The bushfires that have been raging in Queensland and New South Wales demonstrate the importance of increased disaster mitigation and recovery funding. Can I join the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister and others to express my gratitude to our emergency services personnel and volunteers who have bravely fought dangerous fires, and I express my support for all of those homeowners who have lost their properties. Labor believes it's a fundamental responsibility of government to protect Australians, help communities to mitigate against the devastating effects of disasters, support them when disasters strike and properly fund relief efforts to rebuild.
In this year's budget the creation of a new emergency relief fund has been announced, to provide funding for emergency response and recovery following significant natural disasters. This week the minister introduced the bill, the Emergency Response Fund Bill 2019, to establish this fund. It is proposed this fund will distribute up to $150 million per year for disaster recovery activities. As has been stated by the Leader of the Opposition, the opposition supports government taking action to help communities recover and also supports mitigation measures to build resilience. But there are problems with this fund.
First, despite the many calls from interested parties for extra mitigation funding, there is no guarantee that a single cent from the fund will be spent on mitigation. The coalition has failed on mitigation, having only agreed to provide $26.1 million per annum for disaster resilience under the current national partnership agreement with the states and territories. Even the amount provided by this fund falls short of the Productivity Commission's 2015 recommendation that the Commonwealth provide $200 million per year in resilience funding. Second, the fund would only provide for funding of mitigation infrastructure after a disaster has struck, rather than funding, for example, a flood levy or cyclone shelter before the event.
Finally, and perhaps most significantly, in creating the fund, the government is pitting two worthwhile aims against each other. The government's plan is to fund natural disaster recovery by cutting funding from nation-building education infrastructure. Labor established the Education Investment Fund in 2009 to address years of underinvestment from the Howard era and transform Australia's education and research capacity. This fund provided important capital funding to update and modernise Australia's vocational and higher education research facilities, enabling the sector to grow jobs, generate research breakthroughs and compete for international students. What we need is to keep this fund going. It is a sad reflection of the government's priorities that they want to wind up nation-building funds to make up for their failures to properly invest in disaster mitigation and recovery. We should be properly funding education and natural disaster recovery and mitigation.
So my question to the Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management is: why won't he provide much-needed financial assistance to communities affected by emergencies and natural disasters without cutting funding from education?