Our department plays a leading role in a whole-of-government approach to managing major incidents, emergencies and disasters, like floods, bushfires, terrorism and other unexpected events.
As part of supporting the State Emergency Management Committee, we have recently made significant improvements to the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP), which outlines the strategies and systems in place for dealing with emergencies, to support businesses, communities and people to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from an emergency.
Additions to the SEMP include a clear set of principles defining the responsibilities of government agencies and participating organisations in emergency management activities. Among the principles are an increased focus on environmental protection, risk reduction, climate change awareness, and safeguarding people, with specific consideration given to the needs of First Nations peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, older people, people living with disability, and people who are experiencing family or domestic violence.
Cyber crisis has been included as a new hazard, with DPC taking on the role as Hazard Risk Reduction Leader.
Improving agencies’ preparedness has also been boosted, by providing direction around consequence thinking – the process of predicting, identifying, managing and minimising the social, economic and environmental impacts of an event – and guidance on how to reflect on lessons learned from an emergency event.
Well done to our Security, Emergency and Recovery Management team for their commitment and coordination of this significant and important piece of work in improving South Australia’s resilience.