REC267-1153 |
4 - Fire season preparation
4 - Fire season preparation
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Planning for Access to Potentially Isolated Communities
The challenges faced by Dungog Council in resolving the Torryburn access issue resulted in
extended delays that impacted adversely on the Torryburn community. The issue arose
because the community is accessed by a single access route. The challenges faced by Dungog
Council could well be experienced again in future events for similar communities with single
means of access. Emergency access options for such communities, including alternate routes
or transport means to be utilised in an emergency, should be considered in local emergency
plans. In addition, the criteria, likely requirement for, and means of re-supply during the
recovery phase should be clarified.
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REC267-1162 |
10 - Infrastructure
10 - Infrastructure
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Telecommunications and Power Infrastructure
Noting the high reliance within the community on power and telecommunications
infrastructure, there would be benefit for Governments at both State and Federal level to
work with power providers and telecommunications companies to better define disaster
response and recovery responsibilities, and to identify options for increasing redundancies in
networks in order to improve surety of service
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REC267-1151 |
24 - Govt responsibility
24 - Govt responsibility
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Government Communications Coordination
In future events, a more coordinated communications structure across Government, where
planned Government announcements relevant to the region in recovery are developed in
conjunction with the recovery team, would be beneficial to ensure recovery teams are aware
of, and can plan for, decisions that impact on the work of the recovery team.
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REC267-1159 |
9 - Community education
9 - Community education
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Improving Community Preparedness and Resilience
Noting work ongoing to improve the quality of planning at LEMC level, communities should
be encouraged and assisted where possible to make simple assessments of their risks and
take simple measures to support themselves in the immediate time after an event. This may
include identifying potential isolations and preparing supplies of food and water; backup communications options; proposing possible community meeting places and / or identifying
community members who may be able to assist others.
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REC267-1150 |
9 - Community education
9 - Community education
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Media Engagement Consideration should be given on future recovery operations to adopting a more structured approach to media engagement, with regular media briefings undertaken at a frequency dependent upon the phase of the recovery activities and the level of media interest. These briefings could be conducted at different locations around the region, if appropriate, and would provide the opportunity for communication of key messages and provide journalists with the opportunity to ask questions regarding the recovery. This could be complemented by media coverage of community engagement visits. For all recovery operations,
consideration should be given to the identification and secondment of a dedicated media
advisor to manage the media messaging.
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REC267-1158 |
28 - Personal responsibility
28 - Personal responsibility
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Farm Management Deposits
The Farm Management Deposit Scheme appears to be a well-structured framework for
building rural resilience, however its uptake is low. Recent Commonwealth Government
announcements regarding this scheme should be applauded, but more work appears to be
needed to understand why the scheme is not more widely used, and to promote its use as a
means of building enterprise resilience.
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REC267-1157 |
35 - Business and Industry in relation to industry
35 - Business and Industry in relation to industry
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Improvements to the Targeting of Government Support to Build Primary Industry Resilience
In a climate where Governments at all levels are seeking to maximise the effectiveness of
Australian businesses, including primary production, there would seem to be some benefit in
exploring available options to ensure those enterprises that exhibit the industry improvement
behaviours sought are not excluded from disaster support. The Recovery Coordinator
supports the intent of measures to ensure disaster relief support only goes to bona-fide
primary producers, but believes there would be benefit in identifying a more elegant means
of determining eligibility than is in place currently. The Local Land Services (LLS) work in this
area should continue.
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REC267-1154 |
36 - Volunteers
36 - Volunteers
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Coordination of Volunteer Support
A key challenge for recovery staff is the coordination across community volunteer groups and
individuals to ensure support provided is complementary and directed to the areas in most
need. This is an important activity that should be considered in future recovery planning.
Establishing formal working partnerships with key volunteer organisations that outline
expectations during recovery operations is recommended.
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