	home \| search \| contact us \| site map \|
	State Emergency Service - Tasmania

     - Current ERM Initiatives      - National Risk
           Assessment
           Framework
     - NERAG Project
     - Completed Tasmanian            ERM Studies

National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines Project

The National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines Project is a key step in the Implementation Plan for the National Risk Assessment Framework that has been developed to meet the outcomes sought by Reform Commitment One (RC1) from the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) report on natural disaster mitigation, relief and recovery in Australia :

‘RC1 - ‘develop and implement a five- year national program of systematic and rigorous disaster risk assessments’ RC1..

The objective of the project is to develop risk assessment guidelines which will assist practitioners at all levels of government to undertake risk assessments that support the National Risk Assessment Framework. Extensive research and stakeholder consultation will be undertaken in order to develop effective, robust guidelines. The project will include an evaluation from states/territories following the completion of draft guidelines to ensure that the final product is comprehensive, functional and suits their needs.

The main outcomes and expected benefits for this project are:

· Safer sustainable communities through better planning using systematic and rigorous disaster risk assessments

· A greater integrated and comprehensive understanding disaster risk assessments to enhance emergency preparedness.

· Consistent, interoperable, measurable disaster risk assessments across all jurisdictions.

· Improved understanding of world’s best practice with respect to risk assessment

Current Progress

Key components of the project which have contributed to the current draft of the guidelines include:

Literature Review. The literature review was completed and circulated nationally for comment and was utilised to inform the development of the draft methodology for risk assessments.
Draft methodology. The draft methodology was then developed for presentation at national workshops for comment by the stakeholders. Comment was made and suggested improvements were discussed.
Consultation workshops. Two stakeholder consultation workshops were held in Brisbane and Adelaide with representatives from all jurisdictions, national committees and local agencies. The strong attendance at both workshops provided solid feedback and discussion from a jurisdictional and national perspective.
Draft guidelines. Following the workshops, draft guidelines were prepared and circulated nationally for comment.
Pilot Studies. Three pilot studies were then successfully completed and the findings incorporated in the next iteration of guidelines. Pilot studies included:
- Regional all hazards assessment of North West Tasmania
- State-wide risk assessment for South Australia, and
- Specific hazard assessment in Cairns.
Formal national consultation on subsequent drafts. Two rounds of formal consultation on subsequent drafts have been undertaken with 491 comments received and considered in the two rounds.
Technical risk review. The current draft (Exposure Draft 0.C) is currently being peer reviewed by technical experts appointed by Geoscience Australia.

Issues

Delivering on COAG’s requirements

The National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines (NERAG) have been developed as one of the first outputs of the National Risk Assessment Framework’s Implementation Plan. As such, they provide a methodology to support the reform commitments and risk and data objectives recommended by COAG.In addition to COAG’s requirements, there are sound practical, social and economic reasons for having a national approach to the conduct of emergency risk assessments. Primarily these reasons include:

improving understanding of emergency risk issues and ensuring that risk treatment measures provide a sound return on investment
standardising risk assessments and the development of alternative risk reduction proposals
increasing transparency so that assessment processes can be followed easily, checked or modified in the light of improved knowledge or information
improving consistency to allow meaningful comparisons between different geographical areas and/or hazard classes.

The NERAG have been developed to meet those needs.

Compatibility with risk standards

In 1995, Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand developed a risk management standard: AS/NZS 4360:1995 Risk management. It emphasised the management of risk rather than the management of hazards. The emergency management sector recognised the value of this approach and contextualised risk management approaches were published by Emergency Management Australia in 2000. The Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Standard was revised and republished in 2004 and has been adopted by many organisations both in and outside Australia as the basis for their approaches to risk management. As a result, in 2005 the International Standards Organisation decided to create an international ISO standard, based on AS/NZS 4360:2004. ISO 31000 Risk Management will extend the risk management process to include principles for risk management and will specify a framework for embedding risk management into standard governance and business practices (both of which were either implicit or only covered partially in AS/NZS 4360:2004 Risk management). The international standard ISO 31000:2009 Risk management – principles and guidelines will be published in October 2009. Standards Australia has advised that the international standard will be adopted in a very short time frame in lieu of AS/NZS 4360:2004. A final content check will therefore be required to ensure the NERAG are compliant with the new ISO 31000.

Future actions

Peer Review. The technical peer review is expected to be complete by mid September.
National consultation. Exposure Draft 0.C has been circulated to jurisdictional representatives via NRAAG representatives for a third and final round of national consultation. Comments from individual jurisdictions are due back to the project team by the first week in October 2009.
Content check against ISO 31000. A final content check will be conducted once ISO 31000:2009 Risk management – principles and guidelines are published in October 2009.
AEMC endorsement. Following peer review, the final round of national consolation and the publication of ISO 31000, amendments to Exposure Draft 0.C will be made as necessary and the final publication will be tabled with AEMC for out-of-session endorsement. It is anticipated that this will occur towards the end of October 2009 with four weeks for AEMC consideration and agreement to endorse the product and forward it to MCPEM-EM for national adoption.
MCPEM-EM adoption. Ministers will be invited to adopt the guidelines nationally once AEMC has endorsed the product.
Printing and distribution. Once MCPEM-EM has adopted the guidelines, printed copies and CDs will be produced and distributed to states and territories.

Further information on the National Risk Assessment Framework and other project documentation can be accessed by selecting the links in the right hand panel.