Australian Disaster Resilience Conference 2022

Speaker profiles

Speakers and panels

Explore the people and presentations coming to the 2022 Australian Disaster Resilience Conference.

Conference presentations | Day 1

8.30am	Opening Ceremony
9.15am	KEYNOTE: Dr Gill Hicks AM MBE
10.00am	KEYNOTE: Jim Pauley
10.45am	Morning tea and poster Session
	COMMUNITY AND COLLABORATION	RECOVERY REVISITED
11.50am	PANEL: Collaborating for resilience: multicultural communities and emergency management Amanda Leck, Emergency Management Victoria (moderator), Thuch Ajak United Africa Farm, Ms Selba-Gondoza Luka, Afri-Aus Care Inc. & Ms Veema Mooniapah, Multicultural Emergency Management	Who is worst off after a disaster? Dr Kate Brady, University of Melbourne
12.20pm		The disaster fatigue of community leaders: a case study A/Prof Valerie Ingham, Charles Sturt University
12.50pm	What does community led resilience mean, and how can it be achieved? Prof David Sanderson, University of New South Wales	Disasters on disasters: finding best practice in communities affected by multiple disasters Dr Claire Leppold, University of Melbourne
1.20pm	Lunch and poster session
	BUSINESS INNOVATION	KANGAROO ISLAND
2.20pm	PANEL: Innovative partnerships for community resilience Soraya Dean, NAB (facilitator), Liz Mackinlay, Australian Business Volunteers, Kate Cotter, Bushfire Building Council of Australia, David Macdermott, Australian Red Cross	Holly McCoy, Community Legal Centres SA and Community Justice Services SA and Jade Hinton, Kangaroo Island community member
2.50pm		Listening and learning on Kangaroo Island: supporting community resilience through post-emergency engagement Peta O'Donohue, South Australian Country Fire Service, Fiona Dunstan, Bureau of Meteorology
3.20pm	Piloting a resilience investment vehicle Jack Pollock, NAB, Lee McDougall, IAG	Bushfires and businesses: not if, but when Jennifer McDonnell, WSP, Sue Arlidge, Regional Development Australia, Fiona Jago, Western KI Caravan Park & Wildlife Reserve
3.50pm	Break
	PLANNING PERILS AND PATHWAYS	RESILIENCE AND SOCIETY
4.30pm	Land-use planning for bushfire: 12 years of reforms in Victoria Kevin Hazell	'I thought you were more of a man than that': men and disasters Dr Deb Parkinson, Gender and Disaster Australia
5.00pm	NSW strategic guide to planning for natural hazards Felicity Greenway, NSW Department of Planning and Environment	The effects of information disorder on societal resilience Robert Muller, Torrens Resilience Initiative
5.30pm

Conference presentations | Day 2

8.30am	KEYNOTE: Lucas Patchett OAM and Nic Marchesi OAM
9.15am	KEYNOTE: Dr Niki Vincent
10.00am	Morning tea and poster Session
	ENGAGEMENT TO CATALYSE CHANGE	CHILDREN, YOUTH AND DISASTER
11.10am	Let's do more than talk about weather Fiona Dunstan, Bureau of Meteorology	PANEL: Understanding the educator's role in supporting children following a disaster Ben Rogers, Emerging Minds, Jess Moroney, Stirling East Primary, Louise Taheny, Yorketown Community Children's Centre, Nik Edwards, Be You
11.40am	Developing the Second National Action Plan Jacqui Cristiano, National Recovery and Resilience Agency
12.10pm	DRR: are we brave enough? Iain Mackenzie, Unearth	Ensuring people have 'a seat at the table' Carla Hall and Quinn Obran, Youth Affairs Council Victoria
12.40pm	Lunch
	CLIMATE AND DISASTER RISK	COMMUNITY PREPAREDNESS
1.50pm	Regional climate action. It's not rocket science to remember to include social science! Nina Keath, City of Onkaparinga	Insights and learnings from NRMA Insurance - driving preparedness action at scale Georgia Whitbread, Jennifer Cobley and Anna Jackson, IAG
2.20pm	Finding alignment between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaption: Pacific perceptions, practice and policy Beth Eggleston, Humanitarian Advisory Group	Evaluating a data driven, behaviour change design approach for bushfire preparedness Danielle Teychenne, Firethrive
2.50pm	Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy	Strengthening disaster resilience: Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) for people with disability Angela Cook and Kelly Stoner, Country Fire Authority Australia
3.30pm	CLOSING PANEL: More co-benefits than you can poke a stick at: organising arguments for mainstreaming DRR Karina Carvalho, ABC News (Moderator), Carlene York, NSW State Emergency Service, Dr Kate Brady, University of Melbourne, Martjin Gough, Aither, Prof Stephen Dovers, ANU
4.30pm	Closing Ceremony

You will be redirected to the AFAC22 powered by INTERSCHUTZ portal to register.

About the conference

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National Recovery Forum

Join the National Recovery Forum on 26 August 2022

Dr Gill Hicks AM MBE

Artist, Published Author, Musician and Award-winning Director/Producer

Keynote speaker – shared with AFAC22

An artist, published author, musician and award-winning director/producer - Gill Hicks is a powerful and thought provoking communicator, sharing her insights on life after death. Her vital work, particularly in countering violent extremism, became her focus after she was left severely and permanently injured from the actions of a suicide bomber in the co-ordinated attack on London’s transport network in July, 2005. Prior to the bombings, Gill was a respected figure within the fields of Architecture and Design in London, where she lived for over 20 years. Gill has been recognised and awarded for her many contributions to the Arts, Health care and Peace Building.

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Jim Pauley

President and Chief Executive Officer

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

Keynote speaker – shared with AFAC22

Jim Pauley is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), a global self-funded non-profit organisation devoted to eliminating death, injury, property, and economic loss due to fire, electrical, and related hazards.

The association, which is headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts in the United States, began its work to solve the fire problem in a young, industrialised nation in 1896 and is recognised around the globe today as a leading safety authority. NFPA delivers information and knowledge through more than 325 consensus codes and standards, research, training, education, outreach, and advocacy; and by partnering with others who share an interest in furthering the NFPA mission.

Prior to joining NFPA nearly eight years ago, Mr. Pauley concluded a 30-year career in the electrical and energy industry where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Government Relations for Schneider Electric.

Mr. Pauley serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research affiliate of NFPA. He has also served in several past leadership positions including Chairman of the Board for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and was a licensed professional engineer in Kentucky.

Lucas Patchett OAM

Chief Executive Officer

Orange Sky Australia

Nic Marchesi OAM

Chief Delta Officer

Orange Sky Australia

Keynote speakers – shared with AFAC22

In October 2014, two best mates had a crazy idea to put two washing machines and two dryers in the back of a van, and wash and dry clothes for free. Nicholas Marchesi and Lucas Patchett, the 2016 Young Australians of the Year, founded Orange Sky – a world-first, free mobile laundry service for people experiencing homelessness. On a mission to improve hygiene standards, Nic and Lucas stumbled on something much bigger and more significant – the power of a conversation.

Orange Sky now has 35 laundry and shower services across 25 locations in Australia, with thousands of volunteers giving their time each week to help positively connect some of the 116,000 Australians doing it tough. The focus is on creating a safe, welcoming and supportive environment for people who are too often ignored or feel disconnected from the community. Since its inception, Orange Sky has provided friends on the street with more than 2 million kilograms of free laundry, over 20,000 showers and more than 330,000 hours of genuine and non-judgemental conversation.

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Dr Niki Vincent

Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner

Victorian Government

Keynote speaker – shared with AFAC22

Dr Niki Vincent was appointed as Victoria’s first Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner in September 2020. She is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Gender Equality Act 2020 and plays a key leadership role in promoting gender equality in the Victorian community and workplaces.

Dr Vincent has a wealth of experience in gender equality and organisational leadership. This includes serving as the South Australian Commissioner for Equal Opportunity from 2016-2020.

Prior to that, Niki held the position of CEO of the Leaders Institute of South Australia as well as a concurrent appointment as a member of the Remuneration Tribunal of South Australia. She has also led major programs of academic research in previous roles, holds an appointment as an Adjunct Associate Professor in UniSA’s Business School and has established and run two successful not-for-profit organisations.

In addition, Niki is an active ambassador for Time for Kids – a respite foster care organisation – and sits on the board of InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence.

Niki is a mother of 4 adult children, a full-time foster parent, has 2 young adult stepchildren and 10 grandchildren. She spends her sparse free time with her partner, family, and friends, and enjoys hiking, seeing films, listening to Radio National podcasts and a variety of music, gardening, doing yoga and camping in remote places.

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Moderator: Amanda Leck

Emergency Management Victoria

Jiembra Shiels

Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria

Thuch Ajak

United Africa Farm

Sam Atukorala

Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District Inc

Selba-Gondoza Luka

Afri-Aus Care Inc.

Ms Veema Mooniapah

Multicultural Emergency Management

Panel: Collaborating for resilience: Multicultural communities and Emergency Management

In 2021 the Victorian Council of Social Service and the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria established the Multicultural Emergency Management Partnership to strengthen relationships between multicultural communities and emergency services, and to enable all communities to better manage stresses and shocks, including emergencies, through a network of trusted, diverse and connected people.

