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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 Insurance Council of Australia in consultation with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and state, territory and local governments:
- Develop guidance for policyholders on the actions they can take to clean up their properties following a natural disaster.
- Include in the guidance any actions policyholders should take to document damage to their properties, such as taking photos to assist with their claim.
- Obtain a commitment from insurers that they will have regard for the guidance when assessing claims.
- Distribute the guidance as soon as possible to disaster-impacted local government areas.
- Make the guidance part of information distributed by insurers when a natural disaster occurs, including making the guidance available at recovery hubs in hard copy form.
- Develop debris cleanup guidance for councils.

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 all large insurers commit to having a physical presence at major emergency hubs in affected communities as soon as possible following a natural disaster.

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 a new service be offered to support vulnerable cash settlement recipients to project manage rebuilds and major repairs. This could be similar to the Service Navigator role in Queensland’s Resilient Homes Fund.

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 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 the Australian Government establish a national asset register to improve the efficiency of the deployment of resources in the aftermath of a disaster. The Government should consider whether it is feasible to include not only federal and state government assets, but also suitable local community, private sector and non-government organisation assets.

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 streamline nationally consistent standardised measures, focused on response and short-term recovery that can be delivered quickly following a disaster event. The standardised measures should:
- Ensure a nationally consistent activation process/decision making framework that is based on impact, consequence and need.
- Create certainty and speed for pre-determined funding.
- Clearly state the eligible activities, their relevant domain/s and the conditions under which the measure can be activated.
- Adopt streamlined audit and assurance, as well as monitoring and evaluation requirements consistent with the Outcomes Policy.

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.

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.

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

State and territory governments should develop and implement efficient and effective arrangements to:
(1) educate the public about the challenges associated with donated goods, for example, the storage and distribution of donated goods, and
(2) manage and coordinate donated goods to ensure offers of support are matched with need. 

Australian, state and territory governments should incorporate the principle of ‘build back better’ more broadly into the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. 

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. 

Governments should create and publish standing policy guidance on whether they will or will not assist to clean-up debris, including contaminated debris, resulting from natural hazards. 

Australian, state and territory governments should expedite the development of pre-agreed recovery programs, including those that address social needs, such as legal assistance domestic violence, and also environmental recovery. 

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 refine arrangements to support localised planning and the delivery of appropriate mental health services following a natural disaster. 

Australian, state and territory and local governments should evaluate the effectiveness of existing financial assistance measures to inform the development of a suite of pre-effective pre-determined recovery supports. 

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

The Australian Government, through the mechanism of the proposed standing national recovery and resilience agency, should convene regular and ongoing national forums for charities, non-government organisations and volunteer groups, with a role in natural disaster recovery, with a view to continuous improvement of coordination of recovery support. 

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 a single national scheme for the regulation of charitable fundraising. 

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. 

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.

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.

Increased automation and outsourcing of observations

The committee recommends that Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) and its relevant contractors continue to monitor the wellbeing of the survivors and that counselling and support services should be provided for as long as is necessary.

The committee recommends that relevant Commonwealth agencies continue to monitor the wellbeing of their personnel and that counselling and support services should be provided for as long as necessary.

The committee recommends that the Department of Regional Australia and DIAC liaise with the Christmas Island community to explore options for a permanent memorial to be erected on the island, at a site of the residents' choosing, for the victims of the tragedy.

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

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 Working Group recommends that States/Territories consider their ability to house large numbers of domestic pets, and where necessary, develop plans and arrangements that facilitate this need. 

The Working Group recommends that the National Recovery Coordinators Group considers the issue of emergency relief centres in the context of catastrophic disaster with a view to assisting jurisdictions to plan for the need to accommodate thousands of people following a disaster. 

The Working Group recommends that potential shortfalls in the capacity to deal with large numbers of unprotected children and other special needs groups in a catastrophic event be referred to the Disaster Recovery Sub Committee of Community Services Ministers’ Advisory Council (CSMAC) for consideration and report back. 

The Working Group recommends that jurisdictions plan for the logistics of supply and delivery of meals to large numbers of homebound persons in an attempt to identify possible ways of resolving existing shortcomings. 

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 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 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.