The Committee recommends that the Australian Government amend the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) to make it obligatory that insurers offer to consumers the option of a general insurance policy that conforms to Standard Cover, as prescribed in the Insurance Contracts Regulations 1985 (Cth), fr

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government amend the Insurance Contracts Act 1984 (Cth) so that from 1 July 2012 any derogation from Standard Cover is required to be communicated to policyholders as a departure from ideal standards:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission amend Regulatory Guideline 139 by 1 July 2012 to require the Financial Ombudsman Service to report regularly to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and also to make public:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government introduce legislation by 1 March 2013 to make adherence to the General Insurance Code of Practice a compulsory requirement for all general insurers.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission amend Regulatory Guideline 165 to:

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government work with the Insurance Council of Australia to make the following amendments to the General Insurance Code of Practice by 1 July 2012:
- remove the clauses that set aside the Code standards in times of disasters;

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government investigate ways to reduce the cost of calling 1300 numbers from mobile telephones in areas of natural disasters.

The Committee recommends that the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation immediately establish a joint industry-Government action group to address evidence of the rising costs and market failure of insurance premiums across Australia.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government and relevant State and territory governments jointly allocate additional and continuing funding in the 2012–13 budget to the Insurance Law Service for the mobilisation of a temporary physical presence in areas of need following natural disas

The Committee recommends that the Australian Parliament pass the Insurance Contracts Amendment Bill 2011 and ensure its enactment by 1 July 2012.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government allocate additional and continuing funding in the 2012–2013 budget to the Insurance Law Service to establish a consumer advisory position at the Financial Services Ombudsman.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government introduce legislative changes required to remove the exemption for general insurers to unfair contract terms laws, and ensure its enactment by the end of 2012.

The Committee recommends that the Australian Government empower the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to regulate claims handling and settlement of financial service providers.

To help clarify roles and responsibilities of local government for climate change adaptation, the state and Northern Territory governments should publish and maintain a comprehensive list of laws that delegate regulatory roles to local governments.

Local governments’ uncertainty about their legal liability is a barrier to effective climate change adaptation. State governments should clarify the legal liability of councils with respect to climate change adaptation matters and the processes required to manage that liability.

State and territory taxes and levies on general insurance constitute a barrier to effective adaptation to climate change. State and territory governments should phase out these taxes and replace them with less distortionary taxes.

As a priority, state and territory governments should ensure that land-use planning systems are sufficiently flexible to enable a risk management approach to incorporating climate change risks into planning decisions at the state, territory, regional and local government levels.

Reforms to address barriers to effective climate change adaptation should be assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine whether they are likely to deliver net benefits to the community. This should include consideration of any risks to their implementation.

The Council of Australian Governments should commission an independent public inquiry to develop an appropriate response to managing the risks of climate change to existing settlements. The inquiry should:

The Council of Australian Governments’ Building Ministers’ Forum should provide formal direction to the Australian Building Codes Board to:
• monitor projections of climate change risks to buildings

The Australian Government should commission an independent public review of disaster prevention and recovery arrangements. This should be broader than the review currently being conducted by the Attorney-General’s Department.

The Australian Government initiative to improve the coordination and dissemination of flood-risk information should proceed in the most cost-effective way, be regularly updated and be expanded over time to encompass other natural hazards.

The Australian Government should only proceed with reforms that require all household insurers to offer flood cover if it can be demonstrated that the benefits to the wider community would exceed the costs.

Governments should not subsidise household or business property insurance, whether directly or by underwriting risks.

Australian governments should implement policies that help the community deal with the current climate by improving the flexibility of the economy. This would also build adaptive capacity to deal with future climate change. This includes reforms to:

As part of the review of its due diligence processes, Tourism WA should ensure that:
- A minimum standard of due diligence is established that addresses the deficiencies noted in this Report.

The Department of Regional Development and Lands should ensure that event organisers and government agencies responsible for sponsoring and approving events have a greater level of awareness about the requirements of section 91 licences under the Land Administration Act 1977 (WA).

FESA, WA Police and St John Ambulance establish a uniform protocol for handling multiple agency emergency responses that does not involve callers having to make multiple calls to 000.

The Department of Sport and Recreation facilitate the development of an Adventure Activity Standard for ultramarathons in order to determine a minimum safety standard for the sport.

Department of Regional Development and Lands and Department of Environment and Conservation should consider how their respective land use approval processes can incorporate the input of Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMCs) as part of risk assessments for high risk events and adventure sp

The review of the Health Act 1911 (WA) should include the following amendments:
- enabling high risk or adventure sport activities to be subject to the events approval process currently applicable to ‘public buildings’ and;

As part of the current revision of its contract template for sponsorship agreements, Tourism WA should ensure that:

The Department of the Attorney General consider conducting a review of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (WA) in light of the 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon.

Eventscorp should ensure that organisers of events its sponsors are directed to all appropriate authorities and stakeholders to ensure the responsible, safe and efficient planning and conduct of the event.

Tourism WA must give specific regard as to whether land use approvals need to be sought, particularly from Department of Regional Development and Lands, when conducting due diligence for event sponsorship proposals that require sign off by both departments.

The Coroner’s Act 1996 should be amended to give the Coroner jurisdiction to investigate fires that do not cause death, and that the Coroner should be suitably resourced to undertake investigations of the kind the subject of this Report.

Local Emergency Management Committee (LEMC) processes should be reviewed to ensure that:
- Local government authorities, emergency service organisations, other government agencies and event organisers are made aware of the requirements of a LEMC, and that

As part of its review of its contract management processes, Tourism WA (with the Board of Tourism WA taking a lead role) should amend its contract template for event sponsorship to ensure that:

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 Attorney General gives urgent consideration to determining an ex gratia payment for:
- Miss Turia Pitt and Miss Kate Sanderson; and
- Mr Michael Hull and Mr Martin Van Der Merwe

A risk-management approach is needed which considers risks both inside the prescribed burn and the risks that will need to be managed if the fire escapes. The risk assessment should be organised and in line with the four and seven day weather.

Prescriptions should mandate consideration of measures to retire risk.

On a regional basis there would be value in closer working relationship between DEC crews and VBFBs to build mutual trust and confidence. This could be done by opportunity engagement of VBFBs in DEC fire management or through exercises.

Once a burn is ignited, it needs to be the subject of continuing risk assessment and appropriate mitigation.

The State Duty Officer from DEC and the State Duty Director, FES A need to confer whenever a Level 2 or 3 incident is declared to satisfy themselves that they have appropriate incident management structures and resources across the state are at an appropriate level of preparedness.

Contingency plans for escaping burns should be prepared in advance.

The state should progressively align on a shared platform, such as WebEO C , to establish a Common Operating Picture (COP).

There would be benefit in progressively aligning the geographic boundaries of each of the agencies and seeking to co-locate their headquarters within those boundaries.

Prescriptions need to be interpreted by experienced and knowledgeable personnel to ensure risk is fully understood. It is important that the background and justification for these decisions are captured at each stage and are visible to all levels in WA fire management hierarchy.

The state should converge on a single communications platform for all emergency management and support agencies.

The burn prescription should capture the fuel characteristics and potential rate of spread for those areas outside the burn that will likely be critical during the initial attack on any escaping fire.

Early in an incident, close and effective liaison needs to be established with local government agencies.

Legislative change may be needed to enable FES A to manage fire-fighting resources across the state.

Core ignition, particularly of red flag burns, should be informed by the 4 & 7 day forecasts (including a longer term perspective over 3 to 4 months)

The role of district and local emergency management committees should be reviewed to ensure they are appropriately engaged in the active management of emergencies across the PPR R continuum

DEC should investigate embedding an experienced forecaster in the state operations centre.

A rolling risk assessment is required which captures the risks of the burn escaping and provides adequate resources.

Web sites need to be kept updated.

Decisions taken on the basis of this risk assessment need to be captured and distributed across district and state.

A high level review of alerts, warnings and messaging is needed to match community expectations with what is practical and achievable.

Further community education may be needed on how to interpret messages.

Suitably experienced personnel with local knowledge should be connected to the Operations and Planning section in all Level 3 incidents in the vicinity of substantial settlements.

The agencies need to develop techniques to ensure accuracy of information across all media.

There needs to be a better appreciation of the role of Vehicle Control Points (VCPs) and how they are managed in bushfire emergencies by all key agencies and the community

Early resolution and clear communication of the financial and other support measures that will be available to affected residents is an important contributor to community resilience.

Local emergency management committees and planning should identify modes of community contact

When people are being moved away from their homes it’s important that they move to a place of greater safety and that their movement is relatively assured.

VCPs are one of the instruments by which the Incident Controller manages the emergency. VCPs without communications cannot be fully effective in their role. Determine and implement an appropriate communications platform for emergency management

Opportunities should be sought to embed other local government representatives in other areas of the IMT particularly in public information.

Local knowledge should be accessed to inform the placement and operation of VCPs.

Reporting and control should be through the incident chain of command, and not through agency chain of command.

There is a need for community education on how road-blocks and VCPs operate in the event of an emergency.

There should be clearly established criteria for burns which are specially challenging, and these criteria need to extend beyond the intended boundaries of the prescribed burn. The criteria should be clarified and adopted as agency S OPs.

The Minister for Emergency Services and the Minister for Local Government review and report to Parliament by May 2012 on ways in which the State’s volunteer firefighters and rescue workers can be more effectively managed and valued.

The Minister for Emergency Services and the Minister for Environment develop by December 2012 a Volunteer Charter that recognises the important work undertaken by the State’s volunteer bushfire and emergency services personnel.

The Minister for Emergency Services ensure that a whole-of-government equipment register of the firefighting equipment held by FESA, DEC and local government authorities is in place for the 2012-13 bushfire season.

The Minister for Emergency Services ensure that FESA has the funds to implement the installation and use of WebEOC for use during the 2011-12 bushfire season and immediately put in place common protocols with the Police and DEC to record significant events during a bushfire.

The Minister for Planning report to Parliament by May 2012 on the urgent actions undertaken by the Department of Planning and the Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC) to transfer responsibility for declaring bushfire prone areas to the WAPC.

The Minister for Emergency Services introduce by the 2012-13 bushfire season psychological testing of all FESA career staff and bushfire and rescue volunteers.

In implementing the Keelty Report’s Recommendation 42, the Ministers for Emergency Services and Environment jointly report to Parliament by May 2012 on the likely impacts on, and implications for, the future bushfire operations of the State Government of the drying climate in the State’s South We

The Minister for Police and Emergency Services and the Minister for the Environment report to Parliament by December each year as to the state of readiness of the main State Government agencies tasked with fighting bushfires.

The Minister for Emergency Services report to Parliament every six months on the progress made in completing all of the outstanding Recommendations of the Keelty Report.

The Minister for Emergency Services and the Minister for Local Government provide additional resources to FESA, DEC and WALGA in the 2012-13 Budget to improve the Western Australian community’s knowledge of bushfire safety and to allow these agencies to involve the public in their exercises.

At the conclusion to the 2011-12 bushfire season, the Minister for Emergency Services institute a thorough review of the operations of FESA, the Police and DEC in protecting the State from bushfires and other natural disasters, with a primary focus on: · staffing levels; · equipment levels and co

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 Minister for Emergency Services commission an independent report to Parliament by June 2012 on the best practices in other jurisdictions to increase the rate of residents likely to be effected by a bushfire who properly prepare their properties before the bushfire season.

The Minister for Local Government have urgent discussions with the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) as to why they are not supporting the full Recommendations addressed to local government in the Keelty Report.

The Minister for Emergency Services makes it a priority that the annual budgets of FESA and WA Police are sufficient to bring forward the completion dates of the current radio projects now underway.

The Minister for Emergency Services ensure that the annual budget of FESA contains the funds it requires to coordinate an annual multi-agency bushfire field exercise, alongside other desktop exercises, to be held in different regions of the State each year.

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 manage

The Minister for Emergency Services commission an independent report to Parliament by June 2012 on an assessment of the success of FESA’s Total Fire Ban community education campaign in improving the community’s knowledge on this issue.

The Minister for Emergency Services institute a thorough review by December 2012, including a comparison to other jurisdictions, of the risk analysis processes used by FESA, the Police and DEC to prepare them to protect the State from bushfires and other natural disasters.

The Minister for Environment bring to Parliament by June 2012 amendments to the Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 that reflect the use by the Department of Environment and Conservation of prescribed burns for both biodiversity conservation and community protection purposes.

The Minister for Emergency Services report to Parliament by May 2012 on the resources required to ensure a ‘One Source One Message’ multi-layered information system, as recommended by the Keelty Report, including any upgrades required for FESA’s current State Alert system.

There are a range of opportunities identified from reviewing the three fires that will improve coordination between FESA and DEC, requiring limited resources, potentially generating some efficiencies and reflecting a joint, tenure blind approach to fire management in WA.

FESA must actively manage the transition to WAERN and provide alternative means for regional crews to communicate when in areas where WAERN is not operated.

Local residents must take a degree of shared responsibility to prepare their properties by reducing the risk of bushfire around their properties and planning for a bushfire emergency.

FESA needs to place greater priority on the appointment of Safety Advisors to Level 3 incidents as is reflected in WESTPLAN Bushfire.

Noting existing legislative and policy arrangements, there is merit in considering options for the future management of Level 3 fires in Local Government areas.

Initial StateAlert messages should provide timely broad advice to a wide audience authorised by the SDD, while subsequent messages may provide more detail.