This panel session will feature representatives from the program including leaders and connectors from multicultural communities explaining how the program is sharing responsibility and building resilience.

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Speaker Bios

Tchuch Ajak

Thuch Ajak is founder of United African Farm, an initiative that brings members of the African community living in Victoria together to grow culturally appropriate crops, share their culture, and bridge the intergenerational and cultural gaps. 

Thuch holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Agriculture majoring in crop protection.

Thuch currently works at Asylum Seekers Resource Centre as Refugee Resource Hub manager. He also volunteers in the community in various capacities including Board Member at Living and Learning Pakenham Inc, radio broadcaster at Casey Community radio 97.7FM and community leader in the South Sudanese community.

Thuch is also co- chair of the Multicultural emergency Management Partnership.

Andrew Crisp

Andrew Crisp APM is Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner. The Emergency Management Commissioner has responsibility for coordination before, during and after major emergencies, including the management of consequences of an emergency.

During his career, which includes experience in senior emergency management and policing leadership positions, Andrew has developed a passion for community safety across metropolitan and regional Victoria and while working overseas in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.

He has been involved in responses to a number of major incidents, such as the Ash Wednesday Bushfires, the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, Christchurch earthquake, Queensland floods, 2017 Bourke Street Tragedy and the 2019/20 Black Summer bush fires.

Andrew works closely with emergency management organisations, agencies, government departments, and communities with a focus on building and maintaining strong relationships and capability across the broader emergency services sector.

Advocating for people and communities will always be a priority for Andrew. He believes everyone has valued perspectives and a positive contribution to make. He is committed to listening and learning so our emergency services sector and communities can work together to stay safe.

Sam Atukorala

Sam Atukorala currently works for the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District Inc. as the Strategic Engagement Coordinator for Goulburn Region.

Sam has earned a reputation as a respected community leader who is making a real impact in the community as a keen volunteer, an ambassador for intercultural community harmony and an exceptional member of the Goulburn Valley community.

The impact of Sam’s vision and leadership is far reaching - not only individuals but also by actively helping to break down barriers and providing greater opportunity for new arrivals to connect with and contribute to the community.

His volunteer roles in community span sport, education, employment, finance, health, leadership and governance.

Sam is a member of the Rural and Regional Advisory Committee Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s Regional Advisory Council (Hume Region) and a Board Member of the Goulburn Murray Community Leadership.

Sam has been awarded number of national, state and regional awards for his valuable contribution, including Inductee of the Inaugural Victorian Multicultural Honour Roll 2022, Greater Shepparton Citizen of the Year 2019, Cricket Australia’s Community Ambassador of the Year 2018 and Victorian Premier’s Volunteer Champions Award 2017 (Service Category).

Selba-Gondoza Luka

Selba-Gondoza Luka is a Malawian born Mental Health Clinician who specialises in culturally appropriate support that targets African and other culturally and linguistically diverse groups.

Selba-Gondoza is Founder and CEO of Afri-Aus Care Inc, a not-for-profit organisation that provides culturally appropriate support services to at-risk African Australian youth, their families, and the culturally and linguistically diverse community at large. Her work at Afri-Aus Care has seen her become a grassroots community leader and impassioned advocate for preventing and ending family violence and implementing the NDIS within the African Australian community. She has been an innovator of positive crime prevention strategies that promote social cohesion by emphasising connections between community members and stakeholders.

Selba-Gondoza is a Charter Member of the Rotary Passport Club of Melbourne and has served as the Deputy Convenor for Police Victoria’s African Australian Community Taskforce. She also holds positions on the University of Melbourne’s AREiA Advisory Board and VOICE Member at Burnet Institute, the Department of Health’s CALD Advisory Group, the Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing’s Volunteer Strategy Committee, and the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s Regional Advisory Committee. Selba-Gondoza is the recipient of a range of awards including the 2021 Citizen of the year by the City of Greater Dandenong.

Veema Mooniapah

Veema Mooniapah is a passionate professional who dedicates her life to social impact, especially for those made vulnerable through circumstances beyond their control.

Veema holds tertiary qualifications from the Universities in the UK, Australia and Mauritius. She is experienced in leading evidence-based policy and action plan development and implementation using a whole of organisation and multi-agency approach, both overseas and in Australia. She also has expertise in diversity, equity and inclusion in local government; policing and emergency/disaster management; workforce planning using human-centred design and systems thinking; and drug and alcohol detox/mental health support work.

Veema currently works as Program Manager at WorkSafe Victoria. Her role is to ensure WorkSafe thinks, plans and delivers inclusively using a culturally intelligent and intersectional lens, ensuring the voice of the communities are reflected on issues that matter to them, including workplace health and safety.

Veema volunteers her free time to agencies as Board Director and currently as Member of the Multicultural Emergency Management Partnership.

Jiembra Shiels

Jiembra Sheils is the Acting CEO of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. Jiembra is a Certified Practicing Accountant with degrees in Business and Psychology which combine her passion for numbers with her interest in human behaviour. She has worked across a number of sectors including Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Health and Consultancy before joining the Not for Profit Sector and brings the skills and knowledge gained in those industries to her work. As a passionate advocate for social justice, Jiembra has many years of experience volunteering and working in not for profit organisations in strategic, operational and financial management, including with the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health, Oxfam and CERES environmental park.

Presentation outline

Victoria has one of the most diverse communities in the world. Almost half of the population is born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas, and more than a quarter speak a language other than English at home. However, the emergency management sector has largely struggled to genuinely engage with multicultural communities, leaving them at greater risk.

The Partnership’s members include leaders and connectors from a wide range of multicultural communities and all major emergency management agencies and organisations. Through its co-designed Partnership Model, the MEMP is working to:

Build stronger relationships at the local level
Develop stronger understanding of community strengths and needs
Ensure communities have access to simple and accurate information
Increase cultural safety and inclusion within emergency management organisations
Increase workforce diversity

The program is working to foster grass-roots action at a local level and to affect structural change in organisations at a strategic level. An evaluation of the program to date found that the partnership has, for the first time, fostered a genuine dialogue between multicultural community leaders and EM agencies. This program has provided a unique and important foundational step to building shared responsibility for emergencies between agencies and multicultural leaders and connectors.

Professor David Sanderson

University of New South Wales

What does community led resilience mean, and how can it be achieved?

The uniting rhetoric for implementing successful resilience to natural hazards is that it is community led. This is for good reason - the evidence points to communities being more resilient before, during and after disasters when they are in the driving seat of their own decision-making. In Australia, as elsewhere, community led resilience is widely adopted by State and national agencies and implementing NGOs and appears regularly in policy and planning documents.

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Speaker bio

David has 30 years of experience working across the world in development and emergencies. He worked for four years in a disaster management consultancy, followed by eight years for the NGO CARE International UK as head of policy and as regional manager for Southern and West Africa. In 2006 David became Director of a UK university centre focusing on development and emergencies. Between 2013-14 he was a full time Visiting Professor at Harvard University teaching class on urban disaster resilience. David became the Inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Architecture at the University of New South Wales, Sydney in 2016. David has sat on several NGO and funding boards. He is author of the 2019 ODI/ALNAP Urban Humanitarian Response Good Practice Review and was co-editor of the 2016 IFRC World Disasters Report focusing on resilience. David holds a doctorate in urban resilience and has held full and visiting professorial positions in the UK, Norway, USA, Australia and France.

Presentation outline

However, for policy makers, emergency services and other service providers, supporting community led approaches can be much harder to achieve. Experience from across the world following large scale disasters is that, very often, communities feel disenfranchised and not heard by the very services that strive to support them. Indeed, many argue that while a noble aspiration, achieving genuine community led resilience remains a pipedream.

What then does community led resilience mean, and crucially, how can it be achieved? This paper address these questions in three parts. Part one provides a review of current policy and practice in Australia concerning efforts by organisations to achieve community-led resilience. Part two draws on the experiences of communities affected by disasters of the approaches adopted by service providers in in disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Examples will be presented from Australia as well as other countries affected by disasters. Part three presents approaches from community development which build community-led actions, and that can be used to enhance community-led resilience. The paper will draw on a current project underway in New South Wales that is trying to achieve this outcome, as well as other projects in other countries.

Dr Kate Brady

University of Melbourne

Who is worst off after a disaster?

Disasters result in a wide range of complex impacts. Some impacts are tangible and visible and others are more difficult to identify. Individuals who experience the same disaster event can be affected in different ways.

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Speaker bio

Dr Kate Brady has had a distinguished career over the past decade in disaster recovery operations, programming and research. After establishing and leading the Australian Red Cross Disaster Recovery program for 12 years, Kate is now a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a technical adviser to Australian Red Cross and other organisations.

Most of Kate’s work focuses on what people find helpful and unhelpful after disasters. Throughout her career, Kate has had significant influence on State and National emergency management policy and has an international profile in collective trauma, risk and resilience and in disaster recovery program evaluations. In 2021, she became the host for ABC’s podcast ‘After the Disaster’.

