That the NSW Government investigate the establishment of a centralised source for all government held planning data accessible to all councils across New South Wales, including:
- flood, coastal inundation and fire
- biodiversity
- climate modelling
- any other relevant data.

The Committee recommends that the ACT Government conduct technology capability planning as part of the development of the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan version 5.

The Committee recommends that the ACT Government develop a Natural Disaster Strategy that covers all aspects of health to ensure continuity of access to healthcare in the event of a natural disaster.

The Committee recommends that the Multi-Hazard Advisory Council resume the Bushfire Council’s practice of providing annual reports to the Minister on bushfire preparedness ahead of every fire season.

The Committee recommends that the ACT Government include detailed data on progress against the EPSDD BOP for that financial year in either the EPSDD or JACS Annual Reports that breaks down the data by:
- The overarching type or class of activity (e.g. fuel management, access management, infrastructure, training, audit and monitoring);
- Activity (e.g. grazing, physical removal, prescribed burning, etc);
- The area (hectares), length (kilometres) or number of activities, courses or projects actually completed, as relevant, together with the planned number; and
- The percentage of completion for each over-arching activity class/type and activity.

Distribution businesses annually attest to the Minister for Energy and Resources. The attestation should include specific reference to, but not limited to: Capacity and capability to connect main streets and key community assets in areas at high risk of prolonged power outages to temporary generation within 12 hours of an event. Information on location of temporary generation sites, network connection points and key access routes should be included in Regional Emergency Management Planning Committees and Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committees.

As part of its review of the Energy Retail Code of Practice, the ESC should include requirements for energy retailers to collect the phone and email contact details of customers and others in the household for the purpose of sharing with distributors to facilitate information about power outages. Retailers should be required to check data quality and share with distribution businesses regularly.

Distribution businesses annually attest to the Minister for Energy and Resources. The attestation should include specific reference to, but not limited to: Capability and capacity to achieve effective management of events and timely restoration of customers.

Distribution businesses annually attest to the Minister for Energy and Resources. The attestation should include specific reference to, but not limited to: Processes to report timely and accurate information about status to restore services and confirm ‘safe’ infrastructure to emergency services and communities.

Distribution businesses annually attest to the Minister for Energy and Resources. The attestation should include specific reference to, but not limited to: Adoption and operation of State Emergency Management Priorities including ‘make safe’.

The Victorian Government and energy sector work with The Energy Charter #BetterTogether Life Support Customer Initiative to support and implement in Victoria a national approach to achieve better outcomes for life support customers that meets strong standards of consumer protection.

DEECA in conjunction with Emergency Management Victoria design and run a networkwide, multi-sector emergency exercise to test implementation of lessons learnt following the 13 February event and identify and remove barriers to effective coordination and response by September 2025

The Inspector-General of Emergency Management recommends that the Queensland Reconstruction Authority continues to engage with councils in the development of their local resilience action plans including to identify local needs with respect to communication, connectivity, and power in suitable hubs.

The committee recommends that the Australian Climate Service and the National Emergency Management Agency work with all levels of government and industry to establish and maintain a national disaster risk map and database, covering all types of natural disasters in Australia, which is accessible to the public.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet:
- document a process for annual administrative updates that provides a consistent approach including ensuring appropriate records of engagement and input are maintained; and
- ensure significant issues are documented to be considered in comprehensive reviews of the AGCMF

The National Emergency Management Agency document its consideration of Crisis Arrangements Committee advice on gaps and priorities for whole-of-government exercising, as well as the annual analysis undertaken to review and update the list of identified hazards under AGCMF, to inform the development of the annual national exercise program. This should include ensuring that exercises consider both natural and all-hazard scenarios.

That the Victorian Government provide Victorians with access to appropriate data contained within the FloodZoom platform

That Melbourne Water and other floodplain management authorities review flood models every five years and update the models at least every 10 years and after the occurrence of a major flood.

That the Victorian Government ensure that future flood mitigation efforts include updated and rigorous hydraulic modelling before implementation, ensuring the effectiveness of compensatory measures. Additionally, these strategies should undergo independent peer review to validate their expected performance.

That the Victorian Government fund floodplain managers to develop maps modelling scenarios demonstrating the impact on landholders of specified levee breeches.

That the Victorian Government work with floodplain management authorities and climate scientists to understand how flood modelling can be used to better predict the impact of climate change on flooding and update its flood management policies in line with this understanding.

That the Australian Government develop a long-term national strategy and funding approach for computational infrastructure and data storage for climate data and modelling.

That the National Climate Service 5.2 establish a portal for climate information, products and services sourced from across a range of quality assured providers that:
5.2.1. gradually builds over time a library of open-source climate information products and services
5.2.2. provides publicly available, up-to-date climate information for Australia (including states and territory regions and coastal zones, Australia’s oceanic Exclusive Economic Zone and external territories)
5.2.3. presents information in easy-to-understand ways with a variety of formats for download and visualisation
5.2.4. includes external, reputable information from up-to-date sources domestically and around the world, including from other national and transnational climate services.

That the Australian Government deliver National Climate Risk Assessments through the National Climate Service on a regular program, aligned to the Intergenerational Report.

That the National Climate Service develop robust quality assurance processes for data, tools, information and services provided by the National Climate Service and made available on the climate information portal.

That the Australian Government establish a mechanism within the National Climate Service to track user experience and satisfaction which gathers user needs and preferences, to guide the development of future products and services.

That the National Climate Service conduct a gap analysis of Australia’s climate data and information needs and user literacy and refresh this regularly.

That the National Climate Service promote data standards to integrate and connect data from different fields, aligned with international best practice.

That the Australian Government task the Climate Change Authority with a regular review of the National Climate Service against the KPIs

That the Australian Government require, and fund as necessary, the responsible agencies to uplift natural hazard data inputs to a level required by the National Climate Service and the National Emergency Management Agency, with co-ordination of data for emergency management (e.g. hazard extent mapping, forecasting and tracking of historical events) to be managed by National Emergency Management Agency and hazard projections to be co-ordinated by the National Climate Service.

That the Australian Government require the National Emergency Management Agency make its data and products opensource and accessible to government and the public wherever possible.

That the Australian Government signal to partners and suppliers that the National Climate Service is open to collaborating and data sharing

That the Australian Government regularly monitor against the new Statement of Expectations (refer Recommendation 4.1 and KPIs in Box 7) to ensure the National Climate Service is meeting expectations.

That the Australian Government require all publicly funded climate models to be published on the National Computing Infrastructure with minimal restrictions, to encourage wide reuse and scientific scrutiny.

That the National Climate Service Improve access and usability of climate information by making Commonwealth-funded products free and open-source by default.

That the Australian Government publish all National Climate Service strategic documents by default to provide transparency on the National Climate Service’s program and timelines for implementation.

That the Australian Government establish an appropriate data solution (e.g. a data platform) to publish climate and hazard data; enable federated data curation including for domain data; support access for a broad range of data providers and public; create data insights and publish information as needed.

That the National Climate Service establish and grow a knowledge brokering service that assists users to find the data, information and advice needed to resolve their climate questions and understand the uncertainty inherent in climate models.

That the Australian Government require the National Climate Service to develop and publish a climate services roadmap, describing how to build to a national capability with explicit and ambitious time frames.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government ultimately move towards a national, centralised, public-facing portal containing flood risk data at the household level for:
- all households and small businesses across Australia, and
- all land being considered for release for development and all land that has been released for development, but not yet developed.
Agencies tasked with developing the portal should reflect upon governments’ past efforts to develop similar portals and lessons learnt. The portal should be easily accessible, user friendly and display high-quality flood risk information in a way that is readily understandable to communities. That before data is released on such a portal for existing properties (residential and small business), that the entity creating the flood study release that data through a staged process involving appropriate community consultation and engagement.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with state and territory governments to ensure flood maps are produced to a high standard across the nation, regardless of the size of the local government area producing the modelling. This may require:
- increased funding for local government areas and water authorities, and
- the development of agreed standards to ensure that flood mapping is completed to at least an agreed minimum standard.
That, over time, this higher quality flood modelling be made freely accessible to homeowners and the general public along with easy to understand information about flood risk exposures at each property. This may be best undertaken in the first instance by local councils and/or water authorities responsible for generating the flood modelling, consistent with Recommendation 3 of the Actuaries Institute’s Funding for Flood Costs report (August 2023).

The Committee recommends that insurers report case management key performance indicators to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The Committee recommends the Australian Securities and Investments Commission consider seeking data from insurers on their performance based on the metrics recommended in Recommendation 51:
- Quarterly, for business-as-usual operations
- Monthly, for each declared event.

The Committee recommends that for each declared event, insurers be required to report the number of unresolved cases after 12 months to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the overarching strategy for resolving these cases. This report should include the total number of outstanding claims and the most common reasons for the delay.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the General Insurance Code Governance Committee share data so that it is possible to evaluate breaches of the General Insurance Code of Practice in the context of an insurers’ overall claims profile.

