Establishing responsibilities
In the first subject of this course (EMG100) we touched, albeit briefly, on the subject of legislation. I believe this was sufficient to demonstrate to you how important and relevant legislation is in the field of emergency management.
Before progressing any further, now may be an appropriate time for you to invest some time in refreshing your understanding of emergency/disaster management legislation.
Activity 2.2
Read
Textbook: Carter, Chapter 7. Auf der Heide, Chapter 2.
Legislation Search and Analysis:
Go to the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) at http://www.austlii.edu.au/and search out the emergency management and emergency services’ legislation (fire, ambulance and emergency services) for your particular State or Territory. If you are overseas, select and Australian State or Territory to initially be the subject of your search. Examine the various pieces of legislation and note the powers, roles and responsibilities provided by the legislation and to whom the powers, roles and responsibilities are given. There are subtle differences that must be observed between the various pieces of legislation. The differences are situated within each jurisdiction, but the comparison across jurisdictions heightens your awareness to the particularity within one system.
Reading 2.1: Extract from Emergency Law
Eburn 'provides an analysis of the legislation relevant to emergency management, disaster planning and response in each State and Territory. The discussion lists the various powers contained in the legislation as well as the circumstances that must exist before the power can be exercised. It is important to set out the powers in this way for a number of reasons. As stated in the legislation analysis above, there are differences between each State and Territory’s legislation. Understanding that although generally similar in structure, there are subtle differences in the legislative aspects of emergency management in each State and Territory hopefully will allow you to better understand the role that legislation plays in emergency management. That is why I have set this reading: to assist your ability to look at the legislative powers and analyse their practical implications.
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You now need to commence analysing the legislation relevant to your selected event’s pre-impact phase. In this analysis you will be identifying the benefits legislation might have, and/or in some cases, what were the effects of the lack of legislation on the pre-impact emergency management aspects of your selected event.
Before specifically looking at the effects of legislation relevant to your event, I would like to take you through a series of questions that will assist you in:
- identifying the legislation that was in place at the time of your event, and
- identifying whether the legislation (or lack of it) may have had a bearing on the emergency management activities and preparations undertaken by principal organisations involved in preparing for such an event during its pre-impact phase.
Activity 2.3
Consider your selected event. Where might you find listings or details of organisations involved in your selected event? Make a quick note on a piece of paper of these sources of information.
Hopefully your list included relevant emergency/disaster plans, Royal Commission reports, coronial investigations and reports, specific emergency service/government reports, etc.
I would now like you to search through the various documents etc. available relating to your selected event and identify the main organisations involved in your selected event and their primary roles.
Include this information in the appropriate table contained within your saved EMGdata.doc that you commenced in Activity 2.1.
Add rows to the table as required and save your document for future reference and continue updating as new pieces of information are acquired. These tables will form one of the informational sources for your analysis and evaluation of your selected event.
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How did you go? Did you have any problems in compiling this list and identifying organisational roles? You will find that in some cases, information will not be as readily available for some events depending upon when they occurred, how big they were and where they occurred. You may also find that some agencies and organisations may not have the depth of information required about their involvement in the event. In these cases, you will need to delve deeper into the event and also consider a broader search for your sources of information. In some cases, if information is critically sparse, you may have to consider selecting another event that can provide the depth and breadth of information required.
Activity 2.4
Did you come across any duplication of roles and responsibilities?
If yes, which agencies had a duplication of roles and what were these duplications? Remember we are only looking at primary roles, as in emergencies/disasters some organisations may have supporting or secondary roles in addition to their primary ones.
Identify the duplicated roles and corresponding agencies/organisations. Were the duplications detrimental to the management of the event and what could be done to ensure that these problems do not occur in the future?
Include this information in the appropriate table contained within your saved EMGdata.doc that you commenced in Activity 2.1.
Add rows to the table as required and save your document for future reference and continued updating as new pieces of information are acquired. These tables will form one of the informational sources for your analysis and evaluation of your selected event.
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As you have hopefully discovered by now, the responsibility for emergency management is spread across many agencies. It is not uncommon to find that emergencies/disasters will often tend to cross jurisdictional boundaries - local government, state and in some cases country borders. This often creates additional problems relating to the control and coordination of response and relief and the delineation of responsibilities and accountability between multiple agencies from different jurisdictions.
Activity 2.5
What would be some strategies that we could adopt to rectify this potential problem of responsibility/accountability for emergency management in a multi-agency, cross jurisdictional type event? In an electronic file or on a piece of paper, make a note of these strategies and save it for future reference.
Save or print this activity
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You have probably listed several strategies. One strategy that comes to my mind is the need for organisations to adopt a consultative approach to the development of legislation and emergency management arrangements. This should be not only between themselves but also between tiers of government (local, state or regional, federal or national) thus ensuring all parties have an input into the process and an awareness of each other's roles and responsibilities in emergency management. In this way, overall accountability can also be decided and agreed upon by all agencies involved.