Presentation outline

After disasters ‘hierarchies of affectedness’ are formed, where people who have been affected by disasters are categorised by the severity of their impacts in comparison to others. This is sometimes done in formal ways and can play out in the media, politics and through emergency management agencies. These types of hierarchies have influence on practical things such as who gets access to financial aid, and what recovery supports are provided. Other times, hierarchies form in more covert ways, and are more difficult to define.

Grappling with the idea of how “who is the worst affected” is calculated by agencies, affected communities and the broader public is an important part of all disasters, and is particularly relevant in events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though these hierarchies form after every disaster, little is known about the impacts of this process. Using data from a broader study, we progressed a model that was originally developed in Denmark to better understand hierarchies of affectedness and the role they play for those who have been impacted by disasters.

This presentation will look at

What is a hierarchy of affectedness?
How do hierarchies of affectedness form?
What real world implications do these hierarchies have on the support disaster affected people have access to?
Can hierarchies of affectedness be useful?
How can governments and emergency management agencies understand their role in hierarchies after disasters and reduce harm?
How could an improved understanding of hierarchies after a disaster inform how support is provided in the future?

A/Prof Valerie Ingham

Charles Sturt University

The disaster fatigue of community leaders: a case study

In this presentation, we define community disaster fatigue and establish what evidences disaster fatigue on a collective level. We do this through a vignette of one community that experienced the 2019/20 Black Summer fires, followed by flooding exacerbated by fire-denuded landscapes, which then merged into the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

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Speaker bio

A/Prof Valerie Ingham lecturers in Emergency Management and supervises Doctor of Public Safety candidates at Charles Sturt University. She has extensive experience in the design and delivery of tertiary level programs in emergency management and fire services. Her recent research highlights the importance of local community organisations in building community connections for disaster resilience, with a particular focus on compound and cascading disasters leading to community disaster fatigue.

Presentation outline

The research purpose was to inform a community-based approach to identifying disaster fatigue on a collective level. We considered anyone who managed five or more people, in either a volunteer or career capacity, to be a community leader. We interviewed 14 community leaders from a variety of local not-for-profits, local government and emergency services, seeking the strategies they devised to keep their community group or organisation functioning whilst moving through a complex disaster situation characterised by insufficient recovery time between events.

We found that disaster fatigue on a community level has the potential to destabilise and stymie a group or organisation’s recovery, sometimes to the point of no return. To move forward out of a succession of destabilising events requires foresight and prior planning with an eye to preventing the collapse of public health, social and economic community structures.

We present our findings in the form of individual and collective indicators of disaster fatigue. Heeding these indicators will contribute to the early identification of a community struggling beyond its resilience capacity, and therefore in need of outside support in order to maintain everyday functionality.

Dr Claire Leppold

University of Melbourne

Disasters on disasters: finding best practice in communities affected by multiple disasters

Disasters have historically been considered as rare, singular events. However, the past decade has highlighted the ways that disasters can repeat, occur sequentially, cascade or overlap. In Victoria, numerous communities experienced the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires, followed by the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, and flooding in 2021. In early 2022, the Hunga Tonga eruption caused a tsunami which subsequently led to an oil spill. However, a key problem is that the majority of disaster-related research evidence, policy and guidelines for practice have been based on the premise of a single disaster occurring.

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Speaker bio

Clare Leppold

Dr Claire Leppold is a Research Fellow at the Child & Community Wellbeing Unit, Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Claire completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh and spent five years researching the 3.11 ‘triple’ disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster) in Minamisoma, Fukushima (Japan) before moving to Australia at the end of 2020. She currently leads the Red Cross Bushfire Recovery Program Evaluation and the new Disasters on Disasters program of research. Claire works at the intersection of social science and critical public health to improve understanding of the long-term health and wellbeing impacts of disasters. Her research takes a particular focus on what happens when people and communities experience multiple disasters. She is a co-editor on the new book ‘Health, Wellbeing and Community Recovery in Fukushima’ published by Routledge as part of their series on Hazards, Disaster Risk and Climate Change.

Presentation outline

This presentation will draw on the outcomes of the ‘Disasters on Disasters’ program of work led by Leppold, focusing on results of recent interviews with the Australian disaster recovery workforce involved in supporting communities affected by more than one disaster. This study asks the question: How is the process of supporting disaster recovery work affected by another disaster, or disasters, occurring? Through this analysis of workforce experience, this study explores the extent to which current resources and interventions are working well when applied to multi-disaster scenarios.

This presentation will outline the case for how we may begin thinking about ‘best practice’ in cases where multiple disasters occur. Implications will be presented through messages for practitioners and researchers, with the intention of informing practice, policies and interventions to move beyond the current ‘single disaster’ framing.

Soraya Dean - facilitator

NAB

Liz Mackinlay

Australian Business Volunteers

Kate Cotter

Bushfire Building Council of Australia

David Macdermott

Australian Red Cross

Panel: Innovative partnerships for community resilience

In 2020, NAB formed a new flagship community program called NAB Ready Together. The program aims to support Australians before, during and after disasters. Cross sector approaches across government and civil society have been a critical part of this program. This session would be a panel discussion with key NAB Ready Together partners about insights and lessons from key community resilience projects.

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Speaker bios

Soraya Dean

Soraya leads NAB’s disaster resilience program, NAB Ready Together which supports Australians before, during and after disasters. Soraya is an experienced sustainability leader with 15 years’ experience in stakeholder engagement, social impact and sustainability consulting. She has worked overseas as a consultant with organisations including General Electric, Coca Cola, and the World Economic Forum. Locally, Soraya worked at the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility across a diverse range of industries. She specialised in stakeholder research to measure and improve organisations’ social license to operate, sustainability reporting and community partnership evaluations. Soraya also worked at Metro Trains Melbourne as the stakeholder relations specialist and Head of Marketing where she built the business case for the company’s corporate responsibility function. She began her career at NAB leading the bank’s sustainability reporting team.

David Macdermott

David has over 15 years experience in the for-purpose sector, including for the past 9 years with Australian Red Cross’ Humanitarian Services division. Currently Red Cross’ acting Head of Partnerships, David has responsibility for leading the development and facilitation of more than $17m worth of strategic partnerships with corporates, philanthropic organisations and high net worth individuals in support of the delivery of social outcomes and increased community impact.

Prior to Red Cross David’s career has included roles focused on resource mobilisation, partnerships, and community relations for health, disability and animal welfare organisations both in Australia and abroad.

Kate Cotter

Kate Cotter is the founder and CEO of the Resilient Building Council, which she established in 2014 to adapt the 2 million Australian homes most vulnerable to extreme weather. Kate's vision is to break the preventable, unsustainable disaster-recovery cycle through programs that accelerate effective adaptation of the built environment.

The Resilient Building Council is an independent, not-for-profit collaboration of bushfire, flood, storm, cyclone, heatwave, sustainability, thermal and energy efficiency experts.

The Council’s Resilience Ratings and FORTIS programs set best-practice resilience standards for existing and new homes. These innovative programs quantify resilience and customise adaptation actions, for any building. The programs have been co-designed by communities and supported by industry and all levels of government.

Leading multi-disciplinary teams to solve complex risk problems, Kate’s role advances the application of science into equitable and transformational resilience systems and tools, creating measurable value for households, communities, governments and industry.

Liz Mackinlay

Liz has over 20 years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector, with extensive senior executive experience internationally and in Australia. She has held roles with a variety of NFP’s including with World Vision International as Global Vice President of Strategy, with World Vision Australia as Director of Indigenous development, with Australian Doctors International as CEO, International Red Cross Society in Cambodia as a gender specialist as well as serving on a number of NFP Boards in Australia. Liz is CEO of Australian Business Volunteers, an innovative NFP focussed on strengthening business and community through business support.

Liz is an advocate for unlocking the skills and experience of corporates globally and in Australia for the benefit of communities. Liz is committed to the development of the SME sector across the Pacific, leveraging the skills and experience of Australian and Pacific based corporate partners to achieve this.

Presentation outline

Australian Business Volunteers on harnessing skilled volunteers to support community-led recovery
Bushfire Building Council of Australia on piloting a new loan to incentivise homeowners to upgrade their homes to be bushfire resilient as part of the Resilience Investment Vehicle project
Australian Red Cross on community preparedness planning through the RediCommunities South Australian project.

The discussion will focus on the common approaches to partnerships with the key objective to build community resilience, the challenges related to partnering across sectors and working in disaster affected communities, and the key principles and skills that we can develop to deliver effective community resilience outcomes.

This interactive panel discussion will be chaired by NAB, with each panellist providing an overview of their community resilience project, and then having a broader conversation about how we can build organisational capacity to better collaborate and serve the community.

Jack Pollock

NAB

Lee McDougall

IAG

Piloting a resilience investment vehicle

IAG, National Australia Bank, CSIRO, State & Federal government agencies are collaborating on pilots that will seek to fund built, social and natural interventions that build community resilience. The Resilience Investment Vehicle (RIV) pilot explores how public and private capital is directed to finance new and/or adapt existing infrastructure that builds resilience, reduces disaster risk & can derive a return.

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Speaker bios

Lee McDougall

Lee is a purpose-led sustainability professional with Australian and international experience in the corporate, not-for-profit and consulting sectors. Since joining IAG over a decade ago, Lee has worked in leadership roles driving corporate sustainability, shared value innovation and multi-sector collaborations focused on building safer and more resilient communities.

