Former NT chief sacked
FORMER NT chief minister Shane Stone has been sacked from his position as head of the National Resilience and Recovery Agency.
The announcement was made in the final paragraphs of a press release from the Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt on Friday.
Mr Stone has taken leave effective immediately, and will cease working for the NRRA from August 31.
The move to dump the former chief minister was widely expected after Labor’s election victory in May.
Before the election, Senator Watt vowed to sack Mr Stone after the NRRA boss made controversial comments about rebuilding flooded homes on the east coast.
In the statement, the senator said the NRRA and Emergency Management Australia would merge from September 1, and would sit within the Home Affairs portfolio.
The press release said that a “consequence” of these changes would be Mr Stone’s role ceasing to exist.
Senator Watt said the changes were made with the increasing cost of natural disasters and climate change in mind.
“Combining all these disaster related functions into one agency under the Home Affairs portfolio is a significant step forward and strengthens Australia’s ability to prepare for, manage and recover from an increasing number and severity of disasters,” the new minister said.
The government said the cost to the Australian economy of natural disasters was $38bn per year, with that cost expected to rise to between $73bn and $94bn per year by 2060, depending on the world’s carbon emissions.
Mr Stone copped criticism from Labor in March after saying homes prone to flooding should not be rebuilt, recommending residents instead be located to higher ground.
Senator Watt responded to the comments by saying that “Shane Stone should be sacked today”.
“He has failed to build a single flood mitigation project with it and now he blames the victims of his own incompetence,” Senator Watt wrote on Twitter.
The comments were backed up by the federal member for the Darwin seat of Solomon, Luke Gosling, who said floodravaged communities “needed to know that authorities have compassion for what they’ve been through”.
However, a number of mayors from flood-ravaged communities in NSW defended Mr Stone’s performance, with Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader saying he had treated her community with “care, compassion and interest”.
Last month, the NRRA said it was “business as usual” at the agency despite Labor’s election victory.