Australia’s coastal councils are calling on the incoming federal government to establish a national response to coastal climate risks, including rising sea levels, more severe extreme

weather events and widespread coastal erosion and inundation.

Keith Parkes, Chair of the South Australian Coastal Councils Alliance and Mayor of Alexandrina Council, says the scale of dealing with coastal hazards along Australia’s vast coastline requires a national approach, national leadership and national funding.

“We are calling on the Australian, State and Territory Governments to work with local government to develop a coordinated national response to coastal climate risk, recognising that nationally 50 per cent of Australians live within 7kms of the coast and in South Australia more than 90 per cent of the population live within 50km of the coast,” he says.

“Coastal councils are at the forefront of dealing with rising sea levels, more frequent and severe extreme weather events, and widespread coastal erosion and inundation, but they are restricted by a lack of resources and coordination at a national level.

“Many of our regional coastal communities are still repairing storm damage back logs from the state-wide 2016 storms while at the same time providing services and amenities for over 6 million tourist visitors annually”

Over the last ten years expenditure by local government on coast protection, management and infrastructure has nearly doubled in SA, however the level of funding from other tiers of government to support this has remained relatively static.

“Given that Australia’s coastline stretches over 33,000kms, it is beyond the capacity of local councils to deal with these risks.”

Mayor Parkes says what is needed is for all levels of government to work together to develop a National Coastal Adaptation Fund to be administered at a national level.

“Coastal councils are ready and keen to work collaboratively with the Australian, State and Territory Governments to respond to coastal risks,” he says.