Compound mental helath studies: That, to inform Government policies and programs for mental health and disasters, Government commission a longitudinal study on the effect of consecutive disasters on community mental health.

Climate and weather research: That, to enable effective mitigation and adaptation measures in response to changing climate risks, Government establish NSW as a world centre of disaster research and technology development. This should include:
• maintaining and enhancing climate and weather research capability in NSW through establishing a long-term research funding network/partnership (the NSW Climate Extremes Network – NCEN –modelled on other successful research networks such as NSSN) with the state’s universities, coordinated and led through the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes (with funding renewed based on performance every 5 years) to ensure leading-edge climate change research and modelling capabilities are available to government agencies and NSW businesses and communities. The funding will enable NCEN to hire researchers and build training programs for students and researchers to enrich the research environment, and the impact of the research in decision making within NSW
• commissioning further research and technology development (through NCEN working as appropriate with the Bureau of Meteorology, Natural Hazards Research Australia, CSIRO and research organisations worldwide, as well as the ARC Centre of Excellence in Climate Extremes) to understand the weather patterns conducive to extreme rainfall (including more detailed rainfall event attribution studies) with a view to increasing rainfall forecasting accuracy in time and location.

That Government commission further research on the potential risks and benefits of backburning during severe, extreme and catastrophic conditions and/or in particular terrain, and that the NSW RFS use this research to inform future backburning protocols and training.

That, in order to ensure Aboriginal people can access appropriate support during evacuation, Resilience NSW work with Local Emergency Management Committees and Aboriginal Affairs to ensure:
a) local Aboriginal communities are included in emergency planning and preparation
b) all staff involved in evacuation centres and support services are culturally competent.

That, in order to capture and understand the impacts of bush fire smoke better, Government invest in operational air quality forecasting and alert systems, and public health research and policy development. This would involve investment to:
- develop a comprehensive system of forecasting and alerts for air quality incidents and all pollutants of concern, including but not limited to bush fire smoke, ozone and dust, and which is ideally nationally consistent
- investigate further the health impacts of bush fire smoke, based on improved data collection and including research on the long-term health impacts of poor air quality as a result of sustained exposure to severe bush fire smoke, particularly for vulnerable and at- risk segments of the community (children, elderly, firefighters, etc).

That, in order to increase the respectful, collaborative and effective use of Aboriginal land management practices in planning and preparing for bush fire, Government commit to pursuing greater application of Aboriginal land management, including cultural burning, through a program to be coordinated by Aboriginal Affairs and Department of Planning, Industry and Environment working in partnership with Aboriginal communities. This should be accompanied by a program of evaluation alongside the scaled-up application of these techniques.

That, in order to improve understanding of optimal hazard reduction techniques and their application in the landscape:
a) Government extend the recently introduced program of mitigation crews so that hazard reduction activities can be undertaken when conditions are optimal (throughout the week and potentially at night)
b) all fire authorities review prescribed burning techniques and their implementation, and
commission further research into optimal prescribed burning regimes and techniques. This should include research to understand critical thresholds that, when breached, may render fuel treatment ineffective (i.e. fuel moisture thresholds), and the short, medium and long-term outcomes of hazard reduction burning regimes
c) Government commission research into a range of other hazard reduction techniques to understand better the cost versus benefit and effectiveness of different practices in various circumstances, including grazing.

That Government adopt the principle that cultural burning is one component of a broader practice of traditional Aboriginal land management and is an important cultural practice, not simply another technique of hazard reduction burning.

That Government establish NSW as a major world centre of bush fire research, and technology development and commercialisation. This should include:
a) establishing a Bush Fire Technology Fund, modelled on the Medical Devices Fund, to assist with the rapid development of technologies and services to sense, fight, mop up after and protect from bush fires
b) commissioning further research into extreme fire behaviour and building up the research and research training capacity in this field. This will improve our ability to understand, model and predict the likelihood of extreme fire behaviour in the landscape and enable targeting of fire fighting resources to areas where fires are likely to become most damaging.

I recommend that the New South Wales Police Force evaluate whether the use of noise-attenuation devices should be mandated when explosive distraction devices are used.

I recommend that the Commissioner of Police consider seeking an agreement with news media outlets whereby the New South Wales Police Force will establish a way for such outlets to rapidly and confidentially determine whether publishing specific material could compromise the response to an ongoing high-risk incident and the media in turn will agree not to publish such material without first alerting a nominated senior police officer of their intention to do so.

That the Rural Fire Service consider extending pre-emptive section 44 to whole of Castlereagh RFS/Warrumbungle Shire area.

Develop and maintain a comprehensive flood model and flood modelling framework for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

Develop a comprehensive road evacuation network model for floods in the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain to inform evacuation capacity assessments and strategic transport and land use planning, and to assist with the real-time operational management of evacuation during floods.

Clarify roles, responsibilities and consider funding options for post-event collection of data and flood intelligence.

Improved understanding of fire behaviour in coastal heathlands would support sound risk management through the southwest of W

DFES or DEC (depending on land tenure) is mandated to take over control of emergency incidents from Local Government once they have been declared Level 2 incidents. WESTPLAN BUSHFIRE and legislation to be amended accordingly.

The Department of Environment and Conservation be supported to conduct further research into the fuel management of coastal heath in the south west of Western Australia exploring alternatives to burning as well as best practice for burning.

The Minister for Emergency Services amend section 50 of the Emergency Management Act 2005 by June 2012 to allow the State Emergency Coordinator, as well as a hazard management agency, to make an emergency situation declaration.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority, the Department of Environment and Conservation and local governments closely monitor the research and development of alternative fuel reduction techniques to ensure that the most efficient and effective programs are adopted.

The Fire and Emergency Services Authority, the Department of Environment and Conservation and local governments closely monitor the research and development of alternative fuel reduction techniques to ensure that the most efficient and effective programs are adopted.

The State Government amend section 50 of the Emergency Management Act 2005 to allow the Chair of the State Emergency Coordination Group to declare an emergency situation.

That the Rural Fires Act 1997 be amended to provide to designated Fire Investigation Officers of the Rural Fire Service the power to enter any land upon which a bushfire has occurred for the purposes of investigation for a period of up to 24 hours after a fire has been declared out.

A fire control research advisory committee be formed to co-operate with the Forests Department in carrying out scientific research into fire control.

The Forests Department carry out more research into both the technical and practical side of fire control as a necessary accompaniment to the expenditure of money on other forest works and that forest fire control officers be sent overseas at intervals to gain information regarding the latest developments in this work.