Embedding resilience in Australia

Source(s): United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - Regional Office for Asia and Pacific
Australian businesses are working to boost community safety in the face of hazards such as flooding (Photo: Australian Business Roundtable)

Australian businesses are working to boost community safety in the face of hazards such as flooding (Photo: Australian Business Roundtable)

SYDNEY, Australia, 16 March 2016 - Australian businesses are coming together to improve community safety and outcomes following natural disasters in a country that is confronted reguarly by events such as bushfires, floods, cyclones and severe storm activity.

The costs of natural disasters exceeded A$9 billion in 2015, and it is estimated that, without any mitigating action, the total economic cost of natural disaster events in Australia will reach A$33 billion per year by 2050, according to research commissioned by the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities from Deloitte Access Economics.

The Roundtable was formed in 2012 to influence public policy through evidence-based reporting on the unsustainable cost of disasters on life, property and the economy.  Roundtable members comprise business leaders from large private sector corporations in banking, property, communications and insurance, as well as the Australian Red Cross.

The Roundtable’s core focus aligns with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction – namely to reduce the impact of natural disasters by building an understanding of risk and investing in mitigation measures to make communities more resilient and people safer.

In Australia’s federal system of government, responsibility for emergency preparedness and response is shared across the national, state and local governments.  Coordination is therefore essential to ensure improved and effective delivery of preventative activities that embed resilience.

The Roundtable has been working to achieve reform across all levels of government in Australia through its four research projects that contribute much needed data and research to support the case that mitigation and resilience should be at the heart of public policy design and delivery.

The Roundtable’s two most recent reports focus on critical infrastructure and the economic costs of social impacts.

Consistent with the principles of the Sendai Framework, the Roundtable’s report ‘Building Resilient Infrastructure’ found that investment in resilient infrastructure supports communities to more effectively withstand, respond to and recover from the potentially devastating impact of natural disasters. 

Using the findings of the report, the Roundtable is now working with stakeholders to help build an understanding of natural disaster risk and how it is assessed, and to have resilience included in the evaluation criteria for critical infrastructure projects. Importantly, the Roundtable notes that it is not just governments that should consider resilience in infrastructure planning. The private sector can often avoid disaster-related costs by considering resilience in their infrastructure projects.

For the first time in Australia, the Roundtable report ‘The economic cost of the social impact of natural disasters’ has quantified the total cost of natural disasters, including the costs that arise from the often longer term social and health impacts. 

By looking at recent case studies of flooding in Queensland and bushfires in Victoria, the report finds that individuals and communities experience social devastation long after the immediate danger of the natural disaster has subsided, and that these impacts are costly – both socially and economically.  For instance, the report cites evidence of increased mental health issues, risky and high risk levels of alcohol consumption, increases in chronic disease and an increased incidence of family violence. Such social outcomes require greater recognition in both preventative and recovery efforts.

Governments often bear the brunt of disaster recovery assistance– be it through longer-term costs to the health system or through rebuilding of critical infrastructure. As such, the Roundtable has focused its attention on changing how government funds disaster management in Australia, seeking a greater focus on mitigation and resilience to reduce post-disaster costs and disruption. 

Yet, the Roundtable acknowledges that governments alone cannot resolve the massive task of reducing the costs and impacts of natural disasters.  It is through international and local partnerships with key stakeholders, including the private sector, that enable the development and sharing of best practice, and the adoption of the most effective mitigation and resilience strategies.  Embedding these strategies will deliver the key and shared objective of reducing the often devastating impact of natural disasters both in Australia and around the world.

Kate Raggatt is a Working Group Member at the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience & Safer Communities

 

 

 

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