The Australian Labor government is pledging a whopping $200 million a year to go directly towards building robust disaster prevention mechanisms across Australia. Labor leader Anthony Albanese reiterated nationwide calls that Australia should be working to mitigate the effects of natural disasters before they strike, rather than simply funnelling funds in the form of disaster relief payments. The $200 million a year figure will pull from an existing Emergency Response Fund set up in 2019 by the incumbent Liberal government amidst Australia’s severe “Black Summer” bushfires. “When there is a disaster, what tends to happen is that people then focus their attention, but we need to focus their attention when there’s not a disaster,” Albanese told ABC radio. Over the last five decades, Australia has experienced the brunt of severe droughts, bushfires, cyclones, and flooding, of which the Black Summer bushfires had been the most damaging at an estimated cost …