The Committee recommends the Australian Government and Insurance Council of Australia explore measures to facilitate the exchange of substantiated information about the resilience of a property to insurers, including new mitigation measures undertaken through state-based grant and loan programs.

The Committee recommends the Australian Securities and Investments Commission publish quarterly insurer and brand level data on their performance on the metrics recommended in Recommendation 51.

The Committee recommends that the General Insurance Code Governance Committee publish aggregate data on code breaches by clause, individual insurer, and brand.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government continue to work with the insurance industry through the Hazards Insurance Partnership to collate:
- data contained in the National Flood Information Database, and
- household-level data held by insurers (de-identified where appropriate).

The Committee recommends that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission develop and define key outcomes measures for the consumer experience, including:
- Communication (outcome measures)
o Overall customer satisfaction, such as a customer satisfaction score o Consumer comprehension of communications (random sample)
- Claims processing
o Average time taken to respond to a customer after first making an enquiry or initiating a claim
- Vulnerable customers o Proportion of customers identified as vulnerable (BAU, quarterly)
o Proportion of customers identified as vulnerable (designated events, monthly)
- Internal dispute resolution o Proportion of total cases that involved internal dispute resolution
o Average time taken to resolve internal dispute cases
- External dispute resolution
o Proportion of total cases that were referred to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority
o Success rate at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority
- Cash settlements
o Proportion of resolved cases that are final cash settlements
- Claims acceptance rates
o Percentage of claims acceptedPercentage of claims closed (at key points in time, for example 6 months, 12 months, 18 months)
- General Insurance Code of Practice Compliance Breaches of the General Insurance Code of Practice per thousand claims by clause, insurer, and brand.

The Commonwealth should prioritise its data coordination efforts, including the provision of timely decision relevant information to assist decision makers to manage their risks and satisfy their disaster management objectives.
- Relevant data includes disaster risk information, climate hazard impact, capability and capacity information and vulnerability data.
-The data provided should be in a format that is usable by decision makers across all levels of government.

The Commonwealth should use reporting established by the Outcomes Policy to inform requirements associated with international obligations (e.g., the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction).

The Commonwealth should embed regular sharing of lessons learnt from program outcomes between state and territory governments, and the Commonwealth, to develop a continuous improvement culture.

The committee recommends that the Australian Government ensure that future releases of modelling are provided well in advance of key dates in the ongoing roll-out of the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government propose that road asset infrastructure resilience planning and investment frameworks be made a standing item on the Infrastructure and Transport Senior Officials’ Committee meeting agenda.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with state, territory and local governments and road agencies, including Austroads and the National Transport Research Organisation, to address existing road asset data gaps by developing a comprehensive understanding of the road network condition and standardised road asset dataset, with agreement on the following:
- a common definition of road asset data
- a consistent format across road asset data collection and storage.

The National Emergency Management Agency establish monitoring and reporting arrangements that demonstrate performance against the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements’ principles.

The National Emergency Management Agency:
a. establishes targets, monitoring and reporting for the time required to complete the assurance and acquittal processes; and
b. develops procedures for finalsing claims when requested information is not provided in the timeframes established under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 ministerial determination

For future emergency response programs, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water develop requirements for service provider reporting that enables output and outcome data to be compared or aggregated to provide assessment of progress at the program level.

Melbourne Water needs to ensure that rainfall runoff and flood models are calibrated to observed flood information.

Melbourne Water should immediately update the Mid Maribyrnong flood model with a modern two dimensional flood model developed in accordance with Melbourne Water guidelines and use this model to set new design flood levels.

Melbourne Water should review their flood models every five years and update them at least every 10 years and after the occurrence of a major flood.

Melbourne Water should commission an independent expert review and audit of their forecasting system with the aim of identifying areas where forecast accuracy, warning times and model run times could be improved.

Melbourne Water should use the hydraulic model being developed (expected to become available in April 2024) to determine (and be subjected to independent peer review) the impact of the Flemington Floodwall and the efficacy of the associated downstream compensatory works.

Melbourne Water should adopt forecasting tools which enable forecasts to be made within a total of no more than 60 minutes.

Melbourne Water should ensure that their rating curves, which represent the relationships between river levels and corresponding river flows, extend also to rare and extreme flood events and have been derived using established bestpractice.

Melbourne Water should have a protocol that enables flood forecasting at intervals at less than two hours when prudent to do so by reason of the responsiveness of the catchment for significant events.

ICA data capture To provide greater transparency on the industry’s response to catastrophes, the ICA should develop a data dictionary to enhance industry-wide reporting and investigate the feasibility of extending data capture to other claim outcome measures such as closure rates, quality and complaints.

Insurers should improve data capture, modelling and reporting to assist with identifying and mitigating against factors that impact their ability to progress claims in response to a catastrophe, including bottlenecks (e.g. hydrology reports).

NEMMM’s Terms of Reference should be amended to reflect the recommendations above.

The next iteration of NEMMM’s Five Priorities for Action should be explicit and measurable, bold but achievable and focused on national outcomes, rather than outputs. They should:
- Be formulated in terms such as “By 2026 we will have established…which will have reduced…”, etc.
- Be developed through a process that includes consultations with key stakeholders, including First Nations organisations, civil society, the private sector, foundations, and key entities active in the emergency management space, such as Australian Red Cross and the National Council for Fire and Emergency Services (formerly the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council or AFAC).
- Be highly compelling for each jurisdiction, large and small.
- Directly address our rapidly accelerating disaster risk environment, in which we can anticipate yearly, national-scale disasters with preparedness, response, recovery and resilience occurring simultaneously, year-round.
- Include at the approval stage the initial estimates of the resourcing required to achieve the outcomes and the sources of the funding.

At least once each year, coinciding with the production of the ANRR, the National Cabinet should evaluate progress in bolstering national resilience.

The Commonwealth together with the States and Territories should identify their shared high-level resilience objectives and develop indicators to monitor national progress in achieving them. The ANRR should also provide annual updates on progress in achieving the objectives.

The ANRR should be a National Cabinet product focused on climate and disaster risk as well as other key resilience risks agreed by the Commonwealth and the jurisdictions.

The First Secretaries, on behalf of the National Cabinet, should oversee (via a subordinate Deputy Secretaries Group) the development of an annual Australian National Resilience Report (ANRR) that combines the Ministerial Council resilience reporting, existing resilience strategies in jurisdictions and new initiatives.

By December 2023, the Rural Fire Service should: report annually on fleet allocations to RFS Districts, and identify the ways in which fleet resources align with district-level fire risks 

By December 2023, the Rural Fire Service should: develop performance measures to assess the performance and capabilities of the fleet in each RFS District by recording and publicly reporting on: fire response times and fire response outcomes; and, completions of fire hazard reduction works.

The Inspector-General of Emergency Management recommends Queensland Fire and Emergency Services review the Queensland Emergency Alert Manual – M.1.174 in its entirety by 1 November 2023. The manual should specifically address the authorising environment, legislative obligations and the capability and complexities of the Emergency Alert system.

The Inspector-General of Emergency Management recommends that Queensland Fire and Emergency Services review and update the State Disaster Risk Report, including re-evaluating the risk of flooding by all types. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services should publish the updated State Disaster Risk Report by 1 November 2023.  

The Inspector-General of Emergency Management recommends Queensland Fire and Emergency Services review the Queensland Emergency Alert Manual – M.1.174 in its entirety by 1 November 2023. The manual should specifically address the authorising environment, legislative obligations and the capability and complexities of the Emergency Alert system.

We recommend that DELWP enhances bushfire modelling by: - exploring multiple bushfire modelling tools to lower the uncertainty and limitations associated with using a single modelling tool - applying more detailed fire-severity data - validating and updating fuel accumulation curves - establishing and regularly updating an archive of well-documented fire events and using this to systematically test it against a broad range of burning and fuel conditions - establishing and implementing processes to routinely review and update its underlying datasets.

We recommend that DELWP investigates incentives and advises government on options to accelerate burying and insulating the remaining high-voltage bare-wire powerlines in the 33 highest risk areas.

We recommend that DEWLP and CFA (in consultation with FRV) develops financial reporting to monitor fuel management costs and estimate future costs.

We recommend that DEWLP and CFA (in consultation with FRV) systemically documents and publicly reports reasons why it does not complete planned burns.

We recommend that DELWP improves the Powerline Bushfire Safety Program's transparency by publicly reporting on activities, costs and risk-reduction outcomes.

The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (or the single entity referenced in Recommendation 4) – in conjunction with legislated fuel management organisations – develop a common set of objectives, metrics and reporting requirements for fuel management that form part of a compulsory regime that enables the Victorian Government to report publicly on a holistic fuel management program. The reporting requirements should:
a) apply to all organisations with a legislated role in fuel management; across public and private land (all land tenures); and at all levels – state, regional and municipal
b) include residual risk where appropriate - however, complementary metrics should be developed if residual risk cannot be determined. 

