AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT VOLUNTEER FORUM

Mt Macedon, Victoria

10 June 2009

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

First, may I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we meet on – and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.

Thank you all for taking the time to come together today and contribute your valuable expertise to national emergency volunteer policy.

I have come to the forum today to reinforce to you exactly how important your work is to the Rudd Government.

I would like to explain how volunteering fits into the Government’s broader emergency management agenda and suggest ways in which you can be of assistance in this vital area of public policy.

All-Hazards Approach to National Security

Since 1900, natural disasters have killed over 1,200 Australians.

These deaths have occurred through drought, fire, flood and earthquakes and a number of major events will forever live in the national memory.

Cyclone Tracey, Ash Wednesday and now the Black Saturday fires are just some examples of events that have caused lasting damage to lives, property and infrastructure.

The magnitude of this risk was centrally acknowledged in the Prime Minister’s national security statement last year.

The Government recognises that such an enormous threat to Australian life will continue and potentially only get worse into the future.

As such, emergency management should be considered as a national security concern and treated as seriously as any threat to the safety and security of our citizens.

That’s why the Government is drawing together our national security arrangements, to ensure there is an all-hazards approach to all emergencies irrespective of the cause.

Restructure of Emergency Management Australia (EMA)

My Department has implemented this new approach through an important restructure, with three divisions now responsible for our contribution to national security.

The National Security Resilience Policy Division will lead the national policy agenda across a range of issues from e-security and critical infrastructure protection to disaster resilience and national disaster response planning.

This has enabled the policy minds from previously disparate areas to ensure a consistent approach to many threats which, although from different causes, will involve many of the same procedures in response.

This division is complemented by the National Security Capability Development Division. It should be of particular interest to Forum members as it will be taking a similar coordinated approach to education, training, disaster mitigation grants and volunteer recruitment and retention.

Finally, Emergency Management Australia has been refocussed on national coordination of incident response, and brings together branches which previously oversaw responses to terrorist attacks and disaster responses separately into one coordination centre.

The benefits of such a combined role, in terms of coherent policy, resource duplication and concentration of expertise are enormous.

Of course, States and Territories will always play a frontline role as primary responders. But there is a role for the Commonwealth to provide leadership and national coordination.

It is that leadership role that I intend to pursue vigorously with these new enhanced Departmental capabilities.

Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management

I have been pursuing the role of national coordination with my state and Territory colleagues in the Ministerial Council of Police and Emergency Management (MCPEM-EM).

A number of significant conference outcomes were achieved at the November 2008 meeting, including the commissioning of drafting on plans for:

These plans are being drafted now and will be presented for approval at the next MCPEM-EM meeting in November.

Currently the emergency management framework is primarily focussed on response.

I am confident that this national program of work will provide the best foundation possible for all emergency responders, wherever they are based in our nation.

Concrete Support for Emergency Management

At the same time as taking a coordinated approach to emergency management policy and infrastructure, the Rudd Government is also providing the concrete support necessary to give effect to these strategies.

There has been a 33 per cent increase in funding for emergency response capability since the Rudd Government came to office.

These enhanced resources are also being spent in a more targeted manner.

For example, I was pleased to announce the new Disaster Resilience Australia package in the 2009-10 Budget. The package will deliver $203 million over 4 years and includes over $79 million of new funding.

Part of the package will draw together previously disparate grants programs such as the Natural Disaster Mitigation Program, Bushfire Mitigation Program and National Emergency Volunteer Support Fund, it will enable a flexible, coherent set of grants criteria to govern all emergency management project development.

It will be a more flexible and comprehensive framework. Projects that were previously a square peg for a particular programme may now be eligible under the broader criteria.

I strongly urge you to communicate with the volunteer community about this program, as I have incorporated the feedback I received from many visits to emergency volunteer organisations last year to make the criteria more open for creative, well-constructed volunteer projects.

There will also be a component for national projects which can contribute to issues of national significance, including volunteering.

A number of other significant contributions to national emergency management capability have also been funded by the Rudd Government through the $203 million package.

These include:

Emergency Volunteering

As you can see, this is an exciting time for the Australian emergency management community

By their very nature, volunteers will have a huge role to play in this process

It is estimated that if Australia’s 500,000 emergency management volunteers did not exist, Governments would have to find an extra $18 billion on wages alone to provide a comparable service

Volunteers are also a vital bridge with the general community and are a key mechanism for enhancing individual resilience.

In my visits to disaster areas, I have continually been struck by how much can be achieved by volunteers. Equally, I am struck by how much more could be done with the benefit of national coordination.

Only two weeks ago I visited Lismore where the local State Emergency Service crews were working around the clock with a very sophisticated set of arrangements to handle the vast number of responses and evacuations that were necessary.

Their commander reported on previous assistance that they had provided in Queensland but noted that, despite the best will in the world, different operational procedures between States had prevented the maximum degree of cooperation being achieved.

As disasters increase in scope and size, more cooperation between jurisdictions will be necessary and I see an important role for you to play in this.

I would welcome your input on areas that would benefit from national leadership, whether it’s common training, education, or operating procedures for volunteers.

In this way, we can ensure the enormous contribution of emergency volunteers keeps pace with the trend towards nationally consistent, all-hazards emergency management.

Conclusion

I hope that these remarks will encourage discussion over the next day’s meetings and that it has given some context for the broader developments in the emergency management sector.

I look forward to examining the results of your deliberations and to further contact with you into the future.

Thank you.