The National Climate Risk Assessment has warned that a dedicated disaster recovery force is needed, or else responders and defence forces could be "overwhelmed" by multiple concurrent natural disasters.

The assessment confirmed that, as identified in the Defence Strategic Review, "Defence is not structured or appropriately equipped to act as a domestic disaster recovery agency concurrently with its core function of defending Australia and its national interests".

Former chief of the defence force Admiral Chris Barrie said future disasters would further limit the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

"The issue with our defence force is it's still as small as it was when I was CDF [in 2002], so it's really no larger, and that means there are serious limitations on how many people we can put in

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