•INSIDE THIS ISSUE•• ANHMC 2015 HIGHLIGHTS • 2–5

• WA2015 RESILIENT AUSTRALIA AWARDS CEREMONY • 6

• AMENDMENT TO THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS • 8

• NEW DEMC LOGOS LAUNCHED• 9

Volume 2 Issue 4 – oCToBeR 2015

SEMC SECRETARIAT

20 Southport Street, West Leederville WA 6007

T. (08) 9482 1700

W. www.semc.wa.gov.au

E. semc.secretariat@semc.wa.gov.au

E. Communications Coordinator: publications@semc.wa.gov.au

SEMC NEWS

SEMC–ORGANISED NATURAL HAZARDS CONFERENCE AN OUTSTANDING SUCCESS The 8th Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference (ANHMC 2015), which was organised by the State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) Secretariat, has been hailed as a resounding success. See page 2–5 for our ANHMC 2015 highlights.

Image: The Minister for Emergency Services the Hon. Joe Francis MLA delivering the opening address at the Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference in Perth.

• STATE RISK PROJECT DISTRICT ROLL OUT UPDATE • 10

• MAKING A STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARATION •11

• SOUTH WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

ALLIANCE (SWLGEMA) CONFERENCE • 11

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Michael Utsler’s keynote address on the Deepwater Horizon disaster response and recovery.

The 8th Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference (ANHMC 2015), which was organised by the State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) Secretariat, has been hailed as a resounding success.

Over 200 delegates attended the main two-day conference held at the University Club of Western Australia, while over 260 attendees participated in the eight workshops (seven of which were held at the SEMC offices) and the bushfire field trip (Perth Hills). The organisers of ANHMC 2015 wish to thank ALL conference and workshop presenters for sharing their latest thinking, research, science and expertise with delegates during the course of the five-day event. Day one of the main conference commenced with a traditional Welcome to Country by Noongar Elder Dr Richard Walley, followed by opening speeches by the Minister for Emergency Services the Hon. Joe Francis

ANHMC HIGHLIGHTS MLA and the SEMC Chair Frank Edwards CSC. Other highlights from the opening day of the conference included: Heather Taylor’s (SEMC Secretariat) keynote address on the conference theme of risk, capability and impact; Jon Mitchell’s (Joint Centre for Disaster Research) presentation “Assessing the effectiveness of disaster response coordination training in disaster response”; Tony Spicer’s (WA Health) insightful presentation “Health impacts of heatwaves: the relationship between heatwave intensity and health service utilisation”; The special forum to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, with panel members consisting of Prof. Carmen Lawrence (UWA), Erin Fuery (Australian Red Cross), Dr. Anne Garland (Applied Research in Environmental Sciences Nonprofit, Inc.) and Dr. Michael Rumsewicz (Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC).Michael Utsler’s captivating keynote address on the Deepwater Horizon disaster response

and recovery was a significant highlight on day two of the conference. Other day two highlights included:Kevin Fenaughty’s (GNS Science) presentation “Discovering the impact of geological hazards”; Sarb Johal’s (Joint Centre for Disaster Research) fascinating analysis of the “Impact of the Canterbury earthquakes on mental health care professionals’ capability to deliver services during recovery”; Loretta van Gasselt’s (Department of Planning) presentation on the development of bushfire prone mapping and bushfire risk management planning; and Veronique Florec’s (UWA) revealing presentation “Economic analysis of prescribed burning in the south-west of Western Australia”.The workshop series covered a range of emergency management/natural hazard subjects: Western Australian emergency risk management (SEMC Secretariat); Economics of natural hazard mitigation (UWA); Lessons identified from emergency events (Auckland University of Technology); New Zealand emergency management reform; Disaster impact and risk mapping and modelling tools (NIWA); Improving mitigation decision-making (Risk Frontiers); and Animal welfare emergency management (Massey University). ANHMC 2015’s concluding event was the “classroom in a coach” bushfire risk management field trip to the Perth Hills,

which proved to be both highly educational and insightful. Special thanks to the field trip hosts - the Office of Bushfire Risk Management (OBRM) and the Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) - as well as the detailed and complex multi-agency expertise provided by: Bruce Telfer (OBRM), Keith Low (DPaW), Michael Pasotti (DPaW) and volunteer firefighter Rod Eyre. Next year’s iteration of the Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference has been announced. The event will be taking place 1-3 June 2016 in Wellington, New Zealand.

