Videos discuss shared responsibility

Valuable insights from the Understanding Disaster Risk national forums are available with five videos from the events available online to help inform discussions into the future.

Over 700 people gathered across Australia to discuss disaster risk vulnerability last October, where the conversations were designed to be productive, constructive and evolving.

Videos that were produced at the forums showcase attendees and leading thinkers discussing their thoughts on Australia’s vulnerability to natural hazards.

AIDR partnered with Emergency Management Australia and CSIRO to deliver the forums in every Australian state and territory – bringing key governance materials to life.

Monica Osuchowski from Emergency Management Australia said disaster risk reduction is a shared responsibility.

‘The forums were designed to bring a wide range of stakeholders together to improve the way that Australia understands and responds to risks posed by natural hazards.

‘It’s generally recognised that reducing disaster risk and building resilience is a shared responsibility,’ she said.

The themed videos focus on – cascading risks, the role of the private sector, local government planning and the next steps for the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework.

A high range of sectors were represented at the forums including – banking, superannuation, insurance, community services, not-for-profit, consulting, health care, state and local governments, critical infrastructure providers, research and academia, and emergency management.

Sharanjit Paddam, from QBE Insurance Group shares his thoughts on the scientific challenges of a changing climate.

‘Some of the challenges are going to be about who pays for resilience. We need to resolve that and resolve that very quickly,’ he said.

The private sector feature heavily in the videos; with representatives from Energetics, XDI Systems and Beyond Business as Usual all sharing their thoughts.

‘I’ll be looking to engage our stakeholders in this space and to see what we can do, how we can leverage off the work that has already been done and where we need to step up about what we must do as a community,’ said Hans van Daatselaar from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.

AIDR Executive Director Amanda Leck said, ‘we think that the private sector are key to some of the implementation of the risk reduction framework,’ and encouraged attendees to network and collaborate.

Monica Osuchowski said the broad range of stakeholders was a positive step towards cross sector collaboration.

‘We invited a really diverse range of participants to these forums because disaster risk is something which everybody has a role to play, that role is not necessarily equally shared but everybody has a voice and we need to hear what those voices are in reducing disaster risk,’ she said.

Local governments and their respective associations were also high in attendance at the forums, including representatives from rural municipalities like Frances Ford from the City of Greater Bendigo.

‘I’m motivated to go away and read those great resources.

'I want to apply them within a local government context, where we’re really trying to have a whole-of-organisation response to climate change and climate impacts,’ she said.

Forum proceedings, including PowerPoint presentations, are available on the AIDR Knowledge Hub.