Some emergency responders confirmed on Friday that they received key recommendations from the report relevant to them and will review those findings.
Former prime minister Gladys Berejiklian created the disaster management agency in response to the Black Summer bushfires, installing Fitzsimmons as its head. It has since faced scrutiny over its role, budget and employee-related expenses totaling $38.5 million for 245 employees.
But former fire chief and climate advocate Greg Mullins said Resilience NSW didn’t get off to the easiest start. After being formed on May 1, 2020, the disaster agency was forced to begin operations immediately, coordinating recovery after the wildfires. It was then forced to respond to major floods and a COVID-19 pandemic.
Mullins said when the disaster agency was formed there were many former emergency leaders who supported the move. “It was the first state government to recognize catastrophes out of scale due to climate change,” he said.
But he said the agency had a massive mission: ensuring resilience and recovery. “Both are very difficult long-term jobs. Our concern is this dumping [the agency] after two years and blaming the boss could put us behind the eight ball as we have more and more back-to-back disasters.”
NSW has battled two years of back-to-back disasters, including bushfires, a pandemic and floods. Credit: Nick Moir
Mullins said the new approach to resilience will need closer inspection once the report is released publicly, but many former emergency services commissioners will be prepared to be highly critical of its findings if they feel the approach does not do enough to prepare communities. But Mullins, like many others, continues to support Fitzsimmons and said he was the best person for the job.
“They’d better have a good reason to miss out on the experience of someone of his caliber. . . . Good luck finding someone better, they won’t.”
Former ACT Emergency Services Authority commissioner Peter Dunn said the approach to resilience and recovery needed to be community-led rather than the centralized approach that had been favored by the government He was concerned that recommendations to appoint a new police commissioner risked further centralizing the disaster agency and taking control away from communities.
“We’ve gone in exactly the wrong direction with the wrong lessons and prepared for the wrong disasters,” he said.
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Dunn suggested more funding was needed to put communities in control of how they would prepare for and respond to natural disasters. The Productivity Commission estimated last year that 97% of disaster funding goes to recovery and clean-up, while only 3% goes to community preparedness, mitigation and resilience.
City of Lismore councilor Elly Bird said the community’s experience with Resilience NSW after floods had been a mixed bag. He praised the efforts of officers on the ground who had done their best to help the community, but said there had been frustrating experiences where bureaucracy had delayed urgent help.
For example, in the days after the floods, Bird said one organization offered 1000 volunteers to help with cleanup and recovery efforts, but Resilience NSW had to grant permission. Despite his best efforts, Bird was unable to obtain the necessary approvals. He said another model of adaptation, preparedness and resilience should be used.
“The model of outside agencies coming into a community and telling it what to do is fundamentally flawed,” he said. “Even before Resilience NSW existed, the best approach in an emergency is community lead recovery. But during many events, the government does not seem to understand or be able to enable an effective response from the community leadership.
“A dollar spent in the community is far more effective than a dollar poured into government. We need to give resources to communities because communities will respond first and will always step up to support themselves and each other to recover “.
The inquiry’s findings will also recommend that responsibilities such as emergency accommodation in evacuation centers should be assigned to the Department for Communities and Justice, which has day-to-day experience of dealing with people in crisis. Increased funding will be critical to support this, the report says.
The office that replaces Resilience NSW should focus on response in the first 100 days after a disaster. Other recommendations in the report will include strategies to address the future management of flood-prone areas.
The report and the government’s response will be released publicly later this year.
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