As Executive Manager, Climate Action, Lee now leads IAG’s climate change approach, including an enterprise-wide Climate & Disaster Resilience Action Plan and a portfolio of climate-related projects. She also Chairs the Shared Value Leadership Council in Australia.

Lee completed her Master of Arts in International Relations as a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar at Keele University in the UK.

Jack Pollock

Jack has worked at NAB for 10 years, in roles within consumer banking; sustainability and climate, across: reporting, stakeholder engagement, and strategy. During a two year sabbatical, Jack worked in sustainable finance at WWF-UK, engaging with institutional investors to foster the alignment of their public equity portfolios to Paris goals, in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. His role’s current focus is developing NAB’s climate growth strategy, including the setting of 1.5C net zero by 2050 aligned targets for NAB’s lending to key sectors.

Presentation outline

The challenge

In a changing climate, natural disasters are becoming more frequent, severe & costly. To reduce risks and costs government, industry, and community need to work collaboratively on climate & disaster resilience.

Change is needed across roles, competencies, and behaviours including how incentives, data, risk assessments, and investment criteria are designed and used.

Our response

The aims of the pilot are to:

prove the concept with a view to implementing across other regions at scale
build the understanding and capabilities of stakeholders involved in projects for resilience investments
capture and share learnings that contribute to building the conditions of a national resilience investment market.

Current focus

The current focus is on three pilot project opportunities - two of the pilots translate cutting edge science (including from CSIRO) into measurable, tangible actions to reduce bushfire and cyclone risk at the household level, while the other is a cross-sector initiative to reduce flood risk at the catchment scale.

Through the pilots, we aim to develop scalable investment strategies and build capabilities in effective community engagement, assessing resilience benefits, aligning incentives and returns with risk reduction and resilience benefits, and developing suitable financing approaches.

The pilots test solutions to barriers to unlocking capital for resilience, including:

measuring outcomes and financial value so resilience-building interventions can be monetised
communicating the risks and benefits of resilience-building interventions
governance arrangements for collaboration between government, the private and research sector.

Dr Margi Prideaux

Empowering wisdom from below

During the 2019/20 Black Summer, unprecedented fires ripped across Kangaroo Island’s precious landscape in December and January. In the aftermath of the fires, Margi chronicled her community’s journey from the disaster into the stark awareness of climate chaos. A small, rural community violently shunted from climate apathy to frontline witnesses of a global climate crisis.

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Speaker bio

Margi Prideaux, Ph.D., has written about wildlife, international politics, and law almost every day for the past thirty years as an international negotiator and independent academic. She has three books and numerous academic articles and essays in circulation. Having lived and lost in Australia’s 2020 Black Summer fires, she has joined the Planet Politics Institute and begun writing with a radically new direction. FIRE: A Message from the Edge of Climate Catastrophe is her first book on this new theme.

Presentation outline

During the 2019/20 Black Summer, unprecedented fires ripped across Kangaroo Island’s precious landscape in December and January. Wildfires are an ancient presence in Australia, but this was a drier, hotter season than ever experienced. The island faced monster fires that burned too hot and were impossible to contain. Even the island’s oldest souls gravely shook their heads and whispered ‘never before’.

Margi Prideaux and her husband lost their home and farm on that fateful day. In the aftermath of the fires, Margi chronicled her community’s journey from the disaster into the stark awareness of climate chaos. A small, rural community violently shunted from climate apathy to frontline witnesses of a global climate crisis.

Through a combination of community interviews and traditional journalistic research Margi, an independent academic and author, exposes the failures of preparedness and the subsequent recovery process. She reveals her community’s deepest wish—to adapt to survive by regaining local control. ‘We have experienced the beginning of the climate change curve and we cannot bequest this hell to future generations.’

The Kangaroo Island community experience demonstrates that decisions from above can be dangerously abstract and disconnected. To mainstream disaster risk reduction and resilience, amidst an increasingly complex and fraught risk landscape, we must adapt to empower wisdom from below.

Peta O'Donohue

South Australian Country Fire Service

Fiona Dunstan

Bureau of Meteorology

Listening and Learning on Kangaroo Island: supporting community resilience through post-emergency engagement

The South Australian Country Fire service, recovery agencies, National Parks came together with an independent facilitator to co-develop the KI Fires Listening and Learning process. This presentation describes this post-emergency community engagement approach and its outcomes, including personal reflections by the participants, exploring the challenges and benefits for authorities and communities and how this process could be used more widely to build community resilience.

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Speaker bios

Peta O'Donohue

Peta O’Donohue is Manager Partners Research and Program Development with the South Australian Country Fire Service. Her background is in natural resource management and community engagement and her work includes building partnerships with key community and industry groups to promote shared responsibility and shared action for bushfire safety. She coordinates community research and new initiatives on behalf of the SACFS, including project managing the national study into community understanding of Fire Danger Ratings and Warnings and the Kangaroo Island Listening and Learning project in SA.

Fiona Dunstan

Fiona is Manager Information Operations, CFS and Sector Functional Lead for Public Information with SAFECOM.  Fiona is responsible for CFS’s public awareness campaigns, media and communications, public information, warnings and community engagement programs and is the Chair of the AFAC Community Engagement Technical group and represents, CFS, SAFECOM and SA on numerous national and state committees. 

Conference outline

In the 2019/2020 summer, Kangaroo Island (KI) in South Australia was severely impacted by a major bushfire, with over 210,000 hectares of farmland and national park burnt, killing livestock and wildlife and destroying many homes, businesses and livelihoods. Sadly, two lives were lost, and community impacts are ongoing.

After major emergencies such as these fires, official investigations are launched and formal debriefs for emergency services personnel are initiated. Community members are generally not included in debriefs with community matters referred to recovery agencies and with no standard arrangements for debriefing and collating lessons learned from the community perspective. Post-emergency public meetings may be organised and research commissioned tending to focus on how communities coped during the emergency and if preparedness initiatives influenced safety outcomes.

After the 2019/20 KI fires, face-to-face sessions were scheduled as part of the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, where community could have shared their stories and learnings from this event. However, the pandemic meant public meetings were cancelled and submissions were predominantly written. This left the community feeling ignored by authorities, with community learnings unheard and many unresolved questions about what happened and why. As the 2020/21 summer approached, demand for bushfire preparedness information and activities increased, but outstanding community distress left standard approaches ineffective and new thinking was needed.

Consequently, the South Australian Country Fire service, recovery agencies, National Parks came together with an independent facilitator to co-develop the KI Fires Listening and Learning process. The aim was to provide Islanders with an opportunity to share their experiences of the KI 2019/2020 fires with frontline and recovery agencies and be listened to without judgement. The sessions were based on the principle that listening helps build a shared narrative and supports understanding of, and coping and adaption to, the new circumstances.

This presentation describes this post-emergency community engagement approach and its outcomes, including personal reflections by the participants, exploring the challenges and benefits for authorities and communities and how this process could be used more widely to build community resilience.

Jennifer McDonnell

WSP

Sue Arlidge

Regional Development Australia

Bushfires and Businesses - not if, but when

This presentation will share stories from Kangaroo Island, SA, through the lens of the lived experience of several businesses and the presenters own experiences providing advisory and support services in the immediate, response and recovery stages.

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Speaker bios

Jennifer McDonnell

Jennifer McDonnell is a skilled social outcomes, communications and engagement specialist who has many years’ experience, providing strategic and operational advice on many diverse projects across Australia. Her background in psychology complements her work as a community engagement and consultation expert and in community capacity building and training. She regularly conducts a three-day training course in facilitation and conflict resolution for Government, non-for profit and private enterprises. In 2020 she had the privilege to work with bushfire-affected communities delivering pro-bono project management, facilitation and engagement services for recovery projects on Kangaroo Island. Jen is passionate about helping projects manage impacts and maximise opportunities to generate meaningful and sustainable social outcomes, build constructive and trusting relationships with partners, stakeholders and communities, and designing and implementing tailored strategies that deliver lasting positive social, environmental and economic impacts. She has diverse and extensive experience leading engagement and social outcomes for a range of infrastructure, energy, transport, urban planning, renewable energy projects and initiatives, including (solar, wind, hydro), hybrid- off grid power and Smart Grids.

Sue Arlidge

Sue’s vision is to help business, organisations and communities be the best they can by fostering the development of skills and vision, cooperation, and collaboration. As a strategic thinker, business mechanic, resource investigator and connector, Sue visualises the big picture and uses her strength in networking to connect people and business to create strategic alliances and achieve outcomes.

Having worked on Kangaroo Island for eight years, Sue has been actively involved in the significant economic transformation of the island. In that time Sue was an advisor to the RDA for 18 months during which time she led the RDA’s advocacy work on the ~$64M SA Water Security project and mentored over 40 businesses impacted directly or indirectly by the Black Summer Bushfires.

