Green paper: Introduction

TOWARDS A MORE DISASTER RESILIENT AND SAFER VICTORIA

GREEN PAPER: OPTIONS AND ISSUES

The Victorian Government is reforming the State's crisis and emergency management arrangements to create a more disaster resilient and safer Victoria. To determine the most effective arrangements for Victoria, a range of issues need to be resolved. A number of these issues are discussed in this paper; however, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list and the Government is interested in hearing about other matters that may be affecting Victoria's ability to prepare for, mitigate, respond to and recover from emergency events.

FOREWORD

The resolve of Victorians has been tested through recent bushfires, droughts and floods. These events resulted in a devastating loss of lives, caused widespread economic loss and destroyed many properties.

However, communities throughout Victoria have come together in the face of such adversity, to support each other to work for a better future. The courage, determination and strength of spirit displayed by affected individuals, communities, emergency workers and volunteers is uplifting and inspiring and is a great credit to all involved.

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission Final Report identified aspects of Victoria's emergency management arrangements that did not operate as well as they should have when most needed. The recent Interim Report of the Victorian Floods Review also identified issues with agencies acting in 'silos' and being stretched beyond their capacity. These reports show our emergency management arrangements struggle when confronted by widespread, intense, rapid onset and/or prolonged events.

Victoria will continue to face natural and man-made disasters, which have the potential to severely disrupt the normal functioning of communities, families and individuals. We need to learn from the findings of the recent reports on the bushfires and floods, and develop an emergency management model that sees all agencies working together to respond effectively to all hazards, regardless of the intensity or scale.

The Government is committed to helping all Victorians build resilience in the face of disasters and recognises that this is a responsibility that must be shared by individuals, households, businesses and communities, as well as by governments.

The individual Victorians who plan for, respond to and assist communities recover from emergencies do a magnificent job. However, their work is often hampered by administration and legislation that does not have a sufficiently strong or clear focus on serving all within the community or achieving a genuine 'all hazards, all agencies' approach.

Victoria's emergency services are heavily reliant on the efforts of thousands of volunteers. Volunteers are pivotal to successful emergency response and recovery. We need to ensure we have the right structures in place to support these hard-working and dedicated groups and individuals.

This Green Paper will play an important role in the process to reform Victoria's crisis and emergency management arrangements. In undertaking these reforms, the Victorian Government aims to ensure that Victoria is fully prepared for future disasters and able to recover more quickly from their impacts. Our intention is to build a greater capacity to protect homes, businesses and livelihoods, and to minimise damage to our communities and infrastructure. Most importantly, we want to be much better placed to save lives and to reduce the personal trauma and hardship that can accompany severe emergency events.

These reforms are vitally important to Victoria's future. We encourage all Victorians to be part of this opportunity to make our State a world leader in how we prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Ted Baillieu MLA

Premier

Peter Ryan MLA

Deputy Premier

INTRODUCTION

Victoria's emergency management framework is nearly 30 years old and no longer meets the needs of the State. Our recent experience of natural disasters, including the heatwave and bushfires in early 2009 and the floods in 2010-11, shows clearly that the risk environment has changed in Victoria. Victoria is experiencing more regular and more severe natural events, in line with the global trend. According to research, in 2010 a total of 385 natural disasters killed more than 297,000 people worldwide, affected over 217 million others and caused US $123.9 billion in economic damage.

Victorians are, and will continue to be, at risk from a broad range of natural and human-induced hazards. The CSIRO has predicted that Victoria is likely to see more extreme bushfires, floods, droughts and storm surges. Many communities, and industries and, much infrastructure, are located in areas that are likely to be affected by these severe weather events. It is important that municipal councils, communities and individuals are supported to develop the skills to navigate and mitigate the risks and local impacts of crisis events.

With more extreme events likely to occur, it is more important than ever for Victoria to have effective arrangements in place to manage the risks facing the State and to assist people to be safe in the face of adversity and uncertainty. The findings of both the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and the Victorian Floods Review show that Victoria's existing legislation, policy, governance and operational arrangements for crisis and emergency management need modifying and upgrading to meet the challenges ahead. Victoria manages smaller emergencies relatively well, but needs legislative, administrative and cultural change to break down the organisational 'silos' that inhibit an 'all hazards, all agencies' approach to managing major emergencies.

