Inquiry Search
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC250-0792 | 8 - Communications and warnings | The Department of Human Services should develop an improved model for communication for future disasters that provides a single point of information and contact for disaster affected communities |
REC250-0791 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | Local Government Victoria should lead the design and implementation of strategies to support councils to further develop social capital needed for recovery. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC217-1820 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Sustainability and Environment will develop guidelines for the management of levees in emergencies, during and after a flood event, which can be incorporated into local flood response plans. The department will also provide, as part of these guidelines, a set of criteria for assessing the ongoing viability of ad hoc levees post‐flood. The Emergency Management Act 1986 will be amended to support the implementation of these guidelines. A more effective means for councils to remove illegal levees will also be examined by the Department of Sustainability and Environment. |
REC217-1830 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Sustainability and Environment will develop a code of practice on the removal of vegetation around critical public assets, in consultation with councils, CMAs and asset managers. Regional Flood Strategies will support this code of practice as part of shared flood risk management planning. |
REC217-1845 | 37 - Funding | The state government should provide core, ongoing funding to the responsible authority for the FloodSafe community education program. Funding should be provided for education about prevention, response and recovery phases and include information on rates notices about the height of particular floods. |
REC217-1819 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | In consultation with local communities, local councils will develop flood response plans as subplans to their current Municipal Emergency Management Plans. As part of the flood risk assessment process, these plans will be informed by the best available flood mapping and modelling, and will identify agreed activities to be undertaken during floods including, where appropriate, the construction of temporary levees. The condition of levees will be incorporated into such plans to enable improved emergency response. |
REC217-1829 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Sustainability and Environment should develop guidelines for streamlining the permitting system for works on waterways for incorporation in the revised Victoria Flood Management Strategy. An exemption process will be introduced, with particular application to identified reaches of rivers and streams that require ongoing vegetation management and maintenance: |
REC217-1842 | 37 - Funding | The state government review the current funding approach used for the operation, maintenance and upgrade of river gauges, with a view to improving the river gauge network. |
REC217-1814 | 37 - Funding | The funding model for works on levees and their ongoing maintenance be revised, to be primarily based on the beneficiary pays principle. The state government should give consideration to wholly funding, or contributing to, the initial upgrade of high priority levees to an agreed standard. The construction of any new public levees will be the subject of a cost‐benefit analysis to be undertaken by DSE and the public authority, and be supported by a floodplain management study. Levees deemed low priority will be wholly the responsibility of the beneficiaries. |
REC217-1828 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The revised Victoria Flood Management Strategy should clearly articulate the policy guidelines for the management of vegetation and debris in Victorian waterways, for the purposes of flood protection and mitigation, taking into account the localised potential flooding effects of in‐stream vegetation in townships. |
REC217-1838 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | That statements of obligations, issued under the Water Industry Act 1994 for water authorities, be amended to include a provision whereby managing authorities must: |
REC217-1826 | 39 - Disaster Risk Management | A revised Victoria Flood Management Strategy should identify and assign roles and responsibilities for the management and ongoing maintenance of Victoria’s waterways, for the purposes of flood protection and flood mitigation: |
REC217-1837 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The state government give consideration to enacting legislation to provide protection from legal liability for public authorities conducting works on priority levees in good faith, acting reasonably and responsibly in the public interest, and in accordance with standards agreed to under approved schemes. Public authorities should not be excluded from liability if they have acted negligently. |
REC217-1825 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | When developing flood mitigation options in lowland areas, local governments should give consideration to the use of temporary levees as an alternative or addition to permanent structures. To maximise the use of these structures and limit flood damage, and aid affordability, consideration should be given by local governments to the sharing of temporary levees among different townships and different council areas. |
REC217-1834 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | The Department of Sustainability and Environment will develop clear policy for the coordinated management of rural drainage, clarifying the legal framework, and identifying authorities with responsibility for the management and ongoing maintenance of formal schemes, and their development: |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC216-2871 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | Efficient and effective supporting tools and processes: high-quality local/municipal planning. |
REC216-2870 | 8 - Communications and warnings | Efficient and effective supporting tools and processes: streamlining the authorisation processes for urgent warnings. |
REC216-2869 | 8 - Communications and warnings | Efficient and effective supporting tools and processes: developing tools and workflows to quickly and reliably transform technical data into intelligence that can be used to construct messages for community information that are timely, relevant, tailored and effective. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
---|---|---|
REC199-0437 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state engage with local government to ensure emergency services’ public information and warnings reflect the community demographic. |
REC199-0464 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state develop and implement a strategy that maximises the flexibility and united capacity of the Country Fire Authority and Victoria State Emergency Service to respond to emergencies. |
REC199-0442 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state appoint a state emergency controller who is ultimately accountable for all major emergencies. |
REC199-0475 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the Department of Planning and Community Development review the volunteer register and examine additional options to support councils in volunteer management, including the development of tools and staffing support. |
REC199-0422 | 36 - Volunteers | the state establish a process for volunteer community member accreditation to allow volunteers to provide flood information to the control agency during a flood event. This process should establish a base competency standard and provide appropriate emergency management and Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System training to accredited community volunteers. |
