Disaster-management organisations have told the government to switch gears from response to resilience as a matter of priority.
Public submissions to the Alternative Commonwealth Capabilities for Crisis Response Discussion Paper show an overwhelming consensus that Australia needs to plan ahead for inevitable future disasters.
Climate change will likely make future disasters more frequent and more severe. Experts predict that as well as fire and floods, biosecurity will become a mounting challenge as pest species migrate.
The Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience wrote that Australia needed to be proactively understanding, prepared for and adapted to risks, and have already built resilience before events occurred.
“This shift is increasingly urgent given the compounding and cascading nature of risks and emergencies,” they said.
“These events are often combined with other risks like climate change, conflicts, epidemics, inflation, and economic downturn. This phenomenon of multiple disasters is increasingly referred to as a ‘polycrisis’.
“AIDR[s] firm position is that there is a greater need to focus on disaster risk reduction and resilience (prevention and preparedness) initiatives, to curb the growing demand on response and recovery workforces when a disaster occurs.”
Who is ultimately responsible for the cleanup efforts that follow natural disasters has been a political hot potato since one-in-a-hundred-year floods started happening every other year.
Often, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) is called in to manage logistics work, despite being the last-resort first responder.
This has become a cause for concern following the defence strategic review, which found using ADF personnel in this way left Australia geopolitically vulnerable.
Proposals to amend this have existed in the political sphere for a long time. Senator Jacqui Lambie has argued in the past for the creation of a fourth arm of the military that would be responsible for disaster management.
Emergency management minister Murray Watt said finding a permanent solution to who does the legwork of disaster management was a priority of the current round of consultation.
“In line with the Defence Strategic Review, this is about developing response measures so that defence is not always the first call that’s made — it is the last,” he said.
“This discussion paper has helped to bring together a range of expertise that can be called upon in a disaster and the Albanese Government will continue to listen to stakeholders to inform how we ensure we’re better prepared to respond to future disaster events.”
The government conducted 26 roundtables with a range of critical sectors, as well as state and territory governments and emergency service organisations, engaging with nearly 240 organisations through roundtables, submissions and other means.
The Department of Home Affairs and National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will use information gathered from the Discussion Paper to inform the policy development process and advise the government on potential options.
Disaster Relief Australia (DRA) CEO Geoff Evans said Australia needs large numbers of people across the country prepared to mobilise at a moment’s notice.
He said DRA’s management of “spontaneous volunteers” has shown new models to encourage participation are needed.
“This workforce would ideally consist of already trained volunteers from sectors including the military, veterans and first responders. Developing a surge capacity ensures that additional resources can be mobilised promptly when needed,” they said.
“Public service leave arrangements should allow for volunteering leave with these private, public, or not-for-profit organisations … This would allow the Australian Public Service and corporate Australia to access volunteering leave to deploy with DRA.
“Rigid models of volunteering that require regular attendance and training on-site are a contributing factor to this [volunteer workforce] decline. DRA provides a flexible model of volunteering, recognising existing skills and experience and allowing members to participate when and where they can.”
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