters from $50 million to around $350 million per year," said Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne.

"The coal industry is driving global warming and increasing the intensity of extreme weather events that are hurting communities and costing our economy billions of dollars.

"It is time the coal industry started contributing to the cost of preparing for extreme weather and adapting to climate change.

"Australian coal burnt in overseas power stations will emit about 450 million tonnes of CO2 this year alone. This figure is expected to climb to nearly 700 million tonnes by 2020 - nearly 30 per cent more than Australia currently emits.

"Risk mitigation projects could include flood levees, permanent fire breaks, coastal protection works, disaster warning systems, and the publication of hazard and flood data.

"Revenue to pay for this initiative would be raised by introducing a new $2 per tonne levy on thermal coal exports.

"Given that the current price of thermal coal is around $US90 per tonne a $2 a tonne levy is clearly affordable for the industry."

The Greens lead senate candidate in Queensland, Adam Stone, said it was time for Labor and Tony Abbott to stop treating natural disasters as one-off events with one off levies. 

"We need a permanent approach to help communities prepare for disasters and save people's lives," Mr Stone said.

"Hundreds of Australians have died over the past four years in tragic events such as the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, floods in NSW and QLD, heatwaves in South Australia and Victoria, and Cyclone Yasi in Queensland, while thousands more have suffered injury, illness or loss of property.

"The fact is that one dollar spent on risk mitigation can save at least two dollars in recovery costs but Labor only spends three per cent of its disaster budget on mitigation.

"The Greens are the only political party with a long term natural disaster resilience program that will help save lives and generate billions of dollars in budget savings.

"The Greens will ensure projects are appropriately prioritised and targeted by appointing a National Resilience Advisor and establishing a National Resilience Advisory Group.

"The Greens will also provide $10 million per year to maintain funding for the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility because it plays a vital role in generating the information needed to manage the risks of climate change."