The Commonwealth government must play a larger role in responding to future natural disasters, the royal commission convened after the devastating Black Summer bushfires has found.
The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements said there needed to be greater leadership from the federal government during national disasters, despite states holding the primary responsibility for emergency management.
It called for the Prime Minister to be able to declare a state of national emergency during such crises.
"We have concluded that the Australian government has the power to, and should, play a greater role in relation to natural disasters on a national scale. For such disasters, the Australian government should be able to declare a state of national emergency," the report said.
"The declaration should be made by the Prime Minister, and legislation should be clear about the circumstances in which a declaration may be made, and the actions that the Australian government can then take to support state and territory governments.
"A declaration would provide an important formal signal to communities and individuals about the severity of a disaster, and signal to Australian government agencies, including the Australian Defence Force, that they need to be on high-alert, ready to help the states and territories in their response and recovery efforts."
However a declaration should not give the Commonwealth the power to commandeer state-based resources, the report said.
"A declaration should be the catalyst for a more 'coherent, pre-emptive and expeditious' mobilisation of Australian government resources," it reads.
"It should not purport to give the Australian government the power to determine how the resources of states and territories are to be used or allocated, without their consent."
It also called for Australia to develop its own aerial firefighting fleet.
Rather than relying on leased resources, it recommended a national aerial firefighting capability include the purchase of air tankers and helicopters which could be tasked according to the greatest national need.
Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said the federal government intended to work collaboratively with the states to respond to the commission's 80 recommendations.
"The government does not intend to take a backward step on this," Mr Littleproud said. "We intend to address these recommendations as quickly as we can."
He said before a national state of emergency was introduced, Emergency Management Australia and Home Affairs would need to clearly define in what circumstances the government would step in.
"I must reiterate [this] is not about the federal government coming in to take over and fight fires," Mr Littleproud said.
"The states are the best ones to do that."
The Morrison government came under fire for its slow response to the Black Summer fires, which swept through more than 24 million hectares of land, killing 33 people and destroying more than 3000 homes.
An estimated 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by the fires and the economic impact is believed to be around $10 billion.
However Mr Morrison repeatedly said the bushfire response was a matter for the states. He came under fire for saying "I don't hold a hose, mate" when questioned why he went on holidays while much of the country was burning.
After weeks of pressure, he took the extraordinary step of calling in 3000 Australian Defence Force reservists to assist with the fire efforts across four states.
Through six months of hearings, 1750 public submissions and nearly 80,000 documents, the royal commission heard last summer's fire season was unprecedented. However royal commission chair Mark Binskin said, "unprecedented is not a reason to be unprepared".
The royal commission warned extreme weather events would likely become more frequent over the next three decades due to global warming.
It heard from the CSIRO that some degree of climate change was "locked in" over the next 20 years because of existing emissions.
Australian sea levels were projected to rise between 26 and 82 centimetres by 2090 depending on the level of emissions.
