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As South East Queensland and northern NSW face a significant clean-up effort as ex-tropical cyclone Alfred lashes the coast, Emergency Management Minister Jenny McAllister says the government has made efforts to reduce the reliance on the ADF in disaster recovery.

Asked on ABC’s RN Breakfast about warnings given in the defence strategic review about the over-reliance on the ADF in response to natural disasters, McAllister said there had been significant investment by the Albanese government to build up civilian capability.

“For example, from NEMA’s national stockpile, we were able to deploy more than 300,000 sandbags into Queensland. Just yesterday afternoon, six large generators arrived in northern New South Wales, and they were distributed by NSW authorities to assist with power supply and reconnection,” she said.

McAllister also listed the national aerial fleet helicopters pre-positioned to respond, as well as Disaster Relief Australia, a government-funded volunteer organisation that sees veterans contribute to disaster recovery.

“This will be a long process to build the necessary Australian government capabilities. We have made an incredibly strong start in just two and a half years. None of these resources would have been available outside of Defence prior to us coming to government.”