Victoria has released the  Final Report of the Review of the 2010-11 Flood Warnings and Response, conducted by Neil Comrie.

 

The 2010-11 Flood Warnings and Response Review examined:

  • the adequacy of flood predictions and modelling;
  • the timeliness and effectiveness of warnings and public information;
  • emergency services command and control arrangements;
  • the adequacy of evacuations of people most at-risk, including those in health and aged-care facilities;
  • the adequacy of clean-up and recovery efforts;
  • the adequacy of service delivery by federal, state and local governments; and
  • the adequacy of funding provided by state and federal governments for emergency grants

 

The review outlined the need for reform in four key areas

  • roles and responsibilities for flood planning, modelling, warnings and clean-up needs to be clarified;
  • improvement and auditing of emergency management planning at state, regional and local levels;
  • an 'all hazards, all agencies' approach to emergency management must be adopted for operational purposes; and
  • greater community involvement in managing risks and planning for emergencies.

 

"This will be a good feed-in to that process and we're certainly active in making submissions and so on on the structure review. My expectation is we'll have a much stronger emergency management model," Mr Comrie told the ABC.

 

The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has announced a new policy position on the future role of councils in emergency management.

 

The policy outlines the principles for future roles of councils in emergency management, while arguing that  risk and variation in council capacity need to be taken into account in the State, regional and local emergency management arrangements.

 

The position forms the MAV’s submission he the Towards a a More Resilient and Safer Victoria Green Paper.

 

The full copy of the review can be found here

 

The full policy position can be found here