Victorian disasters timeline

1934	Yarra Valley Floods
1939	Black Friday Fires
1939	Heatwave
1940	Collision at sea - Queenscliff
1943-44	Bushfires
1962	Bushfires - Lara and Dandenongs
1966	Fire - William Booth Memorial Hostel
1969	Bushfires - Lara and Melbourne fringe
1969	Violet town rail collision
1970	Westgate bridge collapse
1971 & 1974	Widespread flooding
1977	Fires - Western District
1983	Ash Wednesday fires
1987	Hoddle and Queen Street shootings
1990	Heatwave
1991	Floods
1991	Coode Island chemical storage fire
1993	Widespread flooding
1996	Kew residential services fire
1997	Dandenong Ranges fires
1997	Anthrax outbreak
1998	Longford gas plant accident
2000	Legionnaires' disease outbreak
2002-03	Alpine fires
2003	Melbourne hail storm
2003-04	Avian flu outbreak
2007	Gippsland floods
2009	Heatwave
2009	Gippsland and Black Saturday Bushfires
2009	H1N1 pandemic
2010-11	Widespread flooding

On 7 February [2009] there was no single person in charge of operational planning, tasking and accountability...This divided responsibility and accountability reflects arrangements in the Emergency Management Act, the Country Fire Authority Act and the Emergency Management Manual Victoria...This meant that cooperation and coordination were the only viable approaches for managing the emergency on the day, since neither bushfire control agency nor anyone else had pre-eminence over the other in a statutory or practical sense. As a consequence, there was no cohesive and unambiguous leadership structure.

2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, Final Report, Vol 1, Part 2, Parliament of Victoria, July 2010, p. 365

The Victorian Government has committed to implement all 67 recommendations of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and has already made a number of changes to Victoria's emergency management arrangements to implement these recommendations. Nonetheless, while Victoria is now in a much stronger position, significant challenges remain.

In particular, while the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and the Government's response have focused on bushfire management, Victoria's Statewide capacity to deal with all types of hazards remains to be strengthened.

The Government is committed to improving Victoria's emergency management arrangements by focusing on:

• service delivery to Victorians across government and communities;
• building community resilience;
• achieving a genuine 'all-hazards, all agencies' approach; and
• enduring and sustainable change.

In meeting this commitment, it is important that the Government carefully consider all options for reform so that it can put in place the arrangements that will be most effective in positioning Victoria to meet the challenges of emergencies well into the future.

Achieving a more resilient and safer Victoria relies on understanding a complex set of interconnected factors that operate in the Victorian environment. Change in one area will have flow-on impacts for communities, organisations and individuals. Our crisis and emergency management arrangements must be sufficiently agile to adapt to factors including demographic change, increased urbanisation, reliance on technology and social media, the heightened movement of people and goods around the world, and the implications of climate change.

This Green Paper is designed to challenge current thinking about Victoria's crisis and emergency management arrangements and to pose provocative questions about the practical options for reform.

This Paper provides:

• an overview of the current legislative and policy arrangements for crisis and emergency management in Victoria;
• a discussion of the international trends in emergency management;
• an analysis of the issues and challenges for Victoria's arrangements; and
• immediate and longer term options for reform, noting that these are not the only options, nor are they mutually exclusive.

This Paper is designed to stimulate community discussion and invite public comments on the proposed policy response. This feedback will be considered by the Government when working through policy options, as will any further issues arising from the final report of the Victorian Floods Review.

This Green Paper is an important step in the comprehensive review of Victoria's crisis and emergency management arrangements.

It marks the start of a process that will be the first opportunity to effect significant change to these arrangements since 1986, when the current Emergency Management Act 1986 was introduced following the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires.

After the Government considers feedback on this Green Paper, it will produce a White Paper, outlining its response and timetables for action. The White Paper will be released in 2012.

Although the clear intent of the Emergency Management Act, the State Emergency Response Plan and the EMMV is to provide for an 'all hazards, all agencies' approach to emergency management, this has not occurred in reality. In the absence of an effective enabling policy to 'drive' this philosophy, the emergency services agencies in Victoria operate in a siloed structure with each agency focused on legislated obligations to address specific hazards.

Neil Comrie AO APM, Review of the 2010-11 Flood Warnings and Response: Interim Report, 30 June 2011, p. 26

Need more information?

The Final Report of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission is available for reading and downloading at www.royalcommission.vic.gov.au

The Interim Report of the Review of the 2010-11 Flood Warnings and Response can be viewed at the Victorian Flood Review website: www.floodsreview.vic.gov.au

Last updated on Monday, 12 September 2011