Two NSW agencies to be established from flood inquiry report

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The wide-ranging report into the NSW floods published on Wednesday contains 28 recommendations for how the state government’s disaster management should be run, most notably in the dismantling of Resilience NSW for a “more agile” agency named Recovery NSW.

The report, co-authored by Professor Mary O’Kane and former police commissioner Michael Fuller, estimated the transition from Resilience NSW to Recovery NSW would take 12 months, with the agency focusing on the immediate 100 days of a disaster. 

Meanwhile, a separate agency called the Reconstruction Agency (NSWRA) will be focused on long-term goals such as prevention and the rebuilding of infrastructure. The agency model proposed is based on the Queensland Reconstruction Agency (QRA). 

The QRA has been around for more than 10 years, having first been set up in 2011. In 2015, the government expanded the role of the agency for disaster recovery, resilience and mitigation policy.

The report recommends the NSWRA be appointed to a senior portfolio, be led by a statutory-appointed CEO, and have an advisory board of a maximum of seven members. 

Speaking at a press conference on the matter, co-author Fuller emphasised the focus of the new agencies would be on cutting “red tape”.

“I think Resilience had an enormous remit. A very challenging one. We’ve tried to break that up into smaller pieces that are achievable by agencies that will have the ability to break through the red tape to break through all of those barriers,” Fuller said.

In terms of further institutional recommendations, the report recommended a new deputy commissioner of the NSW police force to take on the state emergency-management operations coordinator (SEOCON) role. According to the NSW Police Force’s website, this would bring the total of deputy police commissioners up to five. 

The new deputy commission SEOCON would be responsible for Recovery NSW. 

Another recommendation was to combine the back offices of the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) and the NSW Rural Fire Services (RFS), both of which some have been highly critical.

Public Service Association of NSW general secretary Stewart Little said the proposed merger would see, in his opinion, two poorly resourced organisations merge that were designed to be separate. 

“Once again, the government has stomped in with an expedient plan without bothering to consult with public sector workers or the communities affected. We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well,” Little said in a statement. 

The report mentions the necessity of working with federal agencies such as the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for communications and the CSIRO for research.

The BOM recently announced Australia has a 70% chance of experiencing La Niña again next year for the third consecutive year in a row. If La Niña occurs again, this would lead to another year of heavy rainfall.

Senior lecturer in applied finance at Macquarie University Dr Lurion De Mello said more government funding needs to be given to research for the CSIRO’s Ocean and Atmosphere division.

“Better observations of ocean temperatures will help in predicting these events and help in preparing for floods and droughts,” De Mello said. 

Writing in The Conversation in March, academics from the Queensland University of Technology argued a lack of specification of responsibility between federal, state and local government has led to the politicisation of disaster management. 

The report mentioned the reliance of local councils on state resources in times of a disaster, with the recommendations stating the new agency NSWRA should support them in training and disaster preparedness. 

The NSW government has already agreed to all recommendations contained within the report, although it has cautioned some recommendations may take some time to implement.