Presentation outline

Despite frequent exposure to severe natural hazards including extensive and wild bushfires, tropical cyclones and floods, remote Indigenous communities across northern Australia typically have little engagement in managing, mitigating or planning for such hazards, and have minimal local economies. A scenario planning project, funded by the BNHCRC, explores how these communities can effectively and sustainably mitigate the risks of natural hazards, influence, and develop effective partnerships with emergency management (EM) decision-making processes. This research integrates and analyses EM resources and services available through various agencies responsible for remote locations, and the related EM costs. Several remote communities have been consulted through scenario planning workshops and informal discussions to find and develop efficient, cost-effective and culturally appropriate EM arrangements.

Representatives from emergency services in the Northern Territory (NT Emergency Services, Fire and Rescue Services, Bushfires NT), the Northern and Central Land Councils, and other local organizations, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES), and Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) have been actively involved in the consultation phase. Discussions, held to date, with the rangers and Traditional Owners from the selected remote communities, representatives from the relevant EM agencies, and other interested parties have all indicated keen interest for finding long-term solutions to develop resilience in remote communities. Workshop discussions and associated analyses will be presented, offering insights into the delivery of cost-effective and improved EM services and country-based economic opportunities that can empower and build resilience of vulnerable remote communities, and help address EM issues in culturally appropriate ways.

Kevin Hazell

Land-use planning for bushfire: 12 years of reforms in Victoria

It has been 13 years since the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission handed down its report, with two-thirds of its recommendations directed to reforming Victoria's land use planning and building system. Despite set-backs and challenges, land use planning's role in bushfire resilience has gone from strength to strength in Victoria. This will be explored through case studies that help appreciate how decision making is being driven by past reforms.

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Speaker bio

Kevin Hazell is a qualified town planner with experience in land use planning within local, state, and national government. He commenced working in the bushfire space in 2010 as Manager Bushfire Planning at the Victorian Government’s department of planning. In this role he was responsible for implementing the land use planning recommendations of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires royal commission.

Between 2010 and 2015, Kevin led the development and implementation of changes to how bushfire is considered in land use planning and development across Victoria. This included through new Victoria Planning Provisions, adjusted mapping of bushfire for planning purposes, planning system guidance and through a capacity building program that reached over 1,200 built environment professionals.

Since 2015, Kevin has worked as a consultant in the bushfire space, being engaged by over 30 Victorian councils, all three Victoria fire authorities, and the Victorian department of planning. He provides expert evidence into planning processes and delivers training to built environment professionals. He also recently completed the University of Melbourne Graduate Certificate in Bushfire Planning and Management.

Presentation outline

Despite set-backs and challenges, land use planning's role in bushfire resilience has gone from strength to strength in Victoria. This will be explored through case studies that help appreciate how decision making is being driven by past reforms.

This will provide a basis to contextualise how land use planning is progressively becoming even more responsive to bushfire, with a look ahead at the next phase of reforms being contemplated Victoria.

Felicity Greenway

NSW Department of Planning and Environment

NSW Strategic Guide to Planning for Natural Hazards

The NSW Department of Planning and Environment developed the Strategic Guide to Planning for Natural Hazards (the guide) and resource kit to help planning authorities and councils create more resilience in the community, build economic stability, protect valuable assets, integrate environmental principles and balance these with development demand.

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Speaker bio

Over the course of 25 years in planning, Felicity built her professional practice to include oversight of planning processes for high-profile, critical infrastructure projects and assets at a state level. She has managed significant policy and assessment portfolios in the environment, resources and infrastructure space.

Presentation outline

Strategic land use planning plays a significant role in shaping future growth, development, and community resilience. Strategic planning that effectively considers the impacts of natural hazards at an early stage in decision-making limits exposure and vulnerability to risk through appropriate zoning and development controls that account for the constraints.

The guide aims to inform the consideration of natural hazards in the preparation of regional and district plans, local strategic plans and community strategic plans, planning proposals and with other strategic planning activities.

The guide covers eleven natural hazards identified as posing a high or extreme risk to NSW and those that are considered to have the potential in the future due to the effects of climate change.

The guide identifies 8 guiding principles to support communities to be more resilient to natural hazards through strategic land-use planning. This includes being strategic and considering all risks from natural hazards early, ensuring we are protecting vulnerable people and assets and involving the greater community in conversations about risk and values, considering emergency response and evacuation, using the best available evidence and information, planning to build for the future, and understanding natural processes and natural hazards.

Each of these principles requires multi-disciplinary collaboration. Strategic planning calls for engagement and collective decision-making across state and local government, including with risk and emergency managers and asset owners. By incorporating these principles into the preparation of strategic plans we can build community resilience through multi-agency collaboration and deliver improved development outcomes on the ground.

Further information can be found at:

https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/natural-hazards

Deb Parkinson

Gender and Disaster Australia

‘I thought you were more of a man than that’: Men and disasters

The disaster literature identifies that gender stereotypes are more stringent in disasters. In the aftermath, the pressures only increase, and are amplified by the very real barriers to men accessing help to cope with their disaster experiences. In an increasingly risky world, it is vital that such expectations be recognised as both damaging and out-dated. Disaster risk reduction will be enhanced by a 21st century approach to who does what in disasters, and policies in the emergency management sector that prioritise both physical and mental health in its workers.

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Speaker bio

Debra Parkinson

Debra Parkinson is a social researcher, focusing on gender issues. Over the past two decades, she has researched intimate partner violence and rape, women’s unequal access to the legal system, and gendered discrimination through the superannuation system. Since 2009, her research has focussed on environmental justice and gender and disaster. In 2015, Debra was awarded the ‘Social and Political Sciences Graduate Research Thesis Award’ from Monash University for her PhD on increased domestic violence after the Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires. She is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow with Monash University Disaster Resilience Initiative, and long-time researcher for both Women’s Health in the North and Women’s Health Goulburn North East, heading the Gender and Disaster Pod (www.genderanddisaster.com.au).

Presentation outline

The lived experience of men in disasters is unexpected. This presentation draws on interviews with men involved in fire and flood disasters from the 1943 Tarrawingee fire to the 2011 Benalla floods and Black Saturday in 2009. Research in 2013 with 32 men, and in 2018 with 26 men (aged 18-93) give an account that exposes the harm of gendered expectations.

Men’s narratives were harrowing – and not just from disasters’ physical danger. Equally damaging were society’s assessments of individual men and how well they lived up to the challenge of the disaster. Masculinity was judged and commented on, and consequences in the workplace and the home followed. Men rated their own perceived ‘failures’ and spoke of the barriers they faced in coming to terms with their disaster experiences. Whether first responders to natural hazards, or young and old men simply caught up in disasters, men spoke of expectations – from society, the workplace and family – that they be strong, stoic, brave and decisive.

Robert Muller

Torrens Resilience Initiative

The effects of information disorder on societal resilience

This presentation will explore the interactions between information disorder and social disorder, and how information disorder disrupts social institutions, social cohesion, and societal resilience through the undermining of the trust the public has in government and decision-making authority, rationality and science, the rule of law, and democratic institutions. The implications of information disorder for disaster resilience will conclude the presentation.

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Speaker bio

Dr Robert Muller has a background in community and societal resilience and a PhD in sociology. Over the last 2 years, Robert has been working on a range of defence-related projects with the Torrens Resilience Initiative mainly focusing on modern deterrence, and the team’s more recent project on information disorder.

Presentation outline

The contemporary risk environment is characterised by disasters that are increasingly large-scale, multi-factorial, cascading events that have major disruptive effects on the resilience of interconnected physical, socio-technical, and social systems. Such hazards are increasing primarily due to the effects of climate change, but also by our attempts to manage the increasingly complex nature of modern society, characterised by a high degree of interconnectivity and interdependence.

To effectively manage and reap advantage from the complex interconnected system-of-systems that underpins developed societies, communities have employed widespread information infrastructure and technologies to manage these systems. These physical and socio-technical systems are particularly dependent on digital forms of communication and information because people live in an information ecosystem increasingly dominated by digital sources.

Underpinning these systems are social institutions comprising rules, conventions, norms, values, and customs. These institutions form the basis of the type of society that Australians cherish – cohesive, open, free, and democratic. A cohesive society depends on an information ecosystem that promotes trust and truth, but still enables a vigorous civil society to flourish. In the contemporary era, the resilience of these institutions is under threat from information disorder.

Information disorder, defined as a set of problems which result in significant difficulty, distress, impairment, and disruption of our information environment, including as a result of the creation, transmission, and consumption of false (mis, dis, and mal) information, is on the increase, mirroring the disorder that underlies our social environment.

Fiona Dunstan

Bureau of Meteorology

Let's do more than talk about weather

This presentation will outline the Bureau's Community Engagement Plan and key initiatives, showcasing how the Bureau is working in partnership to empower communities to reduce their disaster risk, build community resilience and contribute to the Bureau's vision to contribute to zero lives lost.

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Speaker bio

Coming soon

Presentation outline

The Bureau of Meteorology (Bureau) is one of the few organisations who touch the lives of all Australians every day. Our aim is to contribute to zero lives lost through natural hazards, and add $2 billion of social economic impact and value to the Australian community.

Our climate is changing, and in recent years we have seen an increase in natural disasters and cascading events which have had a greater impact on communities. The Bureau, as a long-term community and emergency services partner and provider of critical forecasting and warning services is well placed to grow the Australian community's capacity and resilience to the impacts of weather, water, climate, space and oceans through data, education and knowledge building programs, in partnership with community focused organisations and the Emergency Management Sector.

