Bushfire survivors could be put off from taking personal responsibility if disaster recovery payments are increased, Morrison government senators fear.
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A Senate committee interim report into lessons learned from last summer's devastating bushfires has recommended the payment, as well as the disaster recovery allowance, be increased.
The disaster recovery support is a one-off payment of $1000 for adults and $400 for children.
The allowance is paid for up to 13 weeks at a maximum rate equal to JobSeeker, which before the pandemic was $40 a day.
In a dissenting report, coalition senators James Paterson and Paul Scarr disagreed with the recommendation to increase the payments.
"There is a fine line between supporting Australians in crisis and inadvertently providing a disincentive for insurance and personal responsibility."
The senators refer to a Productivity Commission report from six years ago that said the payment should be reduced in line with other supports.
Labor MP Susan Templeman, who lost her Blue Mountains home to bushfires in 2013, says it's insulting.
"How dare they suggest that for the sake of $1000 someone might willingly step aside and let their house be burnt down," she said.
"To say that it is a disincentive to insure just shows how out of touch these Liberal senators are. They don't have a clue about what it's like to suffer real hardship and quite frankly it sounds like they just don't care."
The report had 13 recommendations in total, including completing the Australian Warning System and the Australian Fire Danger Rating System as a priority.
It also said the ABC should be given more funding to help with its emergency broadcasts and restore its support levels, which coalition senators maintain have not been cut.
The majority report said the federal government should develop a business case to help establish a fleet of firefighting aircraft, including large and very large air tankers.
The coalition senators rejected the idea, saying it's not up to the federal government to decide what Australia's aerial firefighting fleet should include.
Senators Paterson and Scarr hope the final report will be more bipartisan.
"Sadly, the useful content in the report may be overshadowed by the political score-settling also contained within it," they wrote.
"The report also does not adequately represent the current state of Australia's fire preparation, response and recovery arrangements."
The final report is due to be tabled late next year.
A royal commission is also looking at national natural disaster arrangements with its final report due on October 28.
Australian Associated Press
