The Morrison-Joyce Government’s climate change policy chaos has left coastal communities increasingly exposed because of a lack of investment in vital public resilience measures.
A new report from the Insurance Council of Australia shows climate change is driving rising sea levels and increasing coastal hazards such as tidal inundation, coastal inundation and erosion along with shoreline movement.
Insurance cover for these ‘actions of the sea’ is generally not available because of the inherent risks and is further constrained because of the growing risks from climate change impacts.
The report recommends building greater resilience protections for coastal communities exposed to the increasing risks from the ocean.
But the Morrison-Joyce Government has not spent a single cent on any public resilience or recovery projects from its Emergency Response Fund, which has now grown to $4.7 billion.
The ERF was created in 2019 – with Labor’s support – to fund up to $200 million in natural disaster recovery and resilience per financial year. The ERF could have been used to support public resilience measures and protective infrastructure right across Australia including in our coastal communities.
It’s yet another example of the Morrison-Joyce Government making announcements but not delivering. Nothing has been built, no extra jobs have been created and no communities protected.
Labor is calling for a comprehensive approach that includes investment in climate resilience measures and planning protections to properly address the risk to coastal communities.
Our coastal communities shouldn’t be left to clean up the mess and bear the cost of more inaction by the Morrison-Joyce Government.