In 2021 the Bureau established a national community engagement capability and created its Community Engagement plan. The plan builds on prior engagement activities such as the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy and will implement new initiatives to support the rollout of the new AFDRS, improved Heatwave Services, preparedness for Space Weather and grow our engagement with First Nations people.

The Community Engagement plan was developed using the principles outlined in the AIDR Handbook: Community Engagement for Disaster Resilience (2020) and the supporting companion documents.

This presentation will outline the Bureau's engagement plan and key initiatives, showcasing how the Bureau is working in partnership to empower communities to reduce their disaster risk, build community resilience and contribute to the Bureau's vision to contribute to zero lives lost.

Jacqui Cristiano

National Resilience and Recovery Agency

Developing the Second National Action Plan

During 2022, the NRRA has been undertaking comprehensive multi-sector engagement and co-design for the development of the Second National Action Plan, which needed to ensure credibility, support, buy-in and use by those who can effect change to meet the objectives of the Framework. During this session, the NRRA will share the lessons it has learnt on this journey to date and provide a sneak preview of its vision for the future.

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Speaker bios

Jacqui has extensive Australian Public Service experience leading complex whole-of-Government work programs and a solid track record of successfully applying insight to deliver improvements to community experiences, service delivery, decision making and business outcomes. Her experience includes managing strategic research programs and projects, oversight of a large-scale complaints system, and developing domestic and international policy. Currently she leads on both social policy and environment policy for the National Recovery and Resilience Agency. Although relatively new to the emergency management policy space, Jacqui grew up in rural Victoria and has firsthand experience with floods, droughts and fires. Jacqui holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ballarat University.

Presentation outline

Every year, Australian communities face devastating suffering and loss connected to natural hazard events. Bushfires, floods, storms, other hazards and their associated consequences can have significant impacts on exposed communities, the economy, infrastructure and the environment.

Significant ongoing efforts continue toward building Australia’s resilience to the impacts of natural hazards through reducing disaster risk. However, with the drivers of a changing climate, population growth and urbanisation remaining, people and the things they value will continue to remain at risk.

The risk landscape is changing quickly

Natural hazards are becoming more frequent and intense
People, livelihoods and assets are more exposed and vulnerable
Essential services are increasingly interdependent and connected
Disaster impacts are long-term and complex
The cost of disasters are growing,
The stability of natural, social, and economic systems can no longer be taken for granted.

Australia has embarked on a journey of learning how to coordinate national effort to understand and address systemic disaster risk. This journey has seen the release of a number of pivotal research pieces on the way, including Profiling Australia’s Vulnerability report (2018), the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework (2019), and the First National Action Plan (2020). It has also seen the establishment of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.

During this session, the NRRA will share the lessons it has learnt on this journey to date and provide a sneak preview of its vision for the future.

Iain Mackenzie

Unearth

DRR: Are we brave enough?

If the world is truly riskier, then the time to adapt is past. Simple evolution of known models to reduce disaster risk will no longer suffice. It’s time to be brave and reform our approaches. Society is a complex system that revolves around people, their basic human, social and cultural needs serviced by an interconnected and co-dependant system of economy, politics, supply chains, services and infrastructure. When disaster strikes, all these systems are stressed and impacted to varying levels

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Speaker bio

Strategist, Advisor and Change Leadership specialist, Iain believes that meaningful change is only possible when people are at the centre of thinking, planning and the execution.

An Adjunct Professor with Griffith University, Iain holds a master’s degree in Leadership and Management (Policing). Shaped by forty years in the Public Safety sector, Iain is passionate about improving outcomes for people and their communities. Listening to the stories of individuals in their most trying times, Iain’s mantra is that it doesn’t matter how we feel about the job we have done, what matters is how we have made others feel.

From first responder, Deputy Commissioner of Fire & Rescue Services, Queensland’s Inspector-General Emergency Management, to Senior Advisor to the Commonwealth’s Minister for Emergency Management through the ‘black summer’ bushfires, Iain has been a driver of some of the biggest changes to how emergency and disaster management has evolved. He is recognised for expertise in the fields of disaster management, disaster risk reduction and resilience building, having led reviews into some of the Nation’s largest natural disasters.

Presentation outline

When disaster strikes, all these systems are stressed and impacted to varying levels. Disasters cause stress, confusion, tensions, and heightened emotions, every decision we make will someway affect these feelings.

Instead of planning to deal with the impact of disasters we need to move to knowing and countering the consequences that will be faced, and on scales we have not previously encountered so that ‘unprecedented’ no longer justifies a failure of imagination.

Instead of planning to deal with damage (impact) to telecommunication towers or power loss of a few days or even network outages for weeks, we need to imagine a world without electronic communication or internet access or email capability and think how we would support our communities to survive. What would be the consequences of a repeat of the 1859 Carrington event?

COVID provides the evidence of the need for change: While the health impacts are shocking, consequences have stretched across all aspects of society including employment, education, transport, supply chains, construction, health infrastructure, manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, and energy sectors. Recovery planning needs to start under blue skies.

This presentation will challenge our leaders to be brave:

Brave enough to challenge reinvesting in the same
Brave enough to challenge our current approach of 'planning to plan'
Brave enough to think differently about when and how recovery should commence
Brave enough to start these conversations today.

Ben Rogers (Chair)

Emerging Minds

Jess Moroney

Principal, Stirling East Primary

Louise Taheny

Director, Yorketown Community Children’s Centre

Nik Edwards

Be You consultant

Panel: Understanding the educator's role in supporting children following a disaster

This panel will focus on providing educators with a foundational understanding of their role in the recovery process. It will offer a practical framework and tips for supporting children in the immediate aftermath, short-term and long-term following a disaster or community trauma – as well as preparedness skills and knowledge professionals can use in their daily practice and programs.

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Speaker bios

Ben Rogers

Ben Rogers is the Manager of Families and Education at Emerging Minds. He is focused on developing workforce support tools that facilitate improved communication and partnerships between families, educators and health service providers.

Ben is an Occupational Therapist and has held positions in a variety of mental health and child and family services across Australia and the United Kingdom. This clinical experience has seen him focus on supporting rural and remote families as part of a telehealth assessment, therapy and capacity building service.

Additionally, he has extensive experience planning, leading, and managing projects of a complex nature, including:

Leading the development and implementation of workforce development framework and training package for staff as part of the Be You Bushfire Response Program.
Large scale Telehealth projects which supported clinical work in rural and remote areas of Australia.

The redesign of an NSW Health funded complex developmental assessment service, known as the Paediatric Developmental Program (PDP).

He is also a trained facilitator of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and facilitates these groups to his local community.

Nik Edwards

Nik Edwards is an Early Childhood Australia consultant with Beyond Blue’s National Mental Health Education Initiative Be You. With over 25 years of commitment, development and advocacy within the Early Childhood community working as an educator and teacher, professional learning and infant mental health consultant, writer and inclusion professional. Nik’s most recent work as an Expert Companion in the award winning Be You Bushfire Response Program has blossomed into a keen interest in the spirits connection to nature, culture, sustainability, diversity and harmony. Blessed to live in the Southern foothills on Kaurna Yarta, when Nik is not working, she is hands on exploring how immersion in nature, ritual and compassion can be a protective factor for Mental Health, with her three children, as a weaver, wood whittler, gardener and trail runner.

Jess Moroney

Jess was principal of Lenswood Primary school and a resident in Lobethal, Adelaide Hills when the 2019 bushfire devastated the area. Jess has the lived experience of responding and recovering from a bushfire as a school leader, a resident and a father. Since the 2019 fires, Jess has been heavily involved in supporting the local community in the recovery from the fires, along with developing professional learning for leaders and educators throughout the region. Jess has worked with Be You and Emerging minds on a regular basis to support the ongoing learning in disaster recovery and has been recognised recently with Resilient Australia and Australian Council for Educational Leaders Awards. Jess is now principal at Stirling East Primary School and is continuing to lead teaching, learning and whole school wellbeing.

Louise Tahney

Louise Taheny has 30 years’ experience as an early childhood educator and is the Director at Yorketown Community Children’s Centre in South Australia, a role she has held for the past five years. Yorketown is a town Centre for a rural community 250 km from Adelaide with a population of approximately 800 people. The Children’s Centre is a standalone service comprising a preschool and a long day care program with two workers, operating 8 am–6 pm, five days per week. In addition, it has an outside school hours care program for children aged six weeks to 12 years of age.

Presentation outline

Following a natural disaster or community trauma event, a child’s school or early learning service remains an important protective environment for supporting their recovery. This can have educators feeling overwhelmed, as they are required to coordinate a variety of supports and services for children and families – in addition to their regular role within the school.

In this panel, participants will be introduced to a four-part framework designed to help them identify opportunities to support children’s resilience and recovery following a disaster or community trauma. The strategies provided in each part of the framework can be used to support children during any phase of a disaster or community trauma event – preparation, immediate aftermath, short-term or long-term – as well as during ongoing disasters such as droughts and pandemics.

