Innovatia

nate in Queensland’s flood and cyclone after- math, both at a local government level and the State. For the first time ever, there was a plan es- tablished by local government with State involve- ment, coordinated by the State government, co-funded with Commonwealth government JK : And how comprehensive were these plans? BM : Much broader than ever before, and im- portantly, not just about infrastructure, but about human and cultural factors, the environ- ment and the economy. There was communi- ty consultation. This reconstruction effort was probably the first ever to bring in environmen- tal concerns for the re-build, for the future. JK : This was actually something of a revolu- tion or a whole new paradigm as to looking at disaster management. BM : It was, very much so. JK : And it led to a similar body being created in NSW and … BM : Yes, in NSW with a similar titling, and in Victoria, Emergency Recovery Victoria, works with Emergency Management Victoria cover- ing very similar ground as to reconstruction. JK : And the other States without such a facility? BM : I should say first, taking the example of WA, say, that they have great capability if in dif- ferent forms- in different agencies. There is no one size fits all solution for Australia. Each state is different. WA has a vastly different popula- tion settlement pattern for example. In my experience, what drives the creation of a reconstruction agency is a big event which impacts a major population centre, as in the Queensland experience. In NSW the big event was the massive flooding in 2022. A catastroph- ic event, with serious economic consequences will typically galvanize government, financiers,

the private sector to create this kind of entity. JK : Another new word or phrase which seems to have entered the specialist vocabulary since my encounter with EMA is the idea of “scaling up” resources. BM : Yes, and this is a product, mainly of larg- er magnitude disasters which involve more than one jurisdictional area, like the 2019-2020 bushfires. It requires another type of co-ordi- nation and readiness. JK : Are you suggesting that the scale of disas- ters in Australia are becoming larger in magni- tude, more often or more generally? BM : That has been our experience, our chang- ing climate driving natural hazards are becom- ing more frequent and more complex. JK : Well, you don’t need to be a scientist, mere- ly a skier to discern a serious decline of snow, and the ancillary effects of climate change…… We’ve been tearfully looking for snow quality of the past for at least two decades. BM : Yes, true…… and the corollary to your ex- perience….in the history of Australian disaster or emergency management is one where pre- viously, we had more discrete, smaller events, serious, but smaller. The magnitude of more recent times has clearly shaped how we think and plan now. JK : Another new word –to me—in your arena is “resilience “…..I must have read it a dozen times in the past week or so, in prep for this discus- sion, Brendan. Can you speak about this please? BM : The definition we use of resilience is the ability of a system to absorb, react, respond, and recover from an extreme event. JK : This represents a great enlargement of philosophy in your sector, it seems to me, com- pared with the past.

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INNOVATIA