Building capacity in fire simulation and predictive capabilities, including the capability of people to read and interpret these products through training, should be investigated and considered.

All agencies should identify the capacity and appropriate positions for the role of liaison officers, and ensure sufficient numbers are trained.

A good neighbour policy such as that of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, setting out clear expectations, be developed to guide all landholders.

To make planned burning and land clearing easier to understand and implement for landholders, a single point of contact for all bushfire mitigation inquiries and permits should be established.

All Area Fire Management Groups should adopt and be guided by a good neighbour policy.

Area Fire Management Groups should share seasonal risk information with local groups and actively and appropriately contribute to disaster management planning.

Education on bushfires should include information about: 
- the change in climate resulting in higher level of bushfire risk
- local bushfire risk, possible consequences, and preventative and preparedness actions for the community

Coordinated arrangements for liaison officer deployment should be considered and documented by disaster management groups across the full spectrum of risk identified for their area of responsibility, and not rely on a singular inflexible approach.

We recommend that the four councils develop floodplain management plans in accordance with Recommendation 2.12 of the Final Report of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry.

We recommend that, in the absence of stand-alone catchment management authorities, the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning as a matter of priority, establish what funding is reasonably required and complete all elements of the Brisbane River Catchment Flood Studies.

We recommend that, in the absence of stand-alone catchment management authorities, the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning fulfil its obligation under the State Disaster Management Plan to drive the enhancement of flood resilience in the four catchments by:

We recommend that the Department of Natural Resources and Mines and the four councils work together to effectively and economically regulate levee banks.

Enshrine the broader fire management principles, including coordination, strategic planning, mitigation, monitoring and control within the Act.

Authorise the Director of Bushfires NT to intervene in volunteer brigade affairs where necessary to maintain an effective fire management capacity in a brigade area.

Include a detailed description of the role, responsibility and accountability of
- key stakeholders groups as described in this section;
- key host agency and Bushfires NT staff;
- Volunteer Bushfires Brigades; and
- key personnel within those organisations.

Further define the principle of landholder responsibility for fire management and strengthen its fundamental place in the Act. This should include a clear requirement for landholders to prevent fire on their land from spreading to neighbouring properties.

Clarify and streamline the allocation of powers to Bushfires NT staff and volunteers involved in bushfire management operations, using a system of delegation through a chain of command similar to the arrangements described in the NT Fire and Emergency Act.

Clarify and streamline the allocation of powers to Bushfires NT staff and volunteers involved in bushfire management operations, using a system of delegation through a chain of command similar to the arrangements described in the NT Fire and Emergency Act.

Discontinue the automatic allocation of Fire Warden powers to Council and Committee members and substitute an option for members to be appointed as Fire Wardens.

Retain the Bushfires Council as a Ministerial advisory body.

Introduce clear Terms of Reference for the Bushfires Council and Regional Bushfires Committees, and introduce a requirement for the Minister to consider advice and recommendations from the Council.

Formalise and clearly define the powers and duties of Bushfires NT personnel, including volunteers, thereby clarifying Bushfires NT’s role in bushfire management in the Northern Territory.

Establish a capacity to prescribe bushfire management arrangements for individual properties based on bushfire risk assessment.

Retain the Regional Bushfires Committees as regional planning and consultative bodies tasked with monitoring, reviewing and making recommendations on fire management in a Fire Control Region.

Define formal bushfire management regimes for areas with different bushfire management requirements and define bushfire management responsibilities in those areas.

Authorise Bushfires NT to establish volunteer bushfire brigades and to give authority to volunteer firefighters to take part in fire suppression and mitigation operations.

Amend the Act title to ‘Bushfires Management Act’. 

Create new seasonal paid positions to coordinate and support groups of volunteer brigades.

Amend the object to provide for ‘The mitigation, management, and suppression of bushfires’. Definitions of these terms should be included in the Act, and should include clarification that bushfire suppression can include emergency response activities in certain circumstances

Maintain independence of volunteer brigades as community-based organisations and clarify the status and role of volunteers within the chain of command.

In recognising the success of the work of both the volunteer based Rural Fire Service and the full time Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) members in joint operations – both agencies should be represented at major briefings or press conferences to reinforce successful integrated collaborative efforts ra

As a matter of priority commence the roll out of AVL capability for the Rural Fire Service fleet, completing as much work as possible before the 2018/19 bushfire season, capitalising where necessary on current and future work undertaken with the NSW Government Radio Network to ensure both officer

Take immediate steps to eliminate fire boundaries for call and dispatch purposes to create an agnostic approach to the threat of fires from both a departmental and organisational perspective

Explore better options for call and dispatch, telecommunications and information sharing capability across the emergency management portfolio including the adoption of a multi-agency emergency management operations complex