Following this panel, participants will be able to:

recognise children's responses to natural disasters and community trauma events in the immediate aftermath, short-term and long-term following the event;
identify resources that can support educators in their work with children and families at any stage of disaster or community trauma; and
incorporate trauma-responsive strategies into the educator role and school community following natural disasters or community trauma events.

Carla Hall

Youth Affairs Council Victoria

Quinn Obran

Youth Affairs Council Victoria

Ensuring Young People have 'A Seat at the Table'

YACVic was engaged by the Victorian Government (Bushfire Recovery Victoria (BRV) and the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET)) to engage directly with young people and community members in rural and regional areas about their experiences of, response to, and recovery from the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires across Eastern Victoria. This presentation will showcase how young people from bushfire-affected areas co-led and guided the project and resource development. Explains why youth participation is a crucial to building cohesive communities, the key principles you should follow, and resources for further assistance.

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Speaker bios

Carla Hall

Carla joined the Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) in mid-2020, working as the Rural Youth Projects Coordinator, prior to this Carla worked directly with the flame impacted community of East Gippsland throughout the 2019-2020 bushfires in the evacuation centre and brings a lived experience of disaster to her work in this space. Carla’s role involves the development of a youth-centred approach to bushfire recovery and mental health engaging directly with young people and community members in rural and regional areas about their experiences of, response to, and recovery from the devastating 2019-2020 bushfires across Eastern Victoria. This provided young people, with the opportunity to share their ideas for recovery, rebuilding and preparation for a better future. For the past 15 years Carla has worked in the Youth Sector in Local Government, Generalist youth work, employment, and homelessness. Carla lives and was raised on the lands of the Gunai Kurnai People and acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded, and this always was, and always will be aboriginal land.

Quinn Obran

Quinn was born and raised in Corryong, and is an active member of Corryong’s youth working group which was established after the 2019-2020 bushfires.. It was through the youth working group that Quinn heard about YACVic’s bushfire disaster recovery group, which she then became a part of. At the start of this year Quinn decided to pursue a degree in criminal psychology at Wollongong University, whilst continuing to support bushfire recovery, and the advocacy of youth involvement.

Presentation outline

YACVic was engaged by the Victorian Government (Bushfire Recovery Victoria (BRV) and the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET)) to engage directly with young people and community members in rural and regional areas about their experiences of, response to, and recovery from the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires across Eastern Victoria. This provided community, in particular young people, with the opportunity to share their ideas for recovery, rebuilding and preparation for a better future.

The Project resulted in the release of A Seat at the Table: Young People and Disaster Recovery a guide co-lead and co-produced by local young people from bushfire-affected communities. The Resource aims to ensure meaningful Youth Engagement, Participation, and Inclusion, comprehensively addressing aspects of youth engagement and participation in disaster response, crucial to community resilience.

This presentation will showcase how young people from bushfire-affected areas co-led and guided the project and resource development. Explains why youth participation is a crucial to building cohesive communities, the key principles you should follow, and resources for further assistance.

This presentation will outline and demonstrate how this accessible guide can assist committees, community leaders and other decision makers to ensure that young people are safely and meaningfully included in disaster preparedness, management, decision-making, project design and implementation, governance and evaluation.

YACVic will share opportunities to ensure young people have their ideas heard and understood by policy makers and service providers when designing or reviewing disaster initiatives that directly impact them and their communities.

Elevating young people to the centre of community preparation, recovery, rebuilding and planning ensures they are genuinely heard, and are meaningfully supported, valued and included in disaster preparedness.

"We will be inheriting everything after this so we should be involved. I am confident that the community would listen to us" — Young Person, Corryong

Nina Keath

City of Onkaparinga

Regional climate action. It's not rocket science to remember to include social science!

Southern Adelaide’s multi-award-winning regional climate partnership, Resilient South, is widely recognised for having bucked this trend, delivering on-ground strategic projects and cultural change within partner councils. Resilient South has helped shepherd climate change from a fringe issue to an embedded consideration. While there remains much to achieve, the partnership has delivered impressive outcomes, running on significant goodwill between partners. This presentation will share insights into how Resilient South has achieved action and argue that our approach of strategically integrating both the physical and social sciences has contributed to success.

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Speaker bio

Nina is responsible for climate resilience at City of Onkaparinga. Her early career at Monash Uni was spent researching the ingredients required for transitioning towards more sustainable practices. Since returning to SA, and joining local government she has relished the opportunity to apply social theory and watch it work in the real world. She believes that connected and empowered communities are resilient communities and so, outside of work, she contributes to a range of community building activities. She created community think-tank, Ideas on the Fleurieu with the simple goal of connecting good people with good ideas. As a regular contributor to Fleurieu Living Magazine she honours the contributions of inspiring locals. And she was a founding Trustee of the Awesome Foundation Fleurieu, supporting awesome ideas to become a reality via no-strings-attached, micro-philanthropy.

Presentation outline

Many institutions have been proactive in funding research, policy and tools to address climate risks. However, despite significant effort and investment, there is widespread concern that progress is too slow, and stakeholders face social and institutional impediments to mobilising on-ground action. Bridging the gaps between science, policy and implementation remains a significant challenge.

We will share insights into how Resilient South has achieved action and argue that our approach of strategically integrating both the physical and social sciences has contributed to our success.

Technical investigations underpinned by rigorous physical science are essential for providing climate hazard data and risk. However, the social sciences help us understand that people’s ‘perceptions’ around risk will significantly influence whether the risk is perceived as worth managing and the types of management approaches that should be adopted. The implications from one set of climate science will be interpreted and used differently depending upon people’s aspirations, needs, beliefs, values and skills. Their surrounding socio-technical environment will also influence their capacity to respond. The failure of institutions to consider and strategically address social and institutional transition mechanisms may be part of the reason for the widespread perception that climate reforms are not meeting expectations and that evaluations of policy programs are showing a level of failure.

Resilient South has partially overcome this challenge by using the physical sciences to understand risk exposure, and the social sciences to identify pathways for transitioning towards more resilient practices and institutional settings.

Beth Eggleston

Humanitarian Advisory Group

Finding alignment between disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation: Pacific perceptions, practice and policy

This talk will present emerging findings from a localised research project that focuses on the Pacific, drawing lessons from abroad to dialogue at the domestic level in Australia. The talk will explore opportunities for integration of CCA and DRR programming, focusing primarily on local practice and implications at the community level, while recognising the influence of national and regional policy frameworks. It will put forward emerging evidence of best practice and highlight opportunities to strengthen and build on these models to ensure better outcomes for Pacific Island communities in the face of a changing climate.

Speaker bio

Beth Eggleston

Beth is passionate about approaching humanitarian action differently. After surviving the bureaucracy of large international NGOs and the United Nations, she now enjoys working with a small team to deliver leading-edge research and advice to enable the humanitarian sector to perform at its best. Beth co-founded Humanitarian Advisory Group in 2012, a social enterprise that aims to harness humanitarian passion with entrepreneurial energy and innovation. A 2019 Fulbright scholar, Beth was able to learn more about how militaries engage in disaster response operations at the US Naval War College.

Presentation outline

The case for integrating disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) to minimise loss and damage, reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience continues to grow. This is against a backdrop of increasing frequency and severity of disasters worldwide and the recognition that, at the community level, the distinction between DRR and CCA is artificial.

Linkages between the two policy fields, alongside communities’ holistic understandings of what is driving their exposure to risk and how to manage it, have driven researchers, policymakers and practitioners to consider how to more closely align approaches and resources to produce better outcomes for crisis-affected populations.

The case has been made in academic and practitioner literature, agency reports and emerging policies, yet what it means from a community perspective to integrate DRR and CCA has received little research attention.

We will put forward emerging evidence of best practice and highlight opportunities to strengthen and build on these models to ensure better outcomes for Pacific Island communities in the face of a changing climate.

Senator the Hon Jenny McAllister

Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy

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Speaker bio

Assistant Minister Jenny McAllister has served as a Senator for New South Wales since 2015, representing the Australian Labor Party. She was born in Murwillumbah and grew up on the north coast of NSW. Senator McAllister is married to NSW MLC John Graham and they have two children.

Senator McAllister’s professional career spans senior roles in both the public and private sectors, with a strong focus on infrastructure, environment management and climate change. Before joining the Australian Senate, she held various senior roles at AECOM, a global infrastructure firm.

Senator McAllister served as National President of the Labor Party between 2011 and 2015. She was previously the Shadow Cabinet Secretary, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and Shadow Assistant Minister for Communities and the Prevention of Family Violence.

Climate change and environmental management remain key areas of interest for Senator McAllister. She was co-founder of the Labor Environmental Activist Network (known as LEAN). Senator McAllister is passionate about managing the economy to achieve social justice and social inclusion, and better outcomes for climate and sustainability.

Presentation outline

Jennifer Cobley

IAG

Georgia Whitbread

IAG

Anna Jackson

IAG

Insights and learnings from NRMA Insurance - driving preparedness action at scale

The session will explore the evolution of seasonal preparedness activity to an ‘always on’ approach utilising collaborative partnerships (NSW SES, Australian Red Cross, NSW RFS, Minderoo Fire & Flood Resilience Initiative), behavioural science, data, and research to drive risk awareness and preparedness action.

