Terrorism, natural disasters have similar national impacts

TONY PEARCE, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia

Natural disasters are as big an issue as terrorism in the national security context, says Tony Pearce, Director-General of Emergency Management Australia (EMA).

“Natural disasters have very similar impacts, on the economy, the psychology of the nation, on the business sector and on communities generally,” he says in an interview.

Mr Pearce, who is to address the National Security Australia 2009 conference in Sydney in March, says EMA has two roles in managing risks to the community and environment.

“We have the pre-emergency phase where we work with communities, governments, schools and others on identifying risks and developing strategies, publications and education programs to assist in reducing community risk . This also includes coordinating and administering the Australian Government funded Natural Disaster Mitigation Program.

“In the event of an emergency where a state or a territory needs assistance above it’s own capacity, we coordinate the Australian Government response to the emergency and work with the aeffected jurisdiction.”

One objective of EMA is to develop ‘community resilience’, “trying to get the community to a situation where it’s able to bounce back from adversity”.

“It means communities working with government in partnership. It’s the government working with the private sector and non-government organisations in a collective sense to have people understand their risk, to be able to deal with the event and once the issue’s past, to be able to recover from it.”

Mr Pearce says that in his address he will look at the concept of ‘all hazards’ emergency management — the terrorism event as well as natural disasters and the similarities.

“I want to look at the potential consequences of the future risks we’re facing, such as climate change and adapting to climate change and how that’s going to impact on Emergency Management’s response.

“I’ll also look at some lessons we’ve identified from recent events and the community resilience issue.”

www.nationalsecurityaus.com

To arrange a media pass, request more information or arrange speaker interviews at the National Security Australia 2009 conference please contact: Nigel Dique
Informa-IIR 02 9080 4108; 0423 024 819; nigel.dique@informa.com.au

Long dry periods ahead for Murray

Additional water allocations are welcome, but Murray Darling communities will need to plan for extended dry periods, says Murray Darling Basin Commission CEO Wendy Craik.

Ms Craik paints a grim picture of low storages and low inflows, lower than any previous drought, “lower than the federation drought or the 40s drought”, and of forecast increased temperatures and changed rainfall patterns.

“This [drought] certainly appears to be related to climate change and it’s certainly different from previous droughts,” she says in an interview.

“What we need to do is plan for an environment where what we’re seeing now might be what we might see most of the time in the future, and only occasionally see a flood coming through the system.”

Ms Craik is a keynote speaker at The Regional Water Conference on 20-21 October in Albury.

To bring the Murray fully back to life will require rainfall “of biblical proportions,” she says.

Commenting on the purchase by the Commonwealth of Toorale Station near Bourke, and other property purchases, Ms Craik says: “By itself it won’t do a great deal, but overall it’s going to add to increasing the amount of water for the environment and the general health of the system.”

The water allocations recently gifted by the Queensland Government are also welcome for the environment, she says.

Regarding action to de-stress the system, Ms Craik says: “I think it’s very difficult for humans to do much more than what they’re already doing.

“Communities are already on quite severe water restrictions and minimum volumes are being provided for stock and domestic. There’s only a little bit of water for the environment so we’re making sure we provide enough for people first.

“I guess the only other thing is, and we’re seeing this as well, irrigators who decide they have some water left over that either they don’t want to use or [want to] put away for next year, are donating that for the environment. But above that there’s not a lot else people can do.”

She says that there is no doubt that at some time in the future it will rain again and there will be a flood, “but all the predictions tend to suggest that climate change might be with us, or a changed climate might be with us, for some time to come.”

Further information: http://www.iir.com.au/regionalwater

Comprehensive agenda for Mining the Territory

The Mining the Territory conference in Darwin on 14-15 October in Darwin will provide an opportunity to debate the big challenges and opportunities in developing NT resources.

Northern Territory Resources Council CEO Scott Perkins says one of the big issues is the infrastructure necessary to support very remote operations, along with the interface between transport systems.

“During the conference you’ll hear discussion about the port, road-rail infrastructure and the interconnections,” he says.

Mr Perkins says he’s pleased to see Dr Ian Scrimgeour, the Director of the NT Geological Survey head up the program.

“After more than 100 years of exploration, we have a fair idea of the true potential of NT mineral resources,” he says.

“But we are going to find out a lot more, with Dr Scrimgeour driving a program of geophysical surveys.”

Dr Scrimgeour’s address will be on ‘Unlocking the greenfields exploration potential of the Territory’.

“There’s enough in the program for everyone to get what they want out of it,” says Mr Perkins.

“It’s an opportunity for people to assess for themselves the very great opportunities that are available here, the great resources that back up those opportunities in the form of local companies and local people, and we hope they can see a way of investing in our great Territory.”

Visit http://www.iir.com.au/territory.