This is AIDR calling

I was extremely honoured and fortunate to share a stage with Kamal Kishore, the United Nations Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction at the second How We Survive Forum, on 2 September 2025.

Both Kamal and I spoke a lot about how the narrative around disasters needs to shift. He described disasters as potential crime scenes because we have the opportunity to prevent them but choose not to. I think we must remind ourselves that disasters are, as Ilan Kelman says, choices.

AIDR finalised the 9^th Major Incidents Report, detailing 40 incidents and 4 case studies. This was no mean feat. This year’s report involved at least 32 people, from 21 agencies. These reports are becoming increasingly challenging to produce given the year-round nature of disasters and the increasing length of time agencies need to be responding to them. Hats off to Brad Slater, Simone Dekker, Chloe Rogers, Kristy Bryden, Emily Fraser and Lisa Jaunalksnis for the work in shepherding the report to completion.

I was fortunate to participate in the National Preparedness Summit hosted by Joe Buffone and the National Emergency Management Agency. Some might ask, why is the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience there? Our handbooks form much of the doctrine on which agencies and communities plan for disaster. It's a fabulous opportunity for us to observe but also think about what we can do to improve.

As emergency management becomes more complicated and complex, we can ask ourselves ‘are the handbooks covering the right issues?’ and ‘are there other things we can do to help improve the capability of the sector to deal with these challenges?’

It’s also an excellent opportunity to network and catch up with colleagues from across the sector on a national scale.

We met with the local government associations through the Australian Local Government Association’s Emergency Management Network. This was a great opportunity for us to outline our directions, but more importantly hear about the issues that local governments across the country are facing.

The Resilience Matters webinar series continues to build a foundation set of knowledge on disaster risk reduction. This month we were pleased to have Associate Professor Bhiamie Williamson present on Indigenous resilience and early thoughts on an Indigenous resilience framework.

Next year is the 40^th anniversary of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management. We have been turning our minds to how we can celebrate this important vehicle for knowledge translation while continuing to bring you the latest in research. Stay tuned for further updates.