REC199-0456 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state: • ensure an ‘all hazards, all agencies’ approach to Incident Action Plan compilation is developed and implemented to enable the timely issue of functional Incident Action Plans. All agency incident action planning processes should be standardised to the fullest extent possible, including consideration of a library of pro-forma Incident Action Plans; and • develop and implement mechanisms to test and ensure that agencies possess satisfactory incident action planning capability and capacity for ‘all hazards’ at all levels of operations. |
REC199-0436 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state develop a standard approach to the provision of emergency warnings and information in formats – spoken and written – that recognise diverse community needs, including language and disability |
REC199-0463 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the state: • ensure an appropriate regime of regular emergency management training and exercising is introduced. This must be ‘all hazards’ and multi-agency focused and include all relevant stakeholders • designate an accountable officer to hold ongoing responsibility for conducting such exercises; and • designate the Emergency Services Commissioner as holding ongoing responsibility for auditing and reviewing this training and exercising. |
REC199-0441 | 4 - Fire season preparation | the state undertake further trials to explore the opportunity for greater use of social media as a credible source of information to and from the public during an emergency |
REC199-0471 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state and the commonwealth, during a flood event, make information available on providers who have capacity to accommodate patients and residents who require evacuation. |
REC199-0415 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the state ensure that all personnel who are likely to become involved in incident management teams for floods receive basic flood awareness training prior to such involvement. |
REC199-0454 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the State Emergency Response Coordinator further develop the Strategic Emergency Management Assurance Team process by involving subject matter experts from relevant emergency management control agencies who are the subject of Strategic Emergency Management Assurance Team focus. |
REC199-0435 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state put in place appropriate measures to inform the community of the intended purpose of the Emergency Alert warning system. |
REC199-0462 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the state introduce a joint emergency management leadership training program that will deliver critical core competencies for all levels of management of major emergencies. Future appointments to senior operational emergency management positions should require successful accreditation at the appropriate level. |
REC199-0440 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state actively pursue the use of social media as part of its emergency warning and public information system. |
REC199-0469 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state update the current fire specific guidelines and resources for evacuation planning to take an ‘all hazards’ approach |
REC199-0414 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the state ensure that all personnel who, because of their particular flood expertise, are likely to be potential participants in an Incident Control Centre are familiar with the requirements of the Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System structure |
REC199-0448 | 16 - Training and behaviour | the state ensure that sector wide familiarity and understanding of the various systems for incident management is developed and maintained. Primarily, this should be achieved through multi-agency emergency management training and exercising involving usage of the various agency incident management systems. |
REC199-0487 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state develop and incorporate into emergency management planning regimes plans based on geographic risk, such as sub-regional plans |
REC199-0434 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state require that agencies operate in compliance with the guidelines of the Victorian Warning Protocol to ensure efficacy of warning messages. |
REC199-0461 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state ensure: • water rescue/swift water rescue definitions, roles and responsibilities are clarified and communicated to all stakeholders to ensure common understanding • appropriate training, equipment and support is provided to those required to perform water rescue/swift water rescue. Common training programs, standards and accreditation should be utilised wherever possible to increase potential for joined up operations and maximised capability • that based upon the experiences of these flood events, an appropriate level of water rescue capacity and capability is established and maintained • flood plans (all levels) and flood emergency response planning incorporate consideration of pre-positioning of appropriate water rescue capability in the event that such services should be required; and • that revised water rescue roles, responsibilities and arrangements are clearly defined in the Emergency Management Manual Victoria and such definitions are replicated in all individual agency planning and operational documents |
REC199-0439 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state review its Memoranda of Understanding with official emergency broadcasters to take account of increased usage of internet based information, including social media and the ability to broadcast community meetings |
REC199-0468 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | municipal councils undertake a risk assessment of caravan parks and decide if any should be included in the list of facilities where vulnerable people may be located. |
REC199-0402 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state develop a flood warning system for each basin and location with community input and make relevant documents publicly available. Each warning system should include key performance indicators. |
REC199-0444 | 2 - Emergency powers | the state, as a matter of urgency, develop a multi-agency Incident Control Team capability to be readily available for statewide deployment to establish incident control or to relieve functioning control structures. |
REC199-0486 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | the state, following the completion of the Municipal Association of Victoria Improving Emergency Management in Local Government program, work with municipalities to revise the role and responsibilities of local government in emergency management. The issue of capability and capacity of each local government should be addressed in all related emergency management arrangements. |
REC199-0433 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state develop and implement standards for Emergency Alert to ensure consistent use, training and application by accredited operators within agencies across ‘all hazards’. |
REC199-0459 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state undertake a complete review of emergency management legislation. This should include agencyspecific emergency management legislation and should focus on service interoperability and securing an ‘all hazards, all agencies’ capability |