The Minister for Emergency Services the Hon. Joe Francis MLA delivering the conference’s opening address.

State Emergency Management Committee’s (SEMC) Chair Frank Edwards’ CSC opening address was delivered to a packed auditorium of over 200 delegates.

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ANHMC 2015 PHOTO GALLERY... CONFERENCE, WORKSHOPS AND FIELD TRIP: 12–16 OCTOBER 2015

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WA AWARDS CEREMONY HELD FOR THE 2015 RESILIENT AUSTRALIA AWARDSThe Resilient Australia Awards WA state ceremony was held on 14 October 2015. The event took place during the 8th Australasian Natural Hazards Management Conference 2015 at The University Club of Western Australia where the Hon. Joe Francis MLA, Minister for Emergency Services, Corrective Services, Small Business and Veterans, presented trophies to the winners. The independent judges considered a strong pool of applications—the judges commented that it was difficult to select the best entries. In addition to the two category winners, two entries were selected to receive a Highly Commended award. The state winner of the People’s Choice photography award was also announced at the ceremony.The state winners have been included in the next round of the awards—the national winners will be announced later in the year.

Winners:

State and Local Government Award Category:

City of Mandurah – Beyond the Gate, Aged Care Emergency Support Network

Community Award Category:

Australian Red Cross – The Pillowcase Project

Photography Award – People’s Choice:

Kyle Nowak – WA Southwest Communities Under Threat

Highly Commended Awards:

State and Local Government Award Category:

City of Greater Geraldton – Operation Barndi Mara

City of Cockburn – Disaster Aware

Full details of the winning and highly commended projects are available on the SEMC website.

The Photography Award – People’s Choice awarded to Kyle Nowak’s “WA Southwest Communities Under Threat.”

The Resilient Australia Awards 2015 WA award winners pictured with the Minister for Emergency Services the Hon. Joe Francis MLA and the SEMC Chair Frank Edwards CSC.

The Resilient Australia Awards is an Australian Government initiative sponsored by the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, in conjunction with States and Territories. The State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) Secretariat is the Western Australian awards convenor on behalf of the Minister for Emergency Services.

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AMENDMENT TO THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DISTRICTSOn 25 August 2015, the Minister endorsed a proposal to amend the Emergency Management Districts Order 2006 and gazetted this Order on the 13 October 2016 in accordance with Section 28 of the Emergency Management Act 2005.This amendment has altered the seven metropolitan emergency management (EM) districts to four metropolitan districts and amended the district of Great Southern to include the Shire of Boddington. All Perth Airport land is deemed to be

within the East Metropolitan district for the purposes of EM.The Emergency Management Districts Amendment Order 2015 represents the culmination of a comprehensive review of the metropolitan EM districts outlined in SEMC’s report Review of Emergency Management Districts-Perth and Surrounds. The table below indicates the amended metropolitan districts and the local governments now contained within each district.

District Local Government

City of Joondalup City of Stirling City of Wanneroo

Town of BassendeanCity of BayswaterTown of Cambridge Town of ClaremontTown of CottesloeShire of KalamundaShire of MundaringCity of NedlandsCity of PerthCity of SubiacoTown of Mosman ParkTown of Peppermint GroveCity of SwanCity of VincentCity of Armadale City of BelmontCity of CanningCity of GosnellsCity of South PerthShire of Serpentine-JarrahdaleTown of Victoria ParkCity of CockburnTown of East FremantleCity of FremantleCity of KwinanaCity of MandurahCity of MelvilleShire of MurrayCity of RockinghamRottnest IslandShire of Waroona

NEW DEMC LOGOS LAUNCHEDThe SEMC Secretariat has recently undertaken a collaborative project to create District Emergency Management Committee (DEMC) badging.

Each emergency management (EM) district now has its own logo which can be used for DEMC initiated communication.

The logos are part of a bigger project to help standardise tools and resources used at district level, while increasing the identity of individual DEMCs.

These logos will be heavily used in DEMC communications and will be key to accessing

relevant district information on the new SEMC website, to be launched at the end of the year.

In the future, information relevant to a specific district will have its own place on the SEMC website. These logos will make it easy to find the information relevant to you and your community.