The Commissioners of Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) and the RFS issue an instruction to FRNSW ComCen that while AVL capability is being made available to the RFS vehicle fleet, no offers of assistance by one agency to the other in combatting a fire is rejected or delayed if what is being offered is

Review the effectiveness of emergency public information arrangements, and give consideration to embedding an ABC Manager (not a journalist) into the RFS headquarters during emergencies to broadcast warnings to the community that can be pooled to commercial media outlets

Until a single call centre is developed, continue deployments of a senior RFS officer to Fire and Rescue NSW ComCen on a 24/7 day basis. This arrangement should determine the quickest most suitable resource and who is ‘in charge’ of an incident

Implement a fully integrated civilianised single call and dispatch centre, that includes a redundancy option outside the Sydney CBD, which will adopt an agnostic approach to deploy the quickest most suitable resource to an emergency.

Use the model and system in place at the Ambulance Service of NSW as a benchmark for call taking, dispatch and the provision of situational awareness when deploying resources. This will overcome the lack of a feedback loop in current bushfire operations

Remove those policies, guidelines, memoranda of understanding and committees that are made redundant as a result of adopting recommendation #2 while updating any remaining policies that are considered to still be relevant

While the proposal to establish an integrated call and dispatch centre is being implemented, Fire and Rescue NSW should take steps to civilianise ComCen and maintain experienced senior officers from both agencies as supervisors similar to how the NSW Police Force and Ambulance Service of NSW oper

Take steps to ensure that both fire commissioners are seeking opportunities to engender a culture in their respective organisations that seeks to attract and foster the volunteer ethos and experience

Tasmanian Fire Service (TFS), Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) and Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) initiate a discussion among their Australasian peers about good practice around managing new fire starts in remote terrain, to include issues around identification, predictive analysis,

TFS, PWS and STT should work with government and each other to continue to pursue a whole-of-state fuel management and burning program that encompasses all land tenures, meets the range of outcomes required by the state (township protection, risk reduction and landscape-scale burns) and is inclus

TFS, PWS and STT should establish a State Air Desk, to be staffed by specialist staff year-round, with responsibility for managing both preparatory and contractual issues out of season as well as aircraft management when fires or other emergency events are occurring.

TFS should engage in discussions with government about the construction of purpose-built State Control Centre facilities for emergency management in Tasmania.

The proposed Tasmania State Air Desk should have a finance officer attached to its staff.

TFS, PWS and STT should jointly reach a decision on whether a winch capable remote area firefighting capability should be maintained in Tasmania; which agency or agencies should be responsible for that program; and how a winch capable remote area firefighting capability can be safely trained and

TFS, PWS and STT should jointly carry out work to identify acceptable shift lengths and patterns – including requirements for rest days – for all personnel working on emergency operations.

TFS, PWS and STT agree an updated version of the Interagency Fire Management Protocol which maintains the principle that there will be one state-wide point of command for major unwanted fires burning in the State of Tasmania, explicitly recognises the right of each of TFS, PWS and STT to have the

TFS should pursue the creation of a cadre of volunteer remote area firefighters.

TFS should initiate a policy review (seeking support from government as appropriate) to clearly identify what body or agency is responsible for planning, carrying out and enforcing fuel management on private property at a township level.

Where safety-lamps are used the lock should be of such a character as to prevent any workman opening it. If the "Protector" type of lamp be employed the necessity for a lock is the less necessary, as the unscrewing of this type of lamp extinguishes the light. 

A measure of safety may be found in the use of high explosives combined with wet tamping, or, still better, water cartridges, instead of powder under any of its modifications.

The Commission consider that in all mines where gas exists the course of the air should be directed to sweep along the working-faces; in mines worked by Pillar and Stall, bratticing must be resorted to to carry the gas from the face as it issues, and so prevent any accumulation of explosive gases

The Commisison would not insist upon a barometer being provided at each mine. Experience has proved that this is a tardy index to atmospheric conditions. Serious changes in the atmospheric pressure occur and are felt before they are indicated by a barometer.

Where gas exists, and no provisions are made for its constant removal, no shots should be fired, and, where permitted in a gassy mine, shots should be fired only by a man specially appointed, and at such hours when the miners are not within the mine.

Where safety-lamps are necessary - gas being present for (say) one month after being found in dangerous quantity - they should be securely locked by a man duly appointed, and tampering with them must be punishable by a simple and inexpensive process of law. 

Where safety-lamps are used, and the obligation is laid upon the men to cleanse the same, all examinations, tests, and repairs to these should be done by the owners. 

The Commission feel that the 4th clause in the present Act, relating to the spacing of cut-throughs, should be amended to admit of any convenient or safe system of mining being pursued. This is a matter of detail that would be better out of the Act.

Infringement of the regulations by either party should be followed by a summary form of justice, instituted before two Magistrates.

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.

