Page 73 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Under the ACT emergency plan is the elevated bushfire danger plan, which outlines our whole-of-government arrangements for days of elevated fire danger. The government also has an ACT recovery plan which assists those affected by bushfire. Our emergency management arrangements are regularly tested through major annual exercises along with other smaller exercises more frequently. An incident controllers workshop involving levels 2 and 3 incident controllers was held on 8 October last year, and an incident management exercise was held from 13 to 15 October last year involving over 150 ESA personnel in all incident management roles over four shifts. This exercise was supported by New South Wales Rural Fire Service and NSW South Wales Fire & Rescue, reflecting the strength of our cross-border arrangements.
The ACT also has a high level of sophistication in relation to our public information and community warnings. Our approach to messaging through the single point of truth, or SPOT, app has been recognised nationally and by the United Nations as an innovative and considered approach to ensuring effective messaging to our community.
Our messaging capability is bolstered by a wide range of memorandums of understanding with local media outlets. Since 2013 our community warnings have improved with the development of the national telephone emergency warning system, known as emergency alert, which allows phone and text messages to be sent to people in targeted, geographic areas providing them with warnings or advice. We most recently tested the emergency alert system around Black Mountain in late 2015 and demonstrated the level of assistance it provides in our suite of community warnings.
Turning to the issue of levels of resourcing and effective management that mitigate the risk, the government has provided an ongoing financial commitment towards bushfire management in the territory. The government announced an additional $9.2 million in funding over four years to reduce the ACT’s vulnerability to bushfire as part of the most recent budget. Our levels of funding over the past seven years were reported in the bushfire risk management section of the JACS annual report. The new funding provides a more sustainable level of funding for bushfire mitigation activities going forward. The government is also investing in our emergency services with funding being provided to upgrade the territory radio network as well as to upgrade stations and facilities.
In addition to new funding, ESA is implementing a range of strategic reforms to improve the way it does business, including a restructure of its executive to better support emergency services managing risk, to undertake planning and to develop their people. A number of strategic projects are also being supported by the commonwealth’s national bushfire mitigation program, and these are also outlined in the Justice and Community Safety Directorate annual report.
These projects include validating our bushfire-prone area mapping and educating the community around bushfire-prone areas and construction standards. The government anticipates that a small amount of grant funding will be available for rural leaseholders in 2016 to assist them to undertake minor improvements to their properties to support their bushfire mitigation activities.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video