The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that Emergency Management Victoria – in consultation with relevant agencies – develop a system to manage personnel and asset deployments to all tiers of incident management to meet the needs of the emergency and support the health and wellbeing of personnel. Where appropriate and within occupational health and safety requirements, this may include:
a) standardised shift rosters across agencies and incident management tiers
b) a single or integrated platform to allow consistent recording of shift times and locations
c) records of accreditation, qualification, training and currency. 

The Australian Government, working with state and territory governments and critical infrastructure operators, should lead a process to:
(1) identify critical infrastructure
(2) assess key risks to identified critical infrastructure from natural disasters
of national scale or consequence
(3) identify steps needed to mitigate these risks
(4) identify steps to make the critical infrastructure more resilient, and
(5) track achievement against an agreed plan. 

Australian, state and territory governments should agree to: 
(1) develop consistent and compatible methods and metrics to measure health impacts related to natural disasters, including mental health, and 
(2) take steps to ensure the appropriate sharing of health and mental health datasets. 

Australian, state and territory governments should expedite the delivery of a Public Safety Mobile Broadband capability. 

Australian, state and territory governments should establish a national register of fire and emergency services personnel, equipment and aerial assets. 

Australian, state and territory governments should continue to develop a greater capacity to collect and share standardised and comprehensive natural disaster impact data. 

Australian, state and territory governments should create common information platforms and share technologies to enable collaboration in the production, analysis, access, and exchange of information, data and knowledge about climate and disaster risks. 

Australian, state and territory governments should develop consistent processes for the classification, recording and sharing of fuel load data. 

The Australian Government should work with state and territory governments and critical infrastructure operators to improve information flows during and in response to natural disasters:
(1) between critical infrastructure operators, and
(2) between critical infrastructure operators and government. 

Australian, state and territory governments should prioritise the implementation of harmonised data governance and national data standards. 

Australian, state and territory governments should ensure greater consistency and collaboration in the collation, storage, access and provision of data on the distribution and conservation status of Australian flora and fauna. 

That, in order to minimise communication outages and extend basic communication coverage during bush fires, the NSW Government work directly, or together with other Australian governments and/or their relevant power and telecommunications regulatory, policy and market bodies, to:
- ensure there are sufficient redundancy options available (e.g. backup diesel generators, deployed temporary telecommunications facilities, etc.) to supply power to essential telecommunication infrastructure or alternative telecommunications infrastructure
- ensure that the telecommunication entities’ and electricity network providers’ Bush Fire Risk Management Plans are updated annually and reported on in the NSW RFS Commissioner’s annual statement to Parliament on the upcoming bush fire season and include details of all actions taken to mitigate those risks including maintenance of APZs and access roads
- ensure there is appropriate auditing of distributors’ preparedness for risks arising from network assets being affected by bush fire, as well as the risk of networks initiating a bush fire
- 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 fire
- enable NSW RFS to require carriers to provide regular information on the status of outages and areas affected by fire.

That, in order to maximise the protection of critical infrastructure in a bush fire, Australian governments revise the regulatory framework for the provision to government authorities of information about all critical infrastructure (public and private) including a possible change to compel the owners of critical assets to provide all needed metadata, updated annually, for appropriate planning, preparation and response for bush fire. This would include information about location, ownership, access, details of service the infrastructure supports, and fire treatments of building and surrounding zones.

That, as part of the spatial technology acceleration program, Government support deployment of remote sensing and picture processing technologies to monitor and audit how well Asset Protection Zones and defendable space are being maintained, especially around towns.

That, in order to improve capability to detect ignitions and monitor accurately all fire edge intensity and progression automatically across the State in near real time, Government establish a spatial technology acceleration program to maximise the information available from the various remote sensing technologies currently in use and to plan for inclusion of new remote sensing systems that can sense precisely and rapidly through heavy smoke, cloud, fog and dust. This will require work within the State and with partners nationally and internationally.

That, in order to improve response times to Triple Zero calls, the NSW RFS implements the integrated dispatch system before the 2020-21 fire season commences.

That the NSW Government, along with other Australian governments, ask AFAC to establish a national bush fire database. This database would enable:
- monitoring of trends in bush fire activity and impacts, including timing, cause, extent and intensity across all land tenures and vegetation types
- tracking trends and identifying patterns in associated weather and climate signals that contribute to severe bush fires
- evaluation of the cost and effectiveness of risk mitigation efforts, including hazard reduction, and fire suppression activities so we have a better understanding of what works.

That, to ensure mobile generators are sourced and distributed on a priority basis during natural disasters, the EUSFAC work with the NSW Telco Authority, relevant NSW government agencies and commercial stakeholders to develop a mobile asset deployment strategy. The strategy should reduce duplication in purchasing, maintaining and housing mobile generators and improve agility in deployment.

Invest in upgrading and integrating ICT platforms to eliminate manual data transfers, and ensure IT and radio communication interoperability across the agencies, together with a dedicated focus on the development of a coordinated risk intelligence capability to provide all stakeholders with a common operating picture and rapid damage assessments.

Clarify business continuity and restoration of critical infrastructure in the planning and response phases to facilitate water replenishment, fireground remediation and access to businesses (including farming properties).

Documenting results and recommendations from disaster recovery tests.

To increase understanding of hazards and manage risks, dam failure for Paradise Dam be included as a separate risk within the Bundaberg LDMP. 

To enable a shared understanding of the risk, changes in the risk profile of referable dams be clearly communicated by entities that own dams to stakeholders and the community likely to be affected. The communication process starts immediately after the change is identified, is tailored to its audience, makes clear the scale of the change, and is documented so that stakeholders and the community can make informed decisions for managing risks. 

To enhance shared capacity and collaboratively manage risk, the Chair of the Bundaberg LDMG use the Queensland Emergency Risk Management Framework (QERMF) process to determine if dam failure for Paradise Dam should be reported as a residual risk to the Bundaberg DDMG in this instance due to known changes in the risk profile. 

A single point of truth be established for accurately capturing and reporting on disaster management group activation levels for any given timeframe. 

Local disaster management groups should focus on the business continuity of local critical infrastructure and its integration with other plans.

The ability to share, analyse, interrogate and display information from disparate entities should be progressed as a matter of some urgency.

Complete sets of daily-report books should be provided, and kept in the mine or office, to be overlooked by the Inspector during his periodical visits.

Subject to funding, that the Flood Warning Consultative Committee investigates the hydrological matters and advice received during this Review and detailed in this Report in Sections 4.1.9 and 4.1.11.

That the Flood Warning Consultative Committee considers the merits of delineating the Ouse River as a separate catchment from the Derwent River Basin.

That Government:
• undertakes a comprehensive assessment of flood mapping in Tasmania with a view to identifying data gaps, quality and currency, and works collaboratively with councils to identify funding to improve current statewide flood data; and • explores the feasibility of undertaking a comprehensive flood mapping of Tasmania, using LiDAR or other contemporary technology, with the objective of identifying which parts of our State are, and are not, prone to riverine flooding.

That agencies undertaking flood studies adopt a standardised approach, based on Australia Handbook 7, maintain public ownership of underlying data sets to support future modelling, and ensure open access to these studies.

That SES uploads current flood studies and plans to the Common Operating Platform as a flood plan layer and that councils, subject to resolving licence restrictions, arrange to have appropriate access.

That BoM and the Flood Warning Consultative Committee, in consultation with gauge owners, review flood gauges and develop a program to update data used to support hydrologic modelling. This should include reviewing gauge maintenance before and after floods.

From the above assessment determine the existing generator load requirements and provide a new generator to meet those loads.

Accurate records need to be provided as to what is done for each service.

Prepare and carry out a testing regime and testing strategy and ensure testing of the generator is done every month for 4 hours over that month and under full Hospital load with test result recorded every 15 minutes.

Remove any loads that do not need to be on essential power.

Replacement of all original pipes and hoses not yet done.

Carry out regular load bank testing on the generator with a load bank large enough to fully load the generator to 110% which will clean out the engine and also identify whether the generator is capable of providing full load for a sustained length of time.

Conduct an assessment of the current essential loads and determine if there are loads that should not be on essential power.

Monthly and annual maintenance servicing needs to be scheduled for the generator to DPTI or CHSA schedule requirements.

Renegotiate the maintenance contract at the end of the current contract and have DPTI through AGFMA take on the maintenance contract.

Regular annual testing at 100% on a load bank needs to be scheduled into a maintenance schedule.

If the existing generator is capable of providing the current essential power requirements then the generator needs a major inspection and overhaul all items that may need to be replaced due to age and condition. This includes checking compression, oil pressure, coolant pumping and all other critical components and may actually require providing a temporary generator while the Hospital generator receives a major inspection and possible re build. A ball park figure to do this would be $50,000.00 plus cranage and transport to Detroit workshop probably another $10,000.00 then a temporary generator would need to be hired and installed which could run into $10’s of thousands of dollars depending on how long the engine was out of service. For the money that would be spent checking and rebuilding the existing engine it would be recommended to replace the generator with a new generator.

