REC324-4302 |
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
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Disaster adaptation plans for all towns: That, to establish realistic expectations of safe spaces to live and deliver much needed housing quickly, Government through NSWRA working with local government:
• build a disaster adaptation plan for each city and town, with planning instruments discouraging (and in many cases forbidding) development in disaster-likely areas. These plans should be developed under the NSW Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 1 . For towns at high risk, this should be completed within 3 years, with the rest of the state to be completed within 5 years. To develop these plans, it will be necessary to prioritise modelling of the impact of and evacuation possibilities from likely potential disasters as well as modelling the direct impact of the potential disasters themselves. For floods this can be done by continuing and broadening the flood modelling done in INSW to other high-risk catchments. This flood modelling activity should be moved to the NSWRA from the two groups it is currently with (INSW’s Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Directorate and the Department of Planning and Environment’s Environment and Heritage Group)
• through NSWRA, working with local councils, complete the first sweep of plans including appropriate hazard maps (including but not limited to flood, fire and landslip) and link them to Strategic Plans and LEPs (updating as necessary). An accreditation process should be implemented so local councils with demonstrated capacity can seek accreditation with the NSWRA to maintain their own disaster adaptation plans with oversight (spot audits) by NSWRA
• use the disaster adaptation plans including the disaster/evacuation modelling to resolve existing rezonings currently on hold especially for the North-West corridor of Sydney. Future residential development in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley should be increasingly discouraged in favour of rapid development near train stations and other facilities in flood-safe areas
• use the disaster adaptation plans including the disaster/evacuation modelling and the options spelled out in the Northern Rivers case study to inform town planning, relocation options, buy backs and land swaps for the flood affected Northern Rivers region with the NSWRA (and in the lead up to the NSWRA’s creation, the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation) urgently commencing a phased program to migrate people off the highest-risk areas of the Lismore floodplain, and other Northern Rivers floodplains, through a significantly expanded land swap and voluntary house purchase scheme, with priority given to our most vulnerable community members
• prioritise and incentivise new development in safe areas, noting this will often mean encouraging first home buyers to choose homes in appropriate density developments, including high-rise developments, through siting such new developments in locations with desirable attributes (near train stations, parkland, shopping centres, etc.) In this regard, Government should focus on redeveloping existing Government land in these locations
• for existing developments which are in disaster-likely areas, ensures evacuation routes are available and of sufficient capacity; the community is well-educated about the risks they face and how and when to evacuate; and any modifications of existing buildings are approved only if they maximally address the relevant risk (e.g. apartment buildings have the first few floors dedicated to parking so residents can shelter in place if necessary) noting that shelter in place only works if the flood waters come up and go down quickly, and if other essential services (water, electricity, sewerage, access to food and medical supplies, etc) are available
• using the Six Cities Region as an inspiration, consider developing another strategic city cluster in NSW, prioritising safety from fire and flood along with affordable housing; new industries offering well-paid employment; living within 30 minutes of the workplace; and offering access to education and training at all levels.
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REC324-4307 |
9 - Community education
9 - Community education
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Flood education: That, to build disaster resilience in future generations as floods and other natural disasters are a fact of Australian life, the Department of Education should design, implement and deliver an evidence-based, targeted education campaign (like sun exposure) in schools (new disaster curriculum).
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REC324-4312 |
17 - Assets and technology
17 - Assets and technology
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Impact to essential services: That, to minimise disruption to essential services, including outages which compromise basic communication coverage, and to ensure access to safe water supply and power during flood events, Government work directly or together with the Australian and other state governments and/or their relevant power and telecommunications regulatory, policy and market bodies to:
• ensure there are sufficient redundancy options known and made available (for example, backup diesel generators, deployed temporary telecommunications facilities, etc.) to supply power to essential telecommunication infrastructure, alternative telecommunications infrastructure and water treatment facilities.
