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By Haiden Threlfall, Department of Defence, GLOBSEC, 2023
Haiden Threlfall works at the Department of Defence and his policy paper is on Fighting The War Of Natural Disasters
Executive Summary
The 2020’s in Australia have been defined by continuous natural disasters ranging from
bushfires, to floods, to the COVID - 19 pandemic (Henderson, 2023). In fact, studies have
confirmed that natural disasters have become more frequent (Royal Commission into
National Natural Disaster Arrangements, 2020). It is known, that in Australia, State and
Territory Governments are primarily responsible for disaster response (Royal Commission
into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, 2020). Despite this, throughout the 2020’s,
there has been a consistent reliance on the Australian Defence Force (ADF), a Federally
controlled asset, to be what Robert Glasser (2023) of the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute has called a “primary responder."
Simultaneously, fueled by the Sino-US competition, Australia has been walking into an
increased age of strategic competition within the Indo-Pacific (Parry, 2022). Consequently,
the ADF should be focusing on its own training to increase overall combat effectiveness
and preparedness to execute conventional warfare (Dibb & Brabin-Smith, 2021). However,
being the primary responder for domestic disasters and training for conventional warfare
are in direct tension with one another. As the Defence Strategic Review 2023 (DSR)
highlighted, the ADF’s continual response to domestic disasters had “negatively affected
force preparedness, readiness and combat effectiveness” (Glasser, 2023). This policy paper
proposes solutions to reduce the tension placed on the ADF between domestic disaster
response and engaging in the current age of strategic competition. The paper will propose
legislative amendments to the Defence Act 1903 that limit timeframes for ADF support to
domestic disaster response. Further, the paper proposes that the Defence Force Reserves
transition to a National Guard structure. Thereby, increasing State and Territory capacity to
coordinate their own disaster response without the Federal Government’s intervention.