Standing Council on Police and Emergency Management

Communiqué

4-5 July 2013 – Darwin, Northern Territory

The Standing Council on Police and Emergency Management (SCPEM) chaired by the