Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC

Policy, Political Engagement and Influence

“Inquiry recommendations get lost or distorted over time, and so having a place where practitioners can find and search the actual text of inquiry recommendations will help with understanding the past in order to keep learning for the future. Post-event inquiries are only helpful if their recommendations are available and not forgotten. Bringing together the lessons from past events will help practitioners identify trends and recurring themes and ensure the lessons of the past are not forgotten.”

A/Prof Michael Eburn, Australian National University

The Inquiries and Reviews database - what's in it and how can you use it?

This video describes how the Inquiries and Reviews database gives emergency services the upper hand in learning from the past to create a better future by allowing users to search and compare more than 4,000 recommendations from 315 inquiries and reviews into natural hazards in Australia.

Research that makes policy recommendations or provides data for decision makers is one voice in the cacophony of noise and information that has an actual influence on policy.

While some Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research has produced tangible useable items where impact and uptake are more straightforward, research utilisation in this theme of Policy, Political Engagement and Influence can be less tangible and, therefore, difficult to measure for success.

Many researchers and emergency managers may agree on priorities and outputs of research, but the decision to use this research is made by governments, ministers or appointed commissioners who create policy.

Policy affecting emergency management is made across a broad range of portfolios, from planning and land use, to building standards, infrastructure, transport, communications, justice and more. Research findings, although important, are only one consideration.

To support decision makers, this research theme has produced an index on national disaster resilience, a database of historical inquiries, modelling software for urban and infrastructure planners, disaster scenario planning, public information guides, a framework to understand risk ownership in the community, and legal and policy options for governments at all levels.

Online tools

These online tools were developed with CRC research and are designed to be ready for use. The tools here have been curated for this Driving Change theme. See more tools in the other themes.

AUSTRALIAN DISASTER RESILIENCE INDEX

The Australian Disaster Resilience Index is a support tool developed by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC in partnership with the University of New England. The website was developed specifically to help communities, government and emergency services take informed and practical steps to improve the disaster resilience of their local communities before, during and after natural hazards.

The Index is an industry-first assessment of the state of disaster resilience across Australia, and provides a clear pathway to improve decision making about planning, development, policy, engagement and risk assessment.

The Index measures overall disaster resilience, as well as coping capacity and adaptive capacity, of each statistical area (SA2) in Australia. It also proposes five disaster resilience profiles in Australia – nationwide collections of communities that share similar resilience strengths and constraints. This provides users with an opportunity to address the resilience of a specific area, form alliances with organisations in similar areas, and develop targeted improvements for their communities.

Use Index

INQUIRIES AND REVIEWS DATABASE

Search through 315 emergency management inquiries and reviews from across Australia between 1886 and 2020.

The data can be sorted via disaster and inquiry type, date and jurisdiction using a simple table display. For more in-depth analysis, CSV files can be downloaded allowing you to run local queries and reports. The database also contains the full recommendations from 186 inquiries and reviews between 2003 and 2020. A facetted exploration interface enables a filter-search of 4,194 recommendations, allowing effective search and comparison through keywords and themes.

This database can be used for a variety of purposes including:

To compare equivalent recommendations between inquiries, themes and jurisdictions
To track inquiries across jurisdiction, year and types
To download and work with all inquiries and listed recommendations for the particular needs of your organisation

Access database

Case studies

CRC research is driving change across communities, government and emergency service agencies, as highlighted by the case studies relevant to each Driving Change theme.

A MODEL FOR RELIEF AND RECOVERY

This study assesses resilience across the country, embedding the national findings to develop a better understanding of resilience, relief and recovery.

A model for relief and recovery

“WHAT IF” QUESTIONS DRIVE FUTURE POLICY

Scenario modelling helps government, planning authorities and emergency service agencies consider the consequences of options when preparing for major disasters.

"What if" questions drive future policy

SHARING THE RISK

Research is helping government and emergency management agencies identify and allocate ownership of risks.

Sharing the risk

Highlights

This collection is a curation of the best and most recent news articles, Hazard Notes, videos, posters, guides, journal articles and reports relevant to this theme.