Due to the age of the generator, reliability and reparability risk due to age and the apparent under capacity of the generator it is recommend to replace the generator with a new generator and associated control system designed for the current load requirements and allowance for some future expansion.

A monthly testing regime needs to be developed that will allow the generator to be tested at full essential load capacity and to ensure that 4 hour monthly testing can be done every month.

Monthly test results need to be accurately recorded.

Carry out a detailed audit of the current Hospital essential loads to determine the current load requirements of the Hospital.

That the Attorney General’s Department consult with local government regarding potential for them to provide logistical support associated with backup power supply to SA Government Radio Network towers in the event of an emergency.

That consideration and resources be given to support the implementation of recommendations in the report prepared on behalf of Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (Australian Water Environments, 2016), for flood warning classification of stream gauges and other locations.

Install UPS on traffic lights on main Central Business District (CBD) and arterial roads to allow an effective movement of traffic during a loss of power.

That the Flood Reform Task Group identify an appropriate mechanism for stakeholder agencies (including the State Emergency Service, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Meteorology and SA Water, as a minimum) to share data and information and develop plans and strategies for management of water levels in reservoirs and spill management during floods in South Australian water catchments

The development of an integrated intelligence system that allows police officers secure access to all information platforms should also provide for the recording of all command decisions, the reasons for them, and the dissemination of those decisions.

Improve beach morphology mapping to understand coastal inundation, including post-event surveys.

Make coastal mapping available to public.

Extend current tsunami maritime hazard modelling project to deliver coastal inundation modelling.

Deliver updated inundation mapping.

Establish emergency services ICT redundancy arrangements for damage loss of communications infrastructure.

Improve information about electricity demand during heatwaves.

Develop a statewide flood hazard map for use within the Tasmanian Planning System.

The report recommends that Ambulance Tasmania outline what KPIs are measured and provide targets or benchmarks to define what is good or poor performance.

The report recommends that regional summary reports of clinical reviews be standardised to facilitate review and comparison across regions.

The report recommends that Ambulance Tasmania collects data to allow regular and meaningful comparison of clinical outcomes at the regional level, to better allocate resources and to rapidly identify problems.

Improvements to installation to be implemented as follows: - Lighting within the generator enclosure and immediately adjacent to be emergency battery-backed type. - Improvements to the spatial layout within the main generator enclosure should be investigated, including allowance for the control panel door to open 180o (only 90o currently); moving the fuel pumps to a more accessible location, and ensuring clear access to the day tank for manual filling if required. - Improvements to communications facilities between critical areas, including fixed phone line connections between the main control room, main generator control panel in the P (energy) Building, and the generator enclosure, and allowing link to offsite specialist advice. - Where generator maintenance requires operations outdoors (not applicable to main generator, but applicable to others), a shelter over the relevant area should be provided to allow safe work during wet or hot weather. - Written emergency procedures to be prepared covering credible failure scenarios with step by step checklists and recommended actions.

Review generator installations details as noted in report and implement physical improvements where possible.

Add to generator test procedure a checklist at the end of testing which includes checking that all systems are back to normal positions and includes a requirement to leave the day tank full where there is a bulk tank/day tank arrangement.

As part of the electrical master plan update recommended above, a complete and consistent set of single line diagrams describing the electrical distribution network be prepared. Relevant diagrams to be laminated and displayed in the main substations. Labelling to all main electrical equipment be reviewed and updated in accordance with the final documents. 

A detailed review of the fuel control and BMS systems (for all generators) be carried out and actions taken to: 1) Ensure that the fuel alarm system is operational and properly calibrated, and ensure that the alarms are connected to the BMS. 2) Ensure that the BMS transmits these alarms effectively to the maintenance staff. 3) If this review demonstrates risk of fuel control systems not adequately reporting alarms, consider an independent day tank level switch to be installed in each generator fuel tank, directly connected to the BMS. 4) Consider the feasibility of adding a “fuel system not in auto” or “fuel system fault/fail safe watchdog” or “pre-alarm identifying that the generator is about to shut down without intervention” feature to current systems – subject to details of each individual generator system.

Generator dual redundant starter systems should be considered.

The electrical master plan for the site should be updated to include planning for the scheduled replacement or refurbishment of those parts of the infrastructure that have not been renewed in the last 10 years. This planning to consider other upgrades or plans for the FMC overall.

Review control system for the main generator normal/essential changeover system and ensure that it has effective backup/manual or redundant operations, and suitable testing facilities. The Essential board that supplies the main generator power to Blocks A, B, C (except theatres), D, E (except certain critical engineering plant) (MD-1-4P-10E), is a potential single point of failure of a significant portion of the emergency power system and as part of the Master Plan update should be considered as a priority.

Review all generator locations for arrangements for temporary generator installation, including design of modifications as required for electrical connections and spatial requirements at installation locations, to be documented in an emergency procedure.

Provide walls around critical electrical infrastructure within the main plant area to provide security and protection from catastrophic water system failures.

Impact Assessment Data Collection: The Office of Emergency Management continues to progress the Impact Assessment Data Collection Project and: · incorporate recovery schema in Rapid Impact Assessments · review procedures for collection of Rapid Impact Assessment Data · review and combine current templates into one, single template for Impact Assessment Reports that is used by all agencies · further develop Impact Assessment Guidelines for agency personnel undertaking impact assessments

That the NSW Rural Fire Service investigate mechanisms to enhance the predictability of megafires and how this information is communicated easily to the public.

In accordance with recommendations of the BMT WBM report, the Banana Shire Council, SunWater, and the Bureau of Meteorology, under the stewardship of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, jointly identify the requirements for a suitable gauge network for the Callide Valley to allow meaningful and timely flood warnings. The review should identify key stakeholders, examine potential funding sources and include a cost benefit analysis.

Impact Assessment Data Sharing Project
There is a clear need to train and raise awareness amongst Local and Regional Emergency
Management Committees (LEMC / REMC), as well as community and non-government
agencies about how important impact assessment data is to recovery planning. The Impact
Assessment Data Sharing Project should continue in development, exploiting opportunities
to improve efficiency and effectiveness of response and recovery decision making.

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

GDF Suez establish enhanced back-up power supply arrangements that do not depend wholly on mains power, to: • ensure that the Emergency Command Centre can continue to operate if mains power is lost; and • ensure that the reticulated fre services water system can operate with minimal disruption if mains power is lost.

The State equip itself to undertake rapid air quality monitoring in any location in Victoria, to: • collect all relevant data, including data on PM , carbon monoxide and ozone; and 2.5 • ensure this data is used to inform decision-making within 24 hours of the incident occurring.

That the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority critically reviews:
- the current Computer Aided Dispatch 9.1 upgrade project against business case objectives, including system and network reliability and system redundancy, once the project is completed
- the ESTA Triple Zero telephony platform telecommunications upgrade project against business case objectives, including system and network reliability once the project is completed.

That the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority reclassifies its State Emergency Communications Centres as critical national infrastructure.

That the NSW Government improve the protection of media and telecommunications towers around New South Wales by:
- increasing the asset protection zone around the towers on Mt Cenn Cruaich and other comparable sites to a radius of at least 100 metres
- conducting an audit of all New South Wales media and telecommunications sites to examine their fire safety in respect of land clearance, fire trails and fuel loads
- implementing a strategy to ensure that licensees of these sites fulfil all their hazard reduction obligations.

Alternatively, I recommend that the RFS consider developing such capacity to deploy weather balloons itself, in conjunction with mobile weather stations, for this purpose.

That the Rural Fire Service consider proposing an arrangement with the Bureau of Meteorology to deploy weather balloons specifically for the purpose of assessing atmospheric instability during periods of severe to catastrophic fire danger in locations most likely to be severely affected, for example, areas in which a very high C-Haines index reading is registered and local fires have been identified.

Governments should task the Australia–New Zealand Emergency Management Committee with leading the development of guidelines for the collection and dissemination of natural hazard mapping, modelling and metadata. Guidelines should be developed for all hazards that need to be modelled and mapped at the local/regional level and where consistency across regions is desirable.

Governments at all levels should make new and currently held natural hazard data publicly available in accordance with open public sector information principles. When collecting new natural hazard data or undertaking modelling, all levels of government should:
• make information publicly available unless it would not be in the public interest to do so
• use private-sector providers where cost effective, and use licencing arrangements that allow for public dissemination. Where there are costs involved in obtaining intellectual property rights for existing data, governments should weigh up these costs against the public benefits of making the data freely accessible
• apply cost recovery where governments are best placed to collect or analyse specialist data for which the benefits accrue mostly to private sector users.

The ANAO recommends that the Department of Defence take steps to strengthen the priority afforded by Defence units to meeting these reporting requirements.

