Saltar al contenido principal

$3.8 million in projects to help Australia get disaster ready

Países
Australia
Fuentes
Govt. Australia
Fecha de publicación
Origen
Ver original

19 October 2012

Planning ahead is the key to being disaster ready and that's exactly what 29 National Emergency Management Program Projects worth $3.8million will do for communities around Australia.

Attorney-General and Minister for Emergency Management Nicola Roxon said being disaster ready is a key priority for the Gillard Government.

"We want to strengthen the capability of our communities and emergency management agencies to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and emergency situations," Ms Roxon said.

"Australia is a country prone to natural disasters and we need to learn from experience and prepare ourselves for times of emergency.

"These 29 projects will continue the Australian Government's whole-of-nation coordinated approach to emergency management with projects including the development of a new national fire danger rating system, a national tsunami community education strategy and enhancing the national emergency management knowledge hub website.

"This year's targeted capability development grants will help communities from across Australia become more resilient and better prepare for crises in their local areas.

"After two consecutive summer seasons of heavy flooding, we will see the national plan for managing floodplains be updated, which will influence future risk management around flooding.

"Our invaluable volunteers are also being supported through a project to develop national standards and continue regional and remote volunteer leadership development courses."

Past projects have included a national set of guidelines for managing goods donated following a disaster – an outcome of the Black Saturday bushfires – to ensure communities devastated by disaster receive the right donations when they need them.

The development of a Wildfire Arson Investigation Management Course in collaboration with the Australian Capital Territory Emergency Services Agency is also helping to better prepare for, identify and respond to bushfires across Australia.

The grants also sponsored a new Australian standard – the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) – which will provide a simple and standardised approach to disseminating authoritative, accurate and timely all-hazard emergency alerts over a range of communications technologies.

Further information in relation to all National Emergency Management Projects can be found at www.em.gov.au and a full list of new and funding for ongoing projects is attached below.

Media contact: Attorney-General's Office - 02 6277 7300