National Aerial Firefighting Program

Overview

This program facilitates the lease of a fleet of highly specialised firefighting aircraft that are readily available for use by State and Territory emergency service and land management agencies across Australia. This program also plays a key role in ensuring the sharing of aerial firefighting resources between emergency service and land management agencies throughout Australia. The maximum grant amount is $86,790,000 (includes $44,790,000 over three years from 2018-19 to 2020-21 and the additional $11,000,000 announced on 5 December 2018 to be provided in 2018-19. In addition, on 12 December 2019 the Prime Minister announced a further $11 million to be provided in 2019-20. Subsequently, on 4 January 2020 the Prime Minister announced a further $20 million to be provided in 2019-20 to lease four aircraft, specifically two V/LATs and two LATs, in addition to (not in lieu of) the current V/LATs and LATs in the NAFC fleet.) The grant amount will be up to 100 per cent of eligible project costs. The maximum grant period is three years.