Compounding disasters set to impact Victorian communities –
- 90-minute Breakfast Event with expert panel on how Victoria can better respond to multiple and compounding disasters
- Melbourne CBD, Wednesday 3 April 2019
A disaster risk reduction expert is urging the Victorian Government and private sector to act collaboratively and swiftly in the face of an emerging era of unpredictable and compounding disasters.
In a report by Dr Robert Glasser, former head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Australia is entering a dark and disturbing era, with future impacts of natural disasters to be more frequent, unpredictable and destructive.
“As our world warms beyond two degrees, which is now looking increasing likely, we’re going to enter an era of disasters that will have profound implications for how we organise ourselves to protect Australian lives, property, economic interests and our way of life,” said Dr Glasser in his Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report, Preparing for the Era of Disasters.
To Victorian communities and Critical Infrastructure sector providers of essential services — such as water, food supply, health services, energy, transport, communications, banking and finance, and government services — this indicates an urgent need for collaboration and unity.
Last month the Business Continuity Institute and British Standards Institution published the Horizon Scan Report 2019, which highlighted recent global disruptions and assumed threats for the next 12 months. It put Critical Infrastructure failure as the fourth biggest threat.
Director and Founder of corporate2community, Renae Hanvin, said: “It’s never been more vital for Victoria’s Critical Infrastructure sectors to adopt a new collaborative approach to offset the ramifications of disasters and help build a more resilient Victorian community.”
“This requires Critical Infrastructure owners and operators to put competitive imperatives and politics aside, look inside and outside their organisations, and commit to the role they should play in building Victorian communities that don’t just survive, but thrive,” Ms Hanvin said.
Mr Saul Midler, Business Continuity & Resilience Executive at Terra Firma Business Consulting, said: “In Australia we’ve experienced many scenarios over the past 12 months where Critical Infrastructure failure has created significant impacts to people, property and profits.”
“Critical Infrastructure failures are predicted to increase in frequency over the next 12 months. Now is the time for leadership across all government and non-government owners and operators to refocus, and overlay community resilience needs on top of the need to respond to your own disruption,” Mr Midler said.
To identify the unity between organisational resilience and community resilience, Terra Firma and corporate2community are bringing together Australian and international experts to discuss the importance of ‘Driving a Community Resilience Mindset Across Victoria’s Critical Infrastructure Sectors’.
Breakfast Event
Wednesday 3 April 2019
8:00am – 9:30am (breakfast from 7:30am)
Citadines on Bourke, 131 Bourke St, Melbourne
To register your attendance, please click here.
Speakers:
•Dr Robert Glasser: Former Special Representative for the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction and Head of the United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
•Jennifer Wolcott: Acting Director Emergency Management Resilience, Emergency Management Victoria (EMV)
•Amanda Lamont: Director Engagement and Projects, Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR)
•Renae Hanvin: Founder & Director, corporate2community
•Saul Midler FBCI: Business Continuity & Resilience Executive, Terra Firma
