Submission to Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements

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We commissioned this expert Paper to synthesise the existing information on how Australia can prevent and respond to bushfires and other natural perils.

The paper summarises what has been learnt and what can be changed in the future.

IAG supports the recommendations of this paper, and in addition:

1. IAG urges governments at all levels to increase funding for mitigation works to make communities safer and more resilient for the long-term.
2. The primary role of governments in this area is to reduce community vulnerability to extreme weather events by creating a policy framework that promotes fit for purpose building codes, land use planning and preventative infrastructure investment, considers both life and financial impacts and future climate change.
3. A program of mitigation activity should be developed based on cost-benefit analysis that demonstrates a clear positive outcome from investing in pre-disaster resilience measures, including a program of community education activities. Prioritisation of these activities should be informed by analysis of research, information and data sets allowing key investment decisions to be taken at all levels, including government incentives and price signals from the private sector.
4. In order to ensure the benefits of mitigation investment are realised and not eroded over time, governments should work toward a long term, bipartisan and cross jurisdictional strategy for this mitigation investment.
5. All governments should work collaboratively with the private sector and community organisations when designing this strategy to allow each sector to capitalise on its unique expertise, data and skill set.