Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has visited the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency to recognise the courage, skill and dedication of emergency management personnel and to discuss further cooperation on disaster resilience and management.
With over 100 years of mateship, Australia and the United States have a proud history of helping each other in times of need, including when faced with natural disasters.
Most recently, the United States provided significant firefighting support to Australia during the Black Summer bushfires, and Australia provided a large firefighting air tanker to Idaho to assist in firefighting across six states.
In May, Australia’s National Emergency Management agreed strengthened arrangements with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These arrangements will increase collaboration to improve our emergency response, including through formal sharing of best practice, employee exchanges and other mutually beneficial programs across the full spectrum of natural disasters.
This complements the Climate, Critical Minerals, and Clean Energy Transformation Compact, which will see Australia and the United States collaborate to address domestic and regional climate risks, including increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
Prime Minister Albanese met with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said:
“I am pleased to visit the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency and meet with Administrator Criswell.
“Our communities are already experiencing the devastating impacts of climate change, from wildfires in Hawai’i to bushfires in Victoria and NSW.
“As our recent Climate Compact demonstrates, Australia is committed to addressing the domestic, regional and international challenges of a changing climate with our partners.”