Opening up dialogue between public and private sectors for improved emergency planning and management
Sydney, June 7, 2016 - NSW Public Works with assistance from emergency management consultancy, Tigertail Australia, has embarked upon an initiative to increase the State’s preparedness to deal with an emergency beyond the public sector’s own capability.
The aim is to open up dialogue between contract engineering and consulting firms, industry associations and NSW State and Local governments to identify opportunities for coordinated assistance during catastrophic emergencies, and develop mechanisms to bring together engineering capability.
To kick this off, NSW Public Works engaged Tigertail to assist them to conduct a unique emergency planning exercise, Exercise Scientia Vectis 2016, for the public and private sector engineering community. The senior group was tasked with managing a mock emergency scenario – a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in central and eastern Sydney, NSW.
The exercise accessed the best brains and experience in the sector and identified the procedures and resources available to ensure resilience, citizen safety, and continuity of services to the community.
It also gave the private sector insight into how State Emergency Management teams think, how to plan their resources and contracts, build skills, and design and practise vital procedures to support the NSW community should the need arise.
Emergency service leaders in NSW, including the Police, Fire and Rescue and Engineering came together with industry leaders from Engineers Australia, Consult Australia, Master Builders Association, Lendlease, John Holland, SMEC, Arup, Beca and many others.
Emergency management is a complex series of activities that includes risk assessment, disaster mitigation, building preparedness and capability to withstand and manage disasters, emergency response, community recovery and renewal.
Emergencies from natural disasters cost the NSW community an average of $484 million per year, which is 44% of the national total. On average, there are more than 20 natural disasters costing more than $10 million every year in NSW with the latest East Coast Low causing tens of millions of dollars damage to infrastructure and property across the eastern states and tragically taking a number of lives.
“One of the reasons NSW responds well in the face of emergencies such as we have seen with the recent East Coast Low, is the time and effort spent in preparedness and practice such as with Exercise Scientia Vectis where NSW Public Works Engineering Emergency Management Team was assisted by Tigertail Australia,” explained Martin Dwyer, Chief Emergency Engineer at NSW Public Works. “Sometimes we need to contemplate an emergency so big that the old rule book no longer works and we must write a new one.”
“Resilience and preparedness are the foundations for ensuring that communities and businesses operate as safely and smoothly as possible in the event of an emergency – and that requires coordination between the public and private sectors. We help organisations design governance strategies, frameworks and plans, then implement, practise, audit and update them when necessary,” said Rick Stone, Managing Director at Tigertail. “We cut through the spin and give capability and counsel as to what business and government need to safeguard their people, assets, the environment and their reputation.”
Tigertail Australia is a leading provider of contingency planning, crisis leadership training, and incident management team training and exercises for public and private sector organisations.
Please contact Tigertail Australia on 1300 987 772, email: answers@tigertail.com.au or visit http://www.tigertail.com.au for more information.
About Tigertail Australia
Tigertail Australia advises high profile public and private sector organisations on risk, crisis and emergency management. It helps them survive disruptions, disasters and crises by providing strategies, training programs, tools and exercises.
Headquartered in Sydney and operating nationally, Tigertail has a team of highly experienced consultants from diverse backgrounds.
Clients that have chosen Tigertail to help them build resilient cultures include banks, insurers, governments, critical infrastructure owners and operators (gas, water, energy), health care organisations, defence, retailers and more.
For more information, please visit www.tigertail.com.au
For media enquiries,
Samantha Ford
answers@tigertail.com.au
+61 02 8097 1901
Jo Balfour
jo@progressiva.com.au
+61 405 542 018
Simulated collapse courtesy of the Emergency Information Coordination Unit