Western Australia Health should require service providers to report more comprehensive performance data using additional cost and clinical indicators

Western Australia Health should include in contracts minimum standards for emergency and secondary ambulance services and effective mechanisms to monitor these

St John Ambulance should develop quantitative performance targets for community paramedics and report these to Western Australia Health

That police and other emergency service agencies establish and maintain effective recording systems for emergency operations.

That the Department of Infrastructure Energy and Resources consult Aurora Energy on the use of wooden poles for overhead infrastructure with a view to mitigating the risk in bushfires.

That Tasmania Fire Service establishes suitable systems and practices for recording fire management objectives and tactics.

That if a sound business case is developed, the Emergency Information Management and Sharing Project be supported.

TFS should take steps to obtain cell transmission coverage maps for LBS-based EA messages and take note of the need for training of staff to ensure that messages are drafted carefully and appropriately so as to take cell transmission coverage into account.

That Rural Fire Service Queensland develops a simple data collection system to record the activities of brigades.

The Manager of the Geographic Information Systems unit conduct an audit of the Firecom mapping system to ensure that rural Brigade and road addressing is up to date.

That the Rural Fire Service Queensland upgrades its subscription to technology for the Brigade Mapping Toolset to make it available to all Brigades who want it.

That the RFSQ central office undertake a review of Firecom procedures in relation to Rural Fire Service callouts. Each Rural Fire Service Queensland district office should also undertake a review of the Firecom data sets/callout information for their district to establish call out protocols are correct.

That the Department of Health facilitates the sharing of hospital patient outcome data with Queensland Ambulance Service to help measure the effect of pre-hospital care on patient outcomesThat the Department of Health facilitates the sharing of hospital patient outcome data with Queensland Ambulance Service to help measure the effect of pre-hospital care on patient outcomes.

That the Department of Health publicly reports a comprehensive suite of performance information, including:
- response performance across all priority codes, including Code 2 (urgent) incidents and against response targets
- results of clinical audits and reviews

That the Department of Health enhances management reporting processes over complaints by recording the number and nature of complaints, following up outstanding complaints formally and reporting complaints data to executive management.

That all agencies participating in these activities should, as far as legally possible, share data sets whether or not the relevance is immediately obvious.

That Queensland Corrective Service continues to develop its proposed recidivism index as a priority, including place and program based measures.

That should the Mobile Strategy in its current form be approved by government the CEO Portfolio Business and the Deputy Commissioner Operations:
- monitor the success of the mobility strategy
- report on a quarterly basis to government on the achievement of the identified saving presented as part of the mobility strategy business plan (1414 FTE $174 million)
- report on the achievement of the increased frontline police numbers from this initiative of 1,587 FTE on a quarterly basis.

That Queensland Corrective Service, in consultation with key partners in the criminal justice and social services sectors, develops specific performance indicators focused on efficiencies and customer/stakeholder outcomes across the criminal justice system.

That the roll-out of the mobile service program business case mentioned earlier
- Be specific about gateways and milestones; and
- If the new technology enables improved data, the Queensland Police Service revisit previous statistical reporting and identify any major anomalies.

That the Queensland Police Service Commissioner addresses the situation regarding statistical reporting. The Commissioner, in collaboration with the Chief Executive Officer Portfolio Business and the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service Commissioner should also examine the opportunity to acquire the services of a qualified and experienced Chief Information Officer or Chief Digital Officer in line with other Queensland and Australian government agencies.

Recommendation: That the CEO Portfolio Business collaborates with the two portfolio Commissioners to:
- develop an analytical tool to identify the most appropriate level of service
- identify the need for new or enhanced services
- reduce the level of resources where appropriate
- identify current anomalies regarding service delivery and therefore opportunities for rationalisation of stations
- consider collocation with other services as a first principle before committing to new capital projects.

The Chief Executive Officer Portfolio Business establishes a set of performance indicators to provide a transparent process for government to monitor its performance.

The committee recommends that in relation to mandatory and confidential reporting, the default position should be that no identifying details should be provided or disclosed. However, if there is a clear risk to safety then the ATSB, CASA and industry representatives should develop a process that contains appropriate checks and balances.

The committee recommends that where a safety action has not been completed before a report being issued that a recommendation should be made. If it has been completed the report should include details of the action, who was involved and how it was resolved.

The committee recommends that the ATSB prepare and release publicly a list of all its identified safety issues and the actions which are being taken or have been taken to address them. The ATSB should indicate its progress in monitoring the actions every 6 months and report every 12 months to Parliament.

To strengthen its oversight of Queensland reconstruction progress, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)  recommends that the National Disaster Recovery Taskforce:
(a) monitor revisions to scheduled project completion dates, and raise with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority any issues and anomalies, as appropriate; and
(b) adopt a more pro‐active approach to requesting timely progress and completion reporting documentation from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority according to planned and reported actual completion dates.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recommends that the Australian Government Reconstruction Inspectorate and the National Disaster Recovery Taskforce seek to maximise the benefits from their value for money review activities by obtaining more timely and comprehensive information on project progress and completion from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, to enable the preliminary value for money assessments to be finalised based on the scope and cost of works that were actually delivered (rather than estimates).

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recommends that the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport improve its monitoring of the delivery of the Natural Disaster Recovery Work Plans for Queensland and Victoria by:
(a) seeking from each state the project level data that is required to report to Ministers on reconstruction progress in the manner required by each National Partnership Agreement (or as may otherwise be agreed); and
(b) undertaking analysis of relevant data that has been reported by each state over time to identify significant trends and other matters of importance, and updating this analysis as and when further data is reported.

If recommendation 1 is not supported by the Australian Government, the committee recommends that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy issue a Ministerial Direction to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to allocate as a minimum requirement, 20 MHz in the 800 MHz band for the purposes of a public safety mobile broadband network.

The committee recommends that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy take appropriate measures to secure, for public service agencies, priority access to an additional 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for public safety purposes.

The committee recommends that the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy issue a Ministerial Direction to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to allocate 20 MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 700 MHz band for the purposes of a public safety mobile broadband network.

The Territory and Municipal Services Directorate, as part of its Bushfire Operations Plan monitoring and reporting, should assess and publicly report on cumulative progress against broader outcomes identified in the Regional Fire Management Plans and the Strategic Bushfire Management Plan.

I recommend that the Commonwealth prioritise completion of a hydrographic survey of Christmas Island and ensure that such a survey is completed in the near future. 

Better maps are required for urban/rural interface fires

Fuel loads on private property need to be identified and included in understanding fire behaviour in determine the contribution they make to the burn risk assessment.

Maps prepared for prescribed burns should address the fuel type and burn history of the burn area as well as surrounding areas. Predicted rates of spread under prescribed and other conditions should recognise the complexity of coastal heathlands.

The Minister for Emergency Services ensure that a Statewide fuel load database that includes data from Western Power, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the Department of Environment and Conservation be established before the 2013-14 bushfire season.

The Minister for Emergency Services should urgently review the technical issues with the Western Australia Emergency Radio Network  program that is forcing the State’s firefighters to revert to their older radio networks.

The Ministers for Emergency Services, Environment and Police ensure their departments include in their annual reports the expenditure they have incurred on preparing their staff for critical incidents, and for managing their response to these incidents.

Housing should use risk based analysis of its tenant and property information, job order data and quality assurance results to better inform target setting for KPIs, job order controls, and the sampling used for completed work inspections before and after payment. This analysis should synthesise information from all sources and include a risk assessment of tenants and properties, as well as consideration of the various types of maintenance work being done (emergency, priority and routine, and planned maintenance).

Housing should further develop its Head Contractor key performance indicators to include quality, cost and tenant satisfaction. Currently performance reporting is focused entirely on timeliness indicators.

Electricity distributors should consider installing connection points for generators to provide electricity supply to non-flooded areas that have had their supply cut during floods.

The Queensland Government should consider measures to ensure that requirements are included in the designation of land for community infrastructure under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 to ensure that critical infrastructure for operating works under the Electricity Act is built to remain operational during and immediately after a flood of a particular magnitude. That magnitude should be determined by an appropriate risk assessment.

CS Energy should put in place contingency measures to ensure email and telephone communications at Wivenhoe Power Station are not entirely dependent on a network located off-site.

CS Energy should supplement physical monitoring of Splityard Creek Dam with visual monitoring by installing surveillance cameras or similar devices.

All councils should, resources allowing, map the overland flow paths of their urban areas.

Seqwater should consider engaging a technical writer to develop completely new manuals after the operational strategies for Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine dams are set by the Queensland Government.

Councils should make their flood and overland flow maps and models available to applicants for development approvals, and to consultants engaged by applicants.

The Queensland Government should consider implementing mandatory requirements to ensure that all conduits for the purpose of providing electrical supply below the applicable defined flood level are sealed to prevent floodwaters from entering them or flowing into them.