The logo reflects the collaborative nature of DEMCs by using 11 bars to represent the 11 EM districts and abstractly represents the shape of Western Australia.

The new DEMC logos for each emergency management district.

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STATE RISK PROJECT DISTRICT ROLLOUT UPDATE The State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) State Risk Project’s district rollout is continuing to gather steam, with a number of risk assessment workshops taking place throughout 2015, and more workshops scheduled in the upcoming months. The next scheduled workshops are:• South-West district: 27 October - Storm

hazard• Wheatbelt district: 11 November -

Earthquake and Rail Crash hazards• Goldfields-Esperance: 18 November -

Bushfire and Marine Transport Emergency hazards

The district rollout will continue in the South-West and Goldfields-Esperance into 2016 with risk assessments also set to commence for the remaining districts: Pilbara, Midwest-Gascoyne and Metropolitan.

BACKGROUNDIn May 2015 the State Risk Project moved into a new phase of assessing risk at a district level, following the emergency management boundaries as designated in State Emergency Management Policy 2.4. The district rollout of the State Risk Project, which is being done in parallel with ongoing State-level risk assessments, is initially assessing the risks posed to each district from their five priority hazards. Over time, this may be followed by assessments of the remaining relevant prescribed hazards.Since May 2015 the following risk assessment workshops have been carried out by the State Risk Project team:

Great Southern workshops: • July: Marine Oil Pollution and Animal and

Plant Biosecurity hazards• May and June: Storm, Flood, Bushfire and

Earthquake hazards

Kimberley:• September: Bushfire hazard• August: Human Epidemic and Road

Transport Emergency hazards• July: Cyclone and Flood hazards

Wheatbelt: • August: Bushfire hazard• May: Storm and Flood hazards

Goldfields-Esperance • September: Storm and Earthquake hazards

South-West: • September: Bushfire hazard

The local level rollout of the State Risk Project is currently under development and is likely to commence from approximately mid-2016.

Making a State of Emergency DeclarationDID YOU KNOW?...

In our last newsletter, we examined the benefits of making an emergency situation declaration in order to access the powers of Part 6 of the Emergency Management Act 2005 (EM Act).An emergency situation, which may be declared by the relevant hazard management agency, or the State Emergency Coordinator (SEC), enables hazard management officers to exercise significant emergency powers.However, where an incident is of such a magnitude that it requires additional, extraordinary emergency powers, there is the option of making a State of Emergency Declaration.A State of Emergency is declared by the Minister on the advice of the SEC, where the Minister is satisfied that:• he/she has considered the advice of the SEC;• an emergency has occurred, is occurring or is imminent; and• extraordinary powers are required to

prevent loss of life, or destruction of or damage to property or the environment.These extraordinary powers, available under Division 2 of Part 6 of the EM Act, are in addition to the emergency powers available under an emergency situation declaration and include, but are not limited to:• the power to direct public authorities;• entering or breaking into a place or vehicle in an emergency area;• searching, removing, dismantling, demolishing or destroying any premises or vehicle;• containing, removing or destroying an animal or substance; and• disconnecting or taking and using any fuel, gas, electricity or water.These powers are exercisable by authorised officers; authorised by the SEC under Section 61 of the EM Act.Although the State has had the ability to make a State of emergency declaration since 2005, to date, this provision has never been used.

LATEST EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE UNDERLINES THEME OF LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONOn Friday 28 August 2015 the South West Local Government Emergency Management Alliance (SWLGEMA) hosted the latest in its series of emergency management conferences. Consistent with its mission of promoting opportunities for collaboration within the South West region, the conference theme was “Local Partners in Risk Management - A Collaborative Journey”.Speakers from around the nation spoke on their experiences on a range of topics, centred around the impacts of climate change, on emergency risk management for this region.The conference was supported by the SEMC Secretariat through an AWARE Grant,

among other funding sources.

The keynote address was from Glenn Cook from the Bureau of Meteorology. Glenn spoke about the likely changes to our weather from the short, medium and long term perspectives.

He also highlighted the likely impacts that these scenarios may have on the frequency and impact of natural hazards upon our south western communities. This discussion then formed the basis for the remaining speakers.

For information on SWLGEMA, the latest conference, speaker notes and the questions and answers from the plenary sessions, please visit the SWLGEMA website: www.swlgema.com.