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Speaker bio

Jennifer Cobley

Jen Cobley is an experienced leader of strategic corporate and community partnerships and programs, driving social and commercial outcomes. She has a demonstrated history of working in the insurance industry and in building cross sector partnerships. As Executive Manager Disaster Resilience at IAG, Jen and her job-share partner Georgia Whitbread lead a team responsible for developing and executing activities that enable communities in Australia and New Zealand to better prepare for and respond to natural hazards, contributing to IAG’s purpose to ‘make your world a safer place’. This includes through preparedness and behaviour change campaigns and programs with long term community partners.

Georgia Whitbread

Georgia is a social impact professional and works in the Safer Communities team at IAG.  Georgia works with a range of partners and on projects that are designed to create safer, more connected and resilient communities. She is passionate about the role business can play in addressing pressing societal issues.  She job-shares with Jennifer Cobley, as Executive Manager Disaster Resilience and together develop a disaster resilience program that delivers both business value and positive societal change for our customers and broader community. 

Anna Jackson

Anna is responsible for strategic and creative direction across all IAG brands in Australia, managing a multi-disciplined team and a roster of external agency partners. In her time at IAG, she’s been at the helm of returning NRMA Insurance to growth and making it a leading example of marketing effectiveness. With more than a decade’s experience across of variety of roles with creative agencies, brand consultancies, a start-up (of her own making), and, most recently, corporate marketing, she has a breadth of first-hand experience in solving complex brand problems. She relishes in creating work where both business and broader society benefit.

Presentation outline

NRMA Insurance has a proud history of helping Australians build disaster resilience by helping communities better prepare for, adapt and respond to the impacts of natural hazards. Alongside our internal experts and partners, we will share learnings and insights through a series of case studies on our evolving approach to driving preparedness to support resilience action in communities.

Examples include:

Encouraging monthly preparedness tasks around the home.
Utilising claims data and consumer research to increase awareness and action.
A first-of-its-kind Minecraft game using real-world data for climate preparedness.
Creating a cultural conversation through film to help drive a resilience movement.

These case studies will be supported by an interactive discussion with our stakeholders focused on our learnings, challenges, and new opportunities in driving risk awareness and action at scale to support on the ground behaviour change. Opportunities we are continuing to explore through our evolving approach include:

Targeted and hyper localised approaches to support community-led preparedness.
Incentivising and rewarding action through moments in the preparedness journey.
The necessity of cross-sector partnership, leveraging skills and capabilities.
Ongoing measurement and evaluation challenges and opportunities.

This session will provide unique insights into our collaborative approach to influence and build disaster resilience from a leading Australian brand.

Danielle Teychenne

Firethrive

Evaluating a data driven, behaviour change design approach for bushfire preparedness

In a free online bushfire preparedness quiz and behaviour change campaign titled ‘How prepared are you for a bushfire?’, natural hazard resilience organisation FireThrive challenges respondents to become more equipped bushfire evacuees. The tool is underpinned by Dr Kenneth Strahan’s (2018) self-evacuation archetype research and doubles as an engagement strategy to help local government and emergency services engage their residents to become more prepared for a bushfire. Learn about how the FireThrive team firstly distributed the tool throughout Australia, then – with data-driven insights – engaged local government areas.

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Speaker bio

Danielle Teychenne is a Co-Founder and Behavioural Designer at FireThrive, a social enterprise that empowers bushfire-prone communities across Australia to grow and adapt to the emotional and environmental challenges of bushfires. FireThrive achieves this through co-designed interventions, campaigns, tools and education. Danielle's passion lies in learner-centred education that leverages human emotion, story and play to deliver meaningful and memorable experiences. Danielle is currently undertaking a Master of Digital Learning Leadership with a research focus exploring how archetype targeted public health policy could be effective in closing the bushfire awareness-preparedness gap.

Conference outline

The tool is underpinned by Dr Kenneth Strahan’s (2018) self-evacuation archetype research and doubles as an engagement strategy to help local government and emergency services engage their residents to become more prepared for a bushfire.

Learn about how the FireThrive team firstly distributed the tool throughout Australia, then – with data-driven insights – engaged local government areas.

The team partnered with a local government area to identify clusters of residents based on their perception of bushfires and preferred communication mediums.

In two design thinking workshops, representatives from a local government area identified areas for development, local community initiatives and high risk populations.

Based on an ideation session, a bushfire behaviour change campaign was co-designed and produced with local residents. The campaign included a mix of interactive stories, tipsheets, case studies and animations.

This campaign was launched via a tailored poster, email and social media campaign, targeting the populations that often ‘wait and see’ to evacuate during a bushfire. Respondents can retake the quiz periodically, with profile shifts demonstrating behaviour change over time.

The entire process was underpinned by community co-design, and evaluated to determine acceptability and effectiveness. Findings will contribute to the research literature for future program design.

Angela Cook

Country Fire Authority Australia

Kelly Stoner

Country Fire Authority Australia

Strengthening disaster resilience: Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) for people with disability

People with disability are at a disproportionate risk during a disaster. They are two to four times more likely to die in a disaster than the general population. Previous research shows that multiple categories of social vulnerability intersect with disability, which increases the risk in a disaster. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence about the causes of deaths of disabled population during a disaster. The CFA’s Preparing Vulnerable People project deploys qualitative research that captures lived experiences of people with disability and demystifies key mechanisms behind this phenomenon.

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Speaker Bios

Kelly Stoner

Kelly Stoner is a Senior Engagement Advisor – People at Higher Risk at the Country Fire Authority (CFA). Kelly has been a volunteer in her local CFA brigade for over 20 years with a particular focus on community engagement, and has worked in the health, aged care, and disability sectors. Kelly is passionate about social justice and improving access and inclusion for all using a person-centred capability approach. Kelly’s current focus is on developing effective relationships with all relevant parts of the community, including individuals, informal and formal supports, service providers, advocates, peak bodies, funding bodies, relevant government departments, emergency services, and other subject matter experts, with the goal of increasing awareness of fire risk and improving the safety of people in higher risk groups in their homes.

Angela Cook

Angela Cook is the Senior Engagement Advisor, People at Risk at the Country Fire Authority (CFA). Over the past three years she has managed the Preparing Vulnerable People (PVP) project, which aims to improve fire preparedness and safety for people at higher risk. People who have a disability are at disproportionate risk in emergencies, including both house fire and bushfire. Angela has worked in CFA’s Community Preparedness for over 15 years and has managed a number of large state-wide community engagement programs and projects. Angela has a strong focus on accessibility and inclusion for all the community and believes strongly in the capability approach.

Presentation outline

Professor Stephen Dovers

Australian National University

Carlene York

NSW State Emergency Service

Dr Kate Brady

University of Melbourne

Martijn Gough

Aither

Closing Panel: More co-benefits than you can poke a stick at: organising arguments for mainstreaming DRR

Speaker Bios

Professor Stephen Dovers

Steve Dovers is an Emeritus Professor with the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a Senior Associate with the firm Aither. He has published over 200 research works and supervised over 70 research students, and is active in research in disaster policy, natural resource management and climate change adaptation. He was a researcher and cluster lead researcher for several years with the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, working with the sector on policy, legal and institutional dimensions of emergency management. His recent commentary on mainstreaming disaster risk reduction across policy sectors can be found at: Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction, seriously? - AJEM

Carlene York

In 2019, Carlene was appointed NSW SES Commissioner. Carlene leads the combat agency with legislated responsibility for storms, floods and tsunamis. It is also the largest volunteer provider of rescue services in NSW and supports communities through capabilities in urban search and rescue, vertical rescue, road-crash rescue, land search, community first responders, swift water rescue, community engagement, flood planning and preparedness activities.

Commissioner Carlene York joined the NSW Police Force in 1980 and held various roles during this time including the position of Assistant Commissioner, Human Resources. Her career covered several areas including forensic services, operational policing, prosecuting matters of complex and sensitive nature; strategic review of diverse and complex issues within field and specialist operational at an executive level. Carlene also led several critical commands as Commander in the Forensic Services Group, Northern Region and Human Resources, providing strategic leadership and direction in the areas of human capital, forensics, policy development, operational planning, emergency management response and delivery of frontline police responses.

Carlene was awarded the Australian Police Medal in 2014, is a recipient of the Australasian Council of Women & Policing’s highest honour – The Audrey Fagan Memorial Award and the Australian HR Director of the Year in 2017.

Martijn Gough

Martijn is an economist and a public policy specialist in the areas of environment, climate change adaptation and emergency management. Over the last 15 years he has worked at the forefront of policy and reform with the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, the United Nations Development Programme and local government. For the past 6 years he has led the Resilience and Adaptation advisory service at Aither, a leading policy, strategy and economics consulting firm. Martijn is also a member of the NSW Coastal Council where he provides independent economic and strategic advice to the Minister responsible for coastal management and adaptation.

Martijn takes a strategy first approach, helping senior decision-makers to define their goals and develop a pathway to achieve them. He supports this approach with the application of fit-for-purpose economic frameworks to identify and value the benefits and trade-off associated with policy proposals and investments.

Dr Kate Brady

The Australian Disaster Resilience Conference 2022 is proudly supported by NAB.