• ensure that the telecommunication entities, electricity network providers and water treatment managers are using up to the minute, whole of catchment models to inform business continuity planning in the event of flooding
• facilitate cross carrier roaming arrangements between carriers and the public for basic text, voice and data during the period of emergency in areas directly affected by flood
• ensure all essential services are mandatory members of the Emergency Management Committees at state, regional and local levels
• ensure the state understands essential services redundancies and what emergency redundancy options are available from Australian Government agencies
• ensure, given the heavy reliance on essential services by community and government during a disaster, essential services loss, redundancy and build back better principles are exercised through emergency management committee processes annually.
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REC324-4317 |
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
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Flood rescue capability: That, to help improve the protection of life across NSW in flood events:
• the NSW State Rescue Board enforce adherence with current functions for flood rescue as specified in its current NSW State Rescue Policy
• the NSW State Rescue Board commences a review into flood rescue to bring it into line with all other rescues. All other rescues are currently coordinated through Triple Zero VKG NSW Police in an agreement with all other emergency services agencies. The Inquiry heard from the heads of combat agencies and aligning unions on this matter and found a consensus that the coordination of and response to flood rescue must change. The Inquiry acknowledges that this will necessitate implementation activities for a number of agencies
• aviation rescue is coordinated, in line with all other types of rescue, by NSW Rescue Coordinator (RAO), acknowledging RFS will maintain an Air Desk for firefighting activities
• the Flood Inquiry Secretariat remain in place to: — conduct an independent audit of NSW rescue capability across the state to inform which agency is best placed to respond to individual flood rescue requests — facilitate the transition from Resilience NSW to Recovery NSW. This scope of work could take up to 12 months. Further, to support effective flood rescue capabilities, appropriate training facilities are required. Accordingly, the Inquiry would support the NSW Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee:
• considering the NSW Marine Rescue bid to enhance the Cronulla Marine Rescue Centre to include a Flood Rescue Operational Centre
• approving funding for a NSW state multi agency ‘Flood Rescue Training Academy’ in a regional location to support and enhance the multiagency response needed for large scale events.
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REC324-4293 |
17 - Assets and technology
17 - Assets and technology
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Essential services and floodplain infrastructure: That, to minimise disruption to essential services (power, communications, water, sewerage) and to ensure flood infrastructure is fully serviceable before flooding, Government ensure:
• essential services infrastructure (communications, water, power and sewerage) is situated as much as possible above the flood planning level. And to minimise disruption to medical services, aged care services and the police, Government ensure hospitals, medical centres, nursing homes, aged care facilities and police stations are situated above the probable maximum flood level
• floodplain infrastructure (drains, levees, flood gates) items are all assigned to an appropriate lead agency which has responsibility for ensuring they are fully maintained and functioning especially when floods are likely.
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REC324-4301 |
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform
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Floodplains as assets: That, to establish the capacity and maximise the economic, social and environmental potential and consequently unlock the value of NSW floodplains, Government adopt the following guiding principles for floodplain management:
• treat floodplains as an asset, specialising in uses that are productive and minimise risk to life during major weather events. Such uses would include sporting and recreational activities, garden plots and community gardens, agriculture and forestry, renewable energy production, biodiversity offsets, parks and outdoor education activities. Government should progressively move floodplain ownership to Government leasehold with lessees using the land under appropriately specified conditions. The management of the process of conversion to leasehold would be a Special Project of the NSWRA but over time handing the floodplain asset over to management by another government agency. The NSRWA should prioritise rapid conversion to leasehold in cases where houses and businesses are in high-risk areas – this may be accomplished by land swaps or buy backs. In doing so Government achieves early wins for new uses. In other cases, the conversion should occur as a condition of development, of a type that is consistent with safe evacuation or safety in place in the case of flash flooding that recedes rapidly
• treat development of the floodplain in parallel with development of urban structures (houses, businesses and industry) that are built near to the edge of the floodplain. Examples of connection could include high-rise housing developments where apartment owners are granted automatic rights and access to community garden and community recreation facilities. Structures within the floodplain and surrounding development should be connected by a layer of sustainable transport
• favour letting watercourses largely flow naturally rather than implementing engineering barriers such as flood levees and mitigation schemes to stop floods
• communicate the intention to use planning arrangements that will lead to greater safety and community amenity as well as realising a significant state asset. This needs to be communicated in general to the people of NSW, but also to those particularly affected communities at the time of planning, rebuilding and construction.
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