REC199-0438 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state investigate the ability to refine the Flood and Storm Information Line to enable it to receive as well as provide information. |
REC199-0467 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state review and align all policies and procedures for evacuation, such as the interim evacuation guidelines and the State Health Emergency Response Plan, to ensure consistency and to clarify roles and responsibilities. |
REC199-0443 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state reconfigure the Victorian Emergency Management Council and the supportive committee arrangements to ensure a comprehensive, accountable, effective and integrated approach to the development of emergency management arrangements is in place for Victoria. The process should also include consideration of the Security and Emergencies Committee and Central Government Response Committee roles, functions, reporting arrangements and relationships with other state level emergency management groups. Settled arrangements must be clearly articulated to ensure stakeholder understanding. |
REC199-0484 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state: • assess current risk and risk mitigation strategies for essential services, with a focus on ensuring that risks are appropriately identified at all levels of emergency planning; and • ensure that the responsible authority or owner/ operator of essential services put in place appropriate strategies to mitigate any risk to service continuity |
REC199-0432 | 8 - Communications and warnings | the state develop and implement a single web portal as a means of providing emergency information to communities and local government on an ‘all hazards’ basis, including the information referred to in recommendations 74, 89 and 92. |
REC199-0457 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | the state: • revise the Emergency Management Team Practice Note to include a template to ensure an appropriate and consistent approach to Emergency Management Team operations • provide the revised Emergency Management Team Practice Note to all stakeholders to enable familiarisation; and • ensure that there is regular exercising of Emergency Management Teams with an `all hazards’ focus. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
---|---|---|
REC154-3457 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | DPI should develop a strategy to deliver an integrated and coordinated approach to prevention and early detection across the livestock value chain. As part of the strategy DPI should: |
REC154-3456 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | DPI should more closely align planning and risk management processes to support its decision-making and response to changing priorities, capacity, capability and investment. |
REC154-3455 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | Department of Primary Industries (DPI) should broaden the focus of its planning for biosecurity to include a longer term horizon and demonstrate closer alignment with national planning frameworks. To support this DPI should: |
REC154-3460 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | To support increased effectiveness in EAD (Emergency Animal Disease) response management DPI should: |
REC154-3458 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | DPI should develop a surveillance strategy with agreed goals and a comprehensive, integrated approach to surveillance across the livestock value chain. The surveillance strategy should: |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
---|---|---|
REC125-3896 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | That councils plan for, and implement, formal consultation arrangements with stakeholders to set drainage goals and objectives, and desired service levels. |
REC125-3895 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | That all agencies develop drainage asset management plans, consistent with best practice, and that these incorporate: |
REC125-3894 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | That councils develop flood risk management practices consistent with best practice risk management, and that these incorporate: |
REC125-3901 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | That councils formulate, track and report on measures that show their performance in managing drainage assets. |
REC125-3900 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That agencies integrate condition information into their asset management decision-making practices and use it as the basis for validating asset valuations and depreciation calculations. |
REC125-3899 | 22 - Role of local Gvt | That councils implement a condition assessment and monitoring program conforming to best practice principles. |
Rec-ID | Code | Recommendation |
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REC112-3917 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That DPI improves monitoring and surveillance of high priority threats and improves the quality of information provided to the Commonwealth. |
REC112-3931 | 16 - Training and behaviour | That DPI ensures that AIIMS training includes information to ensure that everyone understands their role, and how information will be managed internally and externally, in the event of an incursion. |
REC112-3909 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That PSB’s enforcement procedures are consistent with those of the rest of the department. |
REC112-3916 | 16 - Training and behaviour | That DPI reviews the work of entry level graduates to ensure career paths are clear and encourage the retention of staff. |
REC112-3930 | 16 - Training and behaviour | That DPI provides plant incursion-specific AIIMS training for anyone who might be involved in, or providing resources for, an incursion response. This includes senior management, field and research staff, contractors and industry participants. |
REC112-3908 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | That DPI develops a department-wide enforcement policy and specific guidelines for Plant Standards Branch (PSB). |
REC112-3915 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That DPI makes arrangements to use contract labour for fruit fly trap monitoring and surveillance before the predicted fruit fly outbreak season. |
REC112-3928 | 3 - Biodiversity | That DPI formalises agreements within the Regional Services and Agriculture Division to ensure that plant health information is included in extension programs. |
REC112-3914 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That DPI develops a consistent approach to recording and enforcing breaches of the certification and verification system. |
REC112-3924 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | That DPI develops diagnostic protocols for high-priority threats, in conjunction with other jurisdictions and industry, as soon as practicable. |
REC112-3911 | 3 - Biodiversity | That DPI develops a consistent process to identify, assess and prioritise potential plant pest and disease threats, and aligns it with prioritisation processes used at the national level by Plant Health Australia. |
REC112-3923 | 12 - EM agency and authority | That DPI negotiates access, as and when required, to an AQIS PC4- accredited laboratory. |
REC112-3934 | 37 - Funding | That DPI prepares guidelines, both internally and externally with Treasury, about funding arrangements for an outbreak. |
REC112-3910 | 32 - Doctrine, standards, and reform | That the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Act 1992, Plant Health and Plant Products Act 1995 and Livestock Disease Control Act 1994 be registered with the Department of Justice’s PERIN system. |