Funding to boost natural disaster resilience

The Canberra community will benefit from more than $1 million in funding to improve preparedness for natural disasters, Commonwealth Minister for Emergency Management Robert McClelland and the ACT Minister for Police and Emergency Services Simon Corbell announced today.

"This funding - made available through the National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience - will help the ACT be better prepared for natural disasters," Mr McClelland said.

"Canberra is known as ‘The Bush Capital' and as we saw with the devastating bushfires of 2003 the city's close proximity to national parks and other forest areas can be a blessing and a curse."

"While we will never be able to eliminate the threat of bushfires in the ACT, programs such as this can reduce their impact and make sure we better prepared when they strike."

Mr Corbell said local projects to receive support would help communities prepare for a range of emergency events.

These include flood mitigation capabilities, the integration of an emergency information management system, enhanced fire training through the development and introduction of a Wildfire Arson Investigation Management Course and enabling greater emergency resilience for vulnerable members of the Canberra community.

"The partnership approach between all levels of government and the community is helping to build a culture of shared responsibility to natural disasters between governments, non-government agencies and communities," Mr Corbell said.

Details of projects funded under the National Partnership Agreement will be announced across the state and territories in the coming weeks.

Further information on the Natural Disaster Resilience Program can be found at www.ema.gov.au