At 31 July 2018, there were 1345 people in immigration detention facilities, including 1172 in immigration detention on the mainland and 173 in immigration detention on Christmas Island.

A further 386 people were living in the community after being approved for a residence determination and 17,029 were living in the community after grant of a Bridging Visa E.

Leesa Carson, Head of Community Safety, Geoscience Australia

In 1989, the United Nations General Assembly called for the International Day for Disaster Reduction to help build a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction.

Almost thirty years later, the International Day for Disaster Reduction is marked every year on 13 October to raise awareness of this global issue, and what can be done, to decrease the risk and impact of natural disasters to communities.

The Australian Government will provide a further $6 million to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to support the Government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to respond to the current polio outbreak.

In June 2018, the PNG Government declared a national public health emergency in response to confirmed cases of polio virus.

The PNG Government, along with key partners including GPEI, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have developed an outbreak response plan that includes mass vaccination rounds.

Timor-Leste remains one of the poorest countries in the South-East Asian region, with 37% of the population living below the international poverty line. Agriculture provides an income for an estimated 80% of the population. A large proportion are food insecure, experiencing critical food shortage from November to February.

Australia is providing additional support to Indonesia in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami which struck Sulawesi on 28 September.

Assessments are still ongoing, with over 1,500 people confirmed dead and 65,000 homes damaged and destroyed.

Australia will provide a further $4.5 million to assist those affected by this disaster, bringing our total assistance to the relief effort to $10.25 million.