Councils should, resources allowing, maintain flood maps and overland flow path maps for use in development assessment. For urban areas these maps should be based on hydraulic modelling; the model should be designed to allow it to be easily updated as new information (such as information about further development) becomes available.

Increased automation and outsourcing of observations

The Board of Tourism WA should take action to ensure that it reviews the quality of Board papers that are submitted to it by the executive of Tourism WA.

The Minister for Emergency Services, with advice from the Interagency Bushfire Management Committee Fuel Load Management sub-committee, report to Parliament by May 2012 on the estimated cost of developing one fuel load information system across all lands in Western Australia, no matter who manages it. This system’s information should be readily accessible and easily understood by all stakeholders, including the public.

The Western Australian Local Government Association explore the feasibility of local governments utilising aerial and satellite imagery to monitor firebreaks and fuel loads on private property.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority and local governments ensure that the ability to: measure and map fuel loads maintain fuel load databases draw up prescriptions for, and oversee controlled burns are included as key competencies in any future recruitment of Chief Bushfire Control Officers and Community and Emergency Services Managers.

The State Government ensure that the continued development of the Fire and Emergency Service Authority’s Integrated Bushfire Risk Management System is dependent on an independent comparative assessment of its functionality and cost effectiveness against the Spatial Support System used by the Department of Environment and Conservation.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority, the Department of Environment and Conservation and local governments jointly develop a single, integrated system for fuel load assessment and management. The system should enable public access to allow members of the community to access information about the fuel load in a given locality.

FESA and local governments jointly review radio communications capability prior to the 2011/12 bushfire season with a view to improving the current delivery of service to firefighters.

the state establish standards for flood mapping to ensure they are kept contemporary and meet the purposes of landuse risk planning and emergency response. In doing so, maps should extend where appropriate to include Probable Maximum Flood, over a range of Annual Exceedence Probability levels and be explicitly linked to a stream gauge.

the state ensure that regional and local flood plans incorporate all available flood mapping and intelligence, including assessments of levees and flood consequence information.

the state, in consultation with Bureau of Meteorology and Melbourne Water, take the necessary action to ensure that all flood warnings issued are linked to the geographical location of the gauge the data was derived from.

the state take into account any outcomes from the Commonwealth Government’s flood mapping reviews in the continual development of the Victorian flood database and to incorporate into the database flood data currently held by Melbourne Water.

The Fire Services develop a program that enables all communication mediums, including social media and agency websites, to be monitored in real time to provide quality assurance for outgoing messages and additional sources of information and intelligence relating to an emergency

Energy Safe Victoria ensures that the standards for vegetation clearance around power lines consider the impact of fire on electrical infrastructure and the risk of loss of electricity supply to the community.

that QFRS undertake a thorough review of Firecom’s systems, including data integrity and dispatch procedures.

That the Queensland Reconstruction Authority consider extending the suite of internal performance indicators being used as the Authority matures.

The State identify a central point of responsibility for and expertise in mapping bushfire risk to: ■ review urgently the mapping criteria at present used by the Country Fire Authority to map the Wildfire Management Overlay, to ensure that the mapping used to determine building and planning controls is based on the best available science and takes account of all relevant aspects of bushfire risk; ■ map and designate Bushfire-prone Areas for the purposes of planning and building controls, in consultation with municipal councils and fire agencies; ■ finalise the alignment of site-assessment methods for planning and building purposes, taking into account bushfire risk to human safety as well as to property.

The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to change their asset inspection standards and procedures to require that all SWER lines and all 22-kilovolt feeders in areas of high bushfire risk are inspected at least every three years.

The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to do the following: ■ fit spreaders to any lines with a history of clashing or the potential to do so; ■ fit or retrofit all spans that are more than 300 metres long with vibration dampers as soon as is reasonably practicable.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment significantly upgrade its program of long-term data collection to monitor and model the effects of its prescribed burning programs and of bushfires on biodiversity in Victoria.

The State amend the Regulations under Victoria’s Electricity Safety Act 1998 and otherwise take such steps as may be required to give effect to the following: ■ the progressive replacement of all SWER (single-wire earth return) power lines in Victoria with aerial bundled cable, underground cabling or other technology that delivers greatly reduced bushfire risk. The replacement program should be completed in the areas of highest bushfire risk within 10 years and should continue in areas of lower bushfire risk as the lines reach the end of their engineering lives; ■ the progressive replacement of all 22-kilovolt distribution feeders with aerial bundled cable, underground cabling or other technology that delivers greatly reduced bushfire risk as the feeders reach the end of their engineering lives. Priority should be given to distribution feeders in the areas of highest bushfire risk.

The Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment improve mapping support in the following ways: ■ DSE providing mapping data free of charge to emergency response agencies; ■ greatly increasing the CFA’s ‘write’ access to FireMap for incident management team staff; ■ establishing a joint DSE–CFA training program to ensure that mapping officers in level 2 and 3 incident management teams are fully trained in using FireMap, including in producing fire prediction maps; ■ requiring before the 2010–11 fire season that FireMap be used for joint incidents.

The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to do the following: ■ disable the reclose function on the automatic circuit reclosers on all SWER lines for the six weeks of greatest risk in every fire season; ■ adjust the reclose function on the automatic circuit reclosers on all 22-kilovolt feeders on all total fire ban days to permit only one reclose attempt before lockout.

The State amend the regulatory framework for electricity safety to require that distribution businesses adopt, as part of their management plans, measures to reduce the risks posed by hazard trees—that is, trees that are outside the clearance zone but that could come into contact with an electric power line having regard to foreseeable local conditions.

The State amend the regulatory framework for electricity safety to strengthen Energy Safe Victoria’s mandate in relation to the prevention and mitigation of electricity-caused bushfires and to require it to fulfil that mandate.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment conduct biodiversity mapping identifying flora, fauna and any threatened species throughout Victoria and make the results publicly available. The format used should be compatible with that used for Bushfire-prone Area mapping.

The State (through Energy Safe Victoria) require distribution businesses to review and modify their current practices, standards and procedures for the training and auditing of asset inspectors to ensure that registered training organisations provide adequate theoretical and practical training for asset inspectors.

The Department of Human Services should create evaluation guidelines for recovery operations, including links to planning. 

The successful installation of every barrier should be the subject of written verification within and between licensees and rig operators; and should be the subject of explicit reporting to the relevant regulator(s).

Licensees should be subject to an express obligation to inform regulators of problems which arise in the course of installing barriers, even if they consider that well integrity is not thereby compromised. The information should be provided by way of special report, rather than included in a standard reporting document (such as a DDR). The information provided should include risk assessment details.

The Productivity Commission undertake an examination of bushfire risk from ageing power infrastructure, including an assessment of replacement costs and likely suppression costs from bushfires caused by defective infrastructure.

Subject to the findings of the Productivity Commission, the Commonwealth examine options for the funding of replacement of power infrastructure that presents an unacceptable bushfire risk.

Add an ‘Aviation’ map to the standard set of incident maps. The standard for this map will need to be developed by subject matter experts from the Air Ops group.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet and Victoria Police, in consultation with departments, should standardise reporting on training exercises conducted under Part 6 of the Act and the CIP framework to promote greater consistency and to enable better identification of lessons learned and continuous improvement.

The Department of Premier and Cabinet should lead the development of a performance management framework for measuring, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of Part 6 of the Act and the CIP framework. The framework should include key indicators, targets and reporting arrangements for assessing the extent to which departments, agencies and industry have fulfilled their obligations, as well as measures for monitoring achievement of joint objectives.

Reports on the training exercises should be retained in an appropriately secured central repository so that consolidated results of the exercises can be drawn together effectively. 

The ANAO recommends that Centrelink:
(a) develop performance measures against which its business continuity management preparation and response can be regularly monitored and assessed by the Business Continuity, Crisis Management and Security Sub-committee; and
(b) provide reports to the Business Continuity, Crisis Management and Security Sub-committee on the findings and implementation of there commendations of post–implementation review reports on business continuity incidents, including IT-related incidents.

The ANAO recommends that the Business Continuity, Crisis Management and Security Sub committee:
(a) endorse an annual program of scheduled testing for business continuity plans, including relevant Disaster Recovery Plans for all services and systems assessed by the agency as being business critical; and
(b) receive performance reports on the completion and key results of plan testing.

In order to identify key business processes and provide for the regular comparative assessment of Maximum Allowable Outage periods (MAOs), the ANAO recommends that Centrelink:
(a) commission a formal Business Criticality Review of its operations, including National Support Office, Area Offices and its service delivery channels; and
(b) establish a process for the annual review and endorsement of MAOs determined by branches to ensure that they represent a collective view on the relative criticality of the services that Centrelink provides.

ACTAS should develop a set of standards to measure and monitor patient satisfaction, so that improvements to the service can be made, based on patient satisfaction information.

ACTAS should establish a clinical information database that:
• enables the tracking and analysis of patient care records;
• facilitates improvements to the clinical care of patients; and
• provides an evidence based dataset to inform the future planning of the delivery of ambulance services.