Where dust exists in quantity, and under conditions favourable for ignition, it should be periodically and sufficiently dampened by water

The Commission do not approve of removing any responsibility from the management by increasing the power or number of the Inspectors. The visits of these officials should, so far as possible, be visits of surprise.

In gassy mines the Manager should be specially competent, and one possessing a thorough knowledge of the principles and practice of mining, the properties of gases, and systems of ventilation; and, above all, he must be prudent and cautious, yet resolute, possessing sound judgement.

That Government provide support in the form of funding for the Return to the Firestick project, and that a formal pilot scheme be established where data can be collected, collated and analysed and the effectiveness of this approach be compared against current burning practices.

That any such pilot program ought to be managed by the relevant indigenous organisations, with support provided by DELWP and its partner agencies and the development and the evaluation of any pilot program should be overseen by an independent and reputable academic or research institution.

DELWP and its partner agencies, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, should undertake research into the specific effects on health of people affected by planned burns and the information should be made public.

In keeping with the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission’s findings and recommendations, human life has primacy in bushfire‑related regulations and it is important that this is maintained in the implementation of bushfire management overlays and relevant vegetation removal exemptions should refle

That fire managers responsible for planned burns be
indemnified against any and all actions in the event of damage caused by an escape of the planned burn, on the basis of a ‘good faith’ test.

That issues of animal welfare be given a higher practical priority in the planned burning process on the ground, including:

The Government should:
(a) provide additional support to the Gippsland Arson Prevention Program; and
(b) support the establishment of arson prevention programs of this type in other bushfire‑prone regions within Victoria, and involve both community and government agencies.

That the Government conduct a review of fire prevention

The Government introduce an amendment to the Country Fire Authority Act 1958 or other instruments which imposes significant penalties and strengthens enforcement, including via infringement notices, for offences against Total Fire Ban requirements before the 2017‑2018 fire season.

That a review of the cross‑tenure approach be undertaken to determine its effectiveness and to address issues that arise in fire prevention on private and public land.

That in conjunction with a risk‑based approach, a minimum hectare target is also maintained that can be measured and compared. This minimum target should not be below the 5% target established by the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission.

In order to manage a reduced time window available to undertake the current types of planned burns, alternative methods, including the indigenous mosaic ‘cool’ burns, should be examined and trialled as they may extend the period in which planned burns can be undertaken while reducing overall risk

That SES and Tasmania Fire Service share resources and align their community education programs and adopt an all-hazards approach to awareness.

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 engages with non-government organisations that may provide services during emergency events to clarify the terms and conditions for support through a written arrangement (MOU or similar).

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 in flood-prone municipalities, the respective Municipal Committee develops or reviews flood-related sub-plans within a Municipal Emergency Management Plan at least every two years and submits each sub-plan to the Regional Controller for approval.

That DPIPWE examines the WMAwater report along with its own, analyses the differences, consults with the Forest Practices Authority and Environment Protection Authority, and proposes an appropriate course of action to Government.

That the organisations responsible for construction, maintenance and ownership of bridges review their design guidelines and, if necessary, update them to specifically include consideration of debris and flood impacts on bridge design.

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.

That DPIPWE examines the Forest Practice Code 2015 for relevance of its concepts to farming and other business activities near rivers, streams and naturally occurring dams and makes recommendations to Government accordingly.

That, to provide greater clarity for building development, design and approval within tolerable risk levels, the Tasmanian Planning Scheme, including a relevant Riverine Flood Hazard Code, is finalised and approved as soon as practicable.

That Government establishes a central flood policy unit responsible for coordinating flood policy across all government agencies, including Government Businesses, and ensures that such a unit has a whole-of-government and community focus.

That the Flood Warning Consultative Committee reviews flood classification levels in the Service Level Specifications with BoM specifically relating to flood level triggers on gauges.

That DPAC becomes the Management Authority for recovery in Tasmania.

That the State Emergency Management Committee allocates resources to reviewing all findings and recommendations in the Productivity Commission Report No. 74 relevant to Tasmania and, for those identified as relevant, actions taken and, if none, why not.

That, in the event of a major emergency such as the June floods, a government department (DPAC or State Growth) be appointed to coordinate infrastructure repair, to the extent that funding allows, for the whole state.

That Government supports the anticipated SES State Flood Warning proposals aimed at improving public warnings and communication, and that the proposed warning system is consistent with the National Frameworks.

That emergency management authorities react with heightened awareness and action when BoM issues flood watches and related warnings.

That DPIPWE clarifies responsibility for river restoration and riparian management and, having done so, communicates this to councils, landowners and other owners of relevant infrastructure.

That heightened awareness and action is needed by communities when BoM issues flood watches and related warnings. Councils and SES need to facilitate this.

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 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 all councils include an easily identifiable website link for the public to locate their Municipal Emergency Management Plan and community safety information.

That Government: