Conducting a risk assessment of disaster recovery plans for key business systems.

Documenting results and recommendations from disaster recovery tests.

Upskilling IT resources through disaster recovery testing or formal training.

The chairpersons of disaster management groups within the Townsville Disaster District, supported by the Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and the Queensland Reconstruction Authority develop a district action plan based on the capability enhancement strategy. 

This report be returned to the InspectorGeneral Emergency Management to monitor, evaluate and report on progress and implementation of the recommendation(s) that are accepted in whole or in part by government. 

To enable entities to have a shared understanding of forecast information for dam failure events during a flood, including flood wave travel time, speed and height, Emergency Action Plans contain protocols and responsibilities of relevant stakeholders for these aspects. 

To increase shared understanding of risks and enhance capability integration and collaborative planning, both Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) participate in the exercising of the Paradise Dam Emergency Action Plan. 

To enable the community to have a shared understanding of risks and enhance community engagement, flood scenarios in Emergency Action Plans be published, and in a format that can be utilised by public mapping systems. 

To increase understanding of hazards and manage risks, dam failure for Paradise Dam be included as a separate risk within the North Burnett Local Disaster Management Plan (LDMP). 

To enable the community to make informed choices about disaster management, Bundaberg and North Burnett regional councils and Sunwater undertake a community-informed audible test of the Paradise Dam siren. 

To increase shared understanding of risks, ensure the coordination of plans and manage risks, dam failure for Paradise Dam be included as a separate risk within the Bundaberg District Disaster Management Plan (DDMP). 

To increase shared understanding of risks, enable coordinated plans and collaboratively engage with downstream community members, residents listed within a dam EAP be identified by the Local Government Area (LGA) they reside in. 

To enable the community to make informed choices about disaster management, and act on them, a joint Sunwater/council community engagement program be conducted to prepare the community downstream from Paradise Dam for events in the 2019/2020 storm and cyclone season, including the possibility of

To enhance shared capacity and collaboratively manage risk, the Chair of the Bundaberg DDMG use the QERMF process to determine if dam failure for Paradise Dam should be reported as a residual risk in this instance due to known changes in the risk profile to:

To enable the community to make informed choices about disaster management, and act on them, Sunwater develop and deliver a sustainable long-term communication strategy on the community safety issues and
risk profile connected with Paradise Dam. This is to be:

To ensure enhanced capability integration and enable timely community messaging Bundaberg LDMG in consultation with Sunwater develop additional Emergency Alerts and associated polygons for a Paradise Dam failure and load these on to the disaster management portal. 

To enable the casual/itinerant worker and tourism sector, including those who do not have English as a first language, to make informed choices about disaster management, community engagement and communication strategies about Paradise Dam and floods in the Burnett river system be tailored to thi

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.

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

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

To enable entities in the sector to proactively work to achieve better results for the community, the recommendations and lessons of this review should be evaluated through the lessons management processes of entities involved in dam safety for their value and relevance. 

09-Community education/engagement/preparedness

The state’s arrangements for disaster management, including recovery, are articulated in the Disaster Management Act (2003), the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Act (2011), the State Disaster Management Plan and the Queensland Recovery Plan.

Recovery plans at all levels should include transition arrangements. They should be implemented during recovery. The arrangements should:
a. allow for the fluid and overlapping nature of phases of disaster management.

State arrangements for on-the-ground support to recovering local governments should be in line with Queensland’s disaster management arrangements, and ensure the best balance between local relationships, suitable capability and sufficient capacity.

The basic capacity needs of each functional recovery group and how this can be scaled up should be identified.

Greater clarity about responsibilities for recovery at the community, local, and district levels should be considered in any future review of the Disaster Management Act (2003).

Practical guidance on what community-led recovery means, and how it can be best implemented should be captured and shared with all who have responsibility for it.

There remains a need to maximise the effect of all offers of assistance to recovering communities. This recommendation presents an opportunity to resolve any outstanding aspects of Recommendation 4 and Actions in Response from the Cyclone Debbie Review Action Plan:

The Department of Housing and Public Works should be included within Local Disaster Management Group evacuation centre planning and plans and assist with decision making around the relocation of evacuees from evacuation centres.

Councils, with the support of stakeholders, continue to develop and promote local disaster dashboards as the ‘point of truth’ for community information and messaging during disaster events. Greater use during recovery should be considered. 

Energy Queensland and local groups consider establishing formal arrangements that embed measures that assist evacuation plans to increase levels of safety. 

Councils should formalise arrangements with entities that have the skills, capability and capacity to effectively manage spontaneous volunteers. These should be documented and integrated into planning and exercising.

As part of the annual Emergency Action Plan review for the Ross River Dam, consideration should be given to the potential impacts of operating the gate outside automatic mode and whether this event has provided any new information and learnings which can be incorporated into the Emergency Action

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

The provision of system-wide tools, education, guidance and testing for requests for assistance is strengthened to enhance understanding and outcomes.

Greater emphasis be placed on pre-planned and pre-determined arrangements between the Australian Defence Force and State and local agencies.

Local groups should plan for and establish clear arrangements to effectively manage offers of assistance including the management of goods, services and volunteers. 

Further work be undertaken to develop effective public flood risk messaging and community education materials that are easy to understand and tested with the community to ensure flood risk is understood. 

The progress of recovery for this event be reviewed incrementally over the next 2 to 3 years, with a formal, independent report provided on the effectiveness of the recovery after 3 years.

State Government agencies with key roles and responsibilities around disaster recovery provide increased support in the development of recovery at the local level (pre-event). 

Evacuation centre plans be revised to better manage vulnerable persons, including the safe storage of medications and providing alternate arrangements for evacuees with additional needs. (e.g. evacuation centre for aged persons). 

Entities with disaster management responsibilities need to integrate the eight priorities identified within the Emergency Management Sector Adaptation Plan for Climate Change into their disaster management planning cycle.

Exercising should focus on vertical integration and include all levels of the system. A strategic program of exercises should be developed and implemented.

The operation and maintenance of flood gauges should be developed and planned for on a catchment basis.

Significant effort should be invested to provide disaster decision-makers at every level with a shared understanding of risks, the situation, and capability, so that they can agree on the best decisions for the communities they serve. 

Queensland should examine the feasibility of the installation of storm tide markers in prominent public places and the exploration of new technology to highlight storm tide risk to the community and its visitors. 

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

Fatigue management strategies and guidance should be improved to ensure sustainable staffing practices are incorporated into disaster management planning.

A strategy should be developed between the key tourism and transport operators, and local and state government. It should address the arrival of visitors and tourists after a disaster, and should ensure that their arrival matches communities’ needs for recovery and return to normal business.

The provision of system-wide education, guidance and testing to enhance requests for Assistance is strengthened.

Efforts are made to improve the timeliness, accuracy and targeting of Emergency Alert messaging by:
 • educating the sector about how Emergency Alert works in detail, and involving them in its testing.

Business continuity planning should feature permanently in disaster management doctrine.

The Queensland Offers of Assistance Policy, particularly for corporate donations, should be updated and exercised prior to the next season. 

Queensland should implement and maintain a system-wide lesson management program.

The Queensland Chief Health Officer should work with the Office of the Inspector-General Emergency Management to raise, with the Commonwealth, the need for all aged care providers to plan and exercise for evacuation to a similar safe establishment.

Planning and warnings for storm tide should be based on modelling that shows the chances of an event occurring (probabilistic).

Relevant authorities should work with the tourism sector to clarify future arrangements for evacuation. In particular they should look closely at differentiating voluntary and directed evacuations in their messaging,

Principles, applicable to all tourist budgets, covering liabilities for costs and shelter in the event of evacuation should be developed and promulgated as part of tourism marketing.

A strategy should be developed to improve the availability of information to decision-makers and other audiences. Information should be searchable, more specific, timely, and allow stake-holders to find what they want.

A Local Government Association of Queensland representative should be included on the Crisis Communications Network to enhance the delivery of consistent information across and between levels of government.

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

Queensland's plans and arrangements for heatwave should be reviewed to provide for an intergrated multi-agency approach to their management. A single agency should lead and oversee this process.

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.

Wherever possible, the antecedents that will lead to catastrophic fire weather conditions existing for a particular area should be identified and documented within fire management plan relevant to the area.  

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.

Legislation at state and local level requiring landholders to reduce fire risk on their property should be actively applied

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

Given an increasing risk of intense fires, the framework of legislation relating to vegetation management, bushfire mitigation and preparation priorities should be re-assessed.

Hazard-specific and disaster management guidelines and plans should explain the circumstances and process for hazard-specific activation of the disaster management arrangements in support of an incident.

The national messages for catastrophic fire danger ratings should be integrated with all existing and new community bushfire safety information. 

Hazard-specific plans and guidelines should be published on external websites for access by relevant stakeholders.

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

Communications protocols about hazard-specific events should be developed to clarify responsibilities and the principles for the release of information and warnings. They should be included in all related hazard-specific plans and published on relevant websites, and used during events.

Planning for response to bushfire risk should identify all stakeholders to be engaged in the response phase and their roles and responsibilities should be clearly documented.

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

Clear public messaging regarding risks (if any) from the use of suppressants, including to 'organic' producers, should be developed and socialised before the next fire season and be readily available for dissemination when needed.

The future risk of bushfires to Queensland communities should be re-evaluated as part of the 2020 State Risk Assessment in light of recent and emerging science, events and lessons.

Targeted education about the short- and long-term effects of chemical suppressants should reach those likely to be exposed to them before aerial chemical suppressants are used in Queensland again.

The outputs of these capabilities should be shared and actively inform the disaster management sector, including response operations and the creation of warnings and public messaging.

All disaster management groups should run an exercise that has full involvement of a hazard-specific primary agency in the next 12 months and regularly thereafter.

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.

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.

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

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.

Retain the Bushfires Council as a Ministerial advisory body.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.