In March 2022, the NSW Government commissioned an independent expert inquiry into the preparation for, causes of, response to and recovery from the 2022 catastrophic flood event across the state of New South Wales. This report outlines the findings.

Major flooding in NSW in February-March 2022 was a catastrophic disaster, causing widespread devastation and damage – particularly in the Northern Rivers and Hawkesbury regions. This inquiry was set up to consider the NSW Government's preparedness, coordination and response to the flooding events. While this...

The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) plays a critical role in Victoria’s emergency management response model. This review considered all aspects of ESTA’s operating model and assessed ESTA’s capabilities against the core services it delivers.

The key focus in this report is the impact of the 2019-20 bushfires on human health and welfare, and the recovery process for those who lived through the fires and are attempting to rebuild their lives in impacted regions and communities.

This report outlines the findings from a longitudinal study of how survivors fared during the 12 months immediately after the fires decimated communities in Victoria’s East Gippsland Region. The report was prepared for Australia’s national energy consumer advocate, Energy Consumers Australia.

This paper provides a brief overview of some of the issues that affect firefighters and other emergency service providers, and poses a number of questions concerning how they are recruited, trained and supported; how their equipment is managed; how they communicate during an emergency; and...

This research brief summarises three recent publications that analyse some of the social and political effects of Tropical Cyclone Winston in Fiji.

This report provides a summary of the community feedback received during the Gippsland Strategic Bushfire Management Phase 3 Engage Victoria consultation.

In an emergency, the provision of public information and warnings plays a significant role in making people and communities safer. Timely, targeted and tailored information and warnings empower people to make informed decisions, to take protective action, and to reduce the potential impacts and consequences...

New Zealand has just had a ‘near miss’ with tsunami risk – for the second time in the last three months. An earlier NZIER Insight (no. 63) covered how a tsunami warning was issued 1 hour 20 minutes after the earthquake centred offshore from Te...

This discussion paper is based on collaborative and ongoing research into crisis and disaster management and its intersection with the role of politicians in communicating with various publics before, during and after crises and disasters.

Successive bushfire inquiries in Australia have called for authorities to more effectively harness and disseminate bushfire information. Recommendations from these inquiries suggest a new approach to bushfires involving greater co-ordination, in which home dwellers, emergency fire services and government work more closely together and acknowledge...