ACTAS should implement systems to enable the accurate collection and measurement of non-emergency ambulance service bookings to facilitate monitoring of performance and the provision of accurate advice to Government.

ACTAS should log all emergency calls on CAD to document non-ambulance dispatch decisions, and to provide more complete data on demand.

ACTAS should develop a comprehensive performance management framework that includes key performance indicators and targets aligned to its service delivery activities, to help inform management and stakeholders of its performance.

That the nominated marine safety authority is required to ensure that incident notification and data recording requirements for Victorian commercial ports are consistent and adhered to.

That the nominated marine safety authority, in consultation with the Emergency Services Commissioner and senior emergency services personnel, is responsible for monitoring the implementation and auditing against appropriate performance standards, risk management guidelines and good practice guidelines.

The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, in partnership with Telstra, consider technological solutions to streamline the handover process for Triple Zero calls.

Energy Safe Victoria finalise the development of the passport system to improve interstate mutual aid arrangements allowing operator access to qualified interstate power restoration personnel.

Electricity distribution businesses develop and implement alternative arrangements for monitoring fallen powerlines.

That all information pertaining to current and planned prescribed burns be published more prominently on the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s website, with a single prominent link to this material on the website homepage.

That the details of any variation or amendment of a Fire Operations Plan, including: the carrying forward or postponement of burns within the three-year period covered by a Fire Operations Plan; the carry over, removal or rescheduling of burns between past, present and future Fire Operations Plans; and the alteration of burn boundaries (including alterations of less than 25 per cent); should appear on the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s website at the time of the change and be included in the Fire Operations Plan for the following year.

That finalised Fire Operations Plans be made publicly available in their entirety (with the exception of any private information) on the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s website and in hard-copy, and that this requirement be clearly stated in future Codes of Practice. This should include the “district burns list”, or its future equivalents, and a map which shows the corresponding burns for each Fire District. Each map should be provided in a format which can be downloaded directly from the Department’s website without the need for further data manipulation by the user. An identical hardcopy version of the map for each Fire District should be also be available to members of the public on request and free of charge.

That the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Department of Primary Industries, Parks Victoria & VicForests separately cost, and report, annual expenditure on fuel reduction burning, ecological burning and regeneration burning in their Annual Reports.

The Department of Sustainability and Environment should report its performance against the increased prescribed burning target in its annual report, which should also include the following details:
- the total area treated within each fuel management zone for each region;
- the total number of burns conducted within each fuel management zone for each region; and
- the extent to which planned ecological and fuel reduction outcomes were met for prescribed burns within each fuel management zone for each region (e.g. a summary of the results of the post-burn assessments to be conducted in accordance with recommendation 2.3 above).

Biosecurity Victoria should enhance controls to provide assurance regarding data integrity. This process should include:
• working with local government to provide accurate and complete property data across the state
• enhancing processes for ensuring consistent notification of disease events across regions
• reviewing all processes related to the collation, input, processing, output and protection of data to improve the integrity of the system.

QFRS introduce a system to collate and analyse performance information for use in management reporting and to support effective decision making processes. 

The current KPI measures used by the Regulator and industry need to be reassessed and the performance indicators need to be related to the risk profiles of the industry. The industry needs to develop the indicators, which need to be agreed and measured by the industry in discussion with other stakeholders. The KPI's selected should be published in comparison with the worldwide offshore industry and with other industries. NOPSA should continue discussions with Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) with a view to adopting their goals. 

That the officer responsible for the importation of horses prepare a report to the Executive Director of AQIS that:
(a) identifies (by category) all non-AQIS personnel involved in the importation of horses, including post-arrival quarantine, from countries other than New Zealand
(b) identifies the requirements in respect of biosecurity that AQIS has of those people
(c) identifies the source of those requirements—for example, by import conditions, agreement or understanding, whether formal or informal, with AQIS, and compliance agreement under s. 66B of the Quarantine Act 1908
(d) assesses whether compliance with those requirements can be and is adequately being enforced
(e) recommends measures to be taken to rectify any shortcomings.

That there be established the position of Inspector General of Horse Importation, the duties of that position being:
(a) to check, by inspection and audit at least once every 30 months, that operations and procedures at each approved pre-export quarantine premises are documented and being complied with
(b) to check, by inspection and audit from time to time at the Inspector General’s discretion, that import conditions covering the period until horses arrive at an airport in Australia are being complied with
(c) to check, by inspection and audit at least once every 30 months, that operations and procedures applying from when horses arrive at an airport in Australia until the completion of post-arrival quarantine are documented and being complied with
(d) to report in writing at least once every 12 months to the Minister responsible for quarantine on the results of such inspections and audits and such other related matters as the Inspector General thinks necessary.

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recommends that, in order to assist management decision making and to inform Parliament about performance, Emergency Management Australia (EMA) develop and report appropriate measures for its key emergency management activities and outcomes.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a National Coastal Zone Database to improve access to and consistency of information relevant to coastal zone adaptation. The National Coastal Zone Database should be an online portal that allows ready access to:
- ‘first pass’ National Coastal Vulnerability Assessment data
- state and local Digital Elevation Modelling
- National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility reports
- federal Local Adaptation Pathways Program reports
- state and local coastal vulnerability assessment results

The Committee recommends that the Department of Climate Change share all data collected through vulnerability assessments undertaken as part of the Australian Government Local Adaptation Pathways Program on the proposed National Coastal Zone Database (see also recommendation 42).

The Committee recommends that the National Coastal Zone Database be expanded over time to include information on environmental data and management and planning information relevant to the coastal zone.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government, through the Australian Bureau of Statistics, ensure that:
- accurate and consistent methods of measuring the numbers and the impact of tourists and other non-residents in coastal areas are undertaken to enable resources to be better matched with demand for infrastructure and services
- improved data on long-term demographic trends in coastal areas is made available to assist in coastal zone planning and management

Databases with a common minimum data set complete with incident monitoring should be established for TAS Air Ambulance, TMRS and NETS missions.

Formation of a subcommittee of the DHHS Tasmanian Medical Retrieval Services Committee to identify risk exposures, system problems and potential solutions. The subcommittee should review data, problem cases, system issues and generate a risk register. Meetings should occur at least quarterly.

This Report should be considered for publication so that the insights, data, conclusions and recommendations are available within Queensland and other jurisdictions to assist with disaster management issues in the future.

We recommend that NSW Health continue with its good work and establish a performance management framework with targets and indicators to assess progress in preparing for infectious disease emergencies.

That the Department of Primary Industries should ensure the roles and capacities of Rural Lands Protection Boards and industry are effectively monitored to enable assessment of the effectiveness of animal health programs.

That the Department of Primary Industries make every effort to meet its targets for the TSE program and encourage public and private sector veterinarians across the State to submit samples. The Department should include reports on its performance against these targets in annual reports.

That the Department’s performance against tactical and strategic benchmarks be regularly reported in annual reports or animal and plant health emergency evaluation reports and compared to other jurisdictions where possible.

That, as a matter of principle, the NSW Government provide public reports on the lessons learned from emergency exercises which it manages or in which it participates. If necessary, such reports should exclude material which might jeopardise security.

That an appropriate geographic information systems capability be maintained to enable the production of fire-specific maps as the need arises and that personnel from the Emergency Services Agency and other agencies be trained in the operation of map production systems, so that 9maps can be modified to include fire-specific information as required

That the Emergency Services Agency introduce a program with land management agencies in the ACT to ensure that maps of all public and private land in the ACT are subjected to regular review and amendment as required. Maps of a scale sufficient to facilitate fire management operations should be available in printed form and maintained on an electronic database capable of modification to add relevant features during a firefighting operation

The data and information management system should be compatible with any data and information management system established by the ATSB for the designated interstate rail network, provided that the establishment of a compatible system does not reduce the amount or quality of the information obtained by ITSRR below the optimum levels which it needs to conduct trend analysis, and otherwise properly manage the safety of rail operations in New South Wales.

The Minister for Transport Services must table in Parliament, each such quarterly report by ITSRR.

The RMC should be equipped by RailCorp with a transcriber system, or mimic board, or such other system as is necessary to enable identification of the precise location at any time of any train on the RailCorp network.

All train drivers’ defects reports should be entered by RailCorp into a computerised record and tracked to finalisation.

The ITSRR should establish a data and information management system, containing all data and information that it requires, to continually monitor the safety of the New South Wales rail system.

The ITSRR must provide a quarterly report to the Minister for Transport Services on the progress made by RailCorp in implementing these recommendations, including:
(a) a statement as to whether or not the recommendation has been implemented and, if so, is working effectively; and
(b) if the recommendation has not been implemented, the me

A dedicated telephone line should be established by RailCorp between the RMC and any Emergency Services Control Centre for use during any emergency.

All reports of the Chief Investigator of OTSI should be delivered, upon completion and without being reviewed, to ITSRR and the Minister for Transport Services.

There should be interoperability of communications equipment between all trains operating on the New South Wales rail network.

All ATSB accident investigation reports should be made public.

There must be compatibility of communications systems throughout the rail network. It is essential that all train drivers, train controllers, signallers, train guards and supervisors of trackside work gangs in New South Wales be able to communicate using the same technology.

The ATSB should deliver any report of any such rail accident which it investigates to the Board of any rail organisation involved in the accident, ITSRR and the Minister for Transport Services.

The Minister for Transport Services should retain, independently of ITSRR, safety auditors to provide a report to the Minister confirming or qualifying the contents of each such ITSRR quarterly report.

All signal telephones must be maintained by RailCorp in proper working order.

RailCorp and ITSRR should co-operate with national programs for the collection, collation, trend analysis and dissemination of safety critical information.

It is recommended that providers supply data to the Board:
- for each rescue attended, the location and type of incident, turnout time, response time and time when available for re- tasking (page 30)
- on the cost of rescue (page 25).

The ANAO recommends that, to ensure the outcomes of evaluations are effectively used to enhance the national counter-terrorism arrangements, the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet take appropriate measures to ensure:
a) the continuous improvement process for the counter-terrorism arrangements is strengthened and made transparent. Key areas for improvement in this regard include:
• a more strategic approach to the determination of desired outcomes,
• a more strategic and systematic approach to the setting of evaluation objectives and performance information and assessment mechanisms,
• increased analysis of actual performance against objectives, and
• amoresystematicmonitoringandfollow-up of evaluation outcomes and recommendations; and
b) sufficient and skilled resources are assigned to undertake the data management and analysis required.

The ANAO recommends that, to provide better information to contribute to strategic assessments, decisions and reporting, the Attorney-General’s Department, with input and guidance from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet:
a) centrally coordinate and amalgamate the issues and recommendations arising from the various reviews and exercises; and
b) provide strategic analyses of this information.

The Working Group recommends that State/Territory emergency management plans should explicitly take the need for rapid assessment of damaged physical infrastructure into account. The importance of rapid physical infrastructure assessment in ensuring the supply of utilities including sewerage and drainage, electricity, water and gas to residential structures and other types should be recognised and considered. 

Firefighting organisations should: resolve existing telecommunication problems and work with other emergency service organisations to establish compatible telecommunications systems.

That DPI upgrades the Crop Health Services diagnostic database so that it alerts PSB and PIRVIC to the receipt of samples from nearby areas with similar symptoms and can be linked to other PIRVIC diagnostic databases.

That DPI establishes a system to ensure the security of all samples at all times, but particularly during their handling and transport.

That all emergency service agencies, CFA and DSE in particular, give greater priority to information management – especially the collection, maintenance and quality control of base data sets necessary for planning, operations and program evaluation.

That the success of current buffers in terms of assisting suppression operations be continually reviewed, evaluated and documented.

That DSE and CFA map all unplanned fires greater than four hectares on public and private land in order to further develop an understanding of the risk to rural Victoria from unplanned fires.

That if ‘link’ burns continue to be used, then on-site weather sequences and fuel conditions marking successful (‘within explicit prescription’) and unsuccessful burns be documented. 

That instances where demand for air support outstrips the supply of State Fleet Aircraft available are recorded. 

That DSE and CFA, recognising that the Bureau of Meteorology does not routinely store all variables required to produce the calculations and indices necessary for research and planning into fire occurrence and behaviour, develop appropriate systems to ensure that such current and historical information is readily available and accessible.

That the joint agencies introduce a system of performance measures for reporting the effectiveness of aircraft in firefighting operations.

That DSE institute additional routine data storage and analysis to supplement current climate records with at least daily 3 pm values for the Grassland and Forest Fire Danger Index, and Keetch-Byram Drought Index, for selected high quality stations representing a cross-section of environments throughout Victoria. 

That Government review legislation for utilities operating within the State to ensure their involvement in regional fire preparedness and mitigation planning.

That DSE:
• Provide further training and/or field staff for the routine acquisition and reporting of geographic data (maps of fire extent for prescribed and unplanned fires) and fuel-array data (quantity, type, condition and arrangement before and after fire as in the Overall Fuel Hazard Guide).
• Routinely and explicitly report on measures of the effectiveness of the prescribed burning program.
• Measure the total area subject to prescribed burning treatment in each Fire Management Zone each year along with the average proportion of that area successfully burned.
• Develop an explicit, routine system of evaluation, analysis and reporting of the effects of prescribed burning in relation to environmental outcomes such as conservation of flora and fauna and water quality.
• Train more crews, use Project Firefighters more extensively (and CFA members or MFESB firefighters where appropriate), to undertake prescribed burning.

That Government acknowledge the importance of spatial information as a key element of planning, operations and program evaluation, and support the Geospatial Emergency Information Network as a means of ensuring integrated and co-ordinated information management on a whole-ofGovernment basis.

That the creation of buffers by chaining and then burning swaths of mallee be explicitly monitored for:
• The risk of fire escapes during their establishment;
• Their effectiveness as a barrier to unplanned fire under various weather and fuel conditions; and
• Any adverse environmental effects such as soil mobilisation and loss of biodiversity.

The Committee recommends that Emergency Management Australia and the Australian Communications Authority jointly with the Australasian Fire Authorities Council:
- Initiate an urgent review on a district basis, of the suitability of the current allocated radio spectrum to ensure that as far as possible, fire fighter safety is not being compromised through inadequate communications.
- Commit to the development, in conjunction with representative bodies of all emergency services, to a National Strategic Radio System.
- That the coordination of the deliberations be assigned to Emergency Management Australia.

The Committee recommends that Geoscience Australia take responsibility, in conjunction with Emergency Management Australia, for developing a national spatial data policy to coordinate the development of data systems, the collection of data and the sharing of data between all the emergency response agencies across Australia, and that both agencies participate in the development and delivery of spatial information
systems as part of a national approach to emergency planning and management data. The first priority in policy development and of systems should be related to bushfire hazards.

The Committee recommends that the Commonwealth seeks to ensure that the Council of Australian Governments resolve to increase water access points for bushfire fighting on public land to the minimum national standard.

The Committee recommends that the Department of Transport and Regional Services review its record keeping practices to show the type of emergency for which assistance is provided through the Natural Disaster
Relief Arrangements.

The Committee recommends that the 1:100,000 national mapping program be accelerated to achieve an average life of no greater than 10 years with priority given to those areas most susceptible to national disasters.

The Committee recommends that Emergency Management Australia and the Australian Communications Authority, in conjunction with the respective state and territory governments, ensure the survivability of essential communication installations during fire incidents by strategic fuel management around the assets.

The Committee recommends that Emergency Management Australia be required to participate in the development and delivery of spatial information systems as part of a national approach to emergency planning and management data. The first priority in policy development and of systems should be related to bushfire hazards.

The Committee recommends that performance monitoring standards be established, reviewed and maintained through a common reporting system by the Minister for Police and Emergency Services.

A sub-committee of telecommunication officers and representatives of the Bush Fires Board be appointed to investigate and encourage the development of a modern system of radio equipment for bush fire brigades. 

The Commonwealth Government be asked to complete as far as practicable, the connection of telephones to outlying country centres before the end of 1961.

It is recommended that a more constant, running revision of the main and sprinkler system be maintained in future so that the service which it is intended to convey shall be closely and efficiently available to all parts of the berms and faces. It is emphasized that the reticulation system in the berms is fixed and stationary, whereas the faces are continually receding as their surfaces are scraped away by the dredges.

It is recommended that the State Electricity Commission adopt a policy of conciliation and good will towards its closer neighbours. It is not suggested that its policy has been essentially otherwise. In future that policy can best be assured of success by time conferring of material benefit upon its neighbours at some monetary cost to the Commission. It is suggested, with conviction, that it would prove to be of great advantage to time Commission if it were to take an active part in the clearing and bettering of its neighbours’ scrub and timber country at time cost of the Commission. The settler whose land is fully cleared and in production, or who knows that his land will be cleared for him, has no incentive to burn illegally or carelessly. If this suggestion should he adopted, it would be necessary that it should be carried out in all cases in accordance with the settler’s convenience, that he himself should take an active part in the operations, and that he should be left, not with a financial obligation, but with a definite material advantage.

It is recommended that the water pressure be improved so that a greater volume and jet may be available for the suppression of fires on the faces and also for the purpose of wetting the berms more widely and thoroughly when necessary. It is suggested that there should be variable control of the pressure so that production need not be adversely affected in times of normal danger.

That, in view of the fact that along many of the lines, between the road-bed and the fences, there are numbers of dry inflammable stumps, which, when they catch fire, are very difficult to extinguish, and that the surface of the ground surrounding these stumps is usually chipped by the permanent-way men every summer, thus causing considerable expense without removing the risk of fire, the Railway Department should remove this source of danger, by grabbing them out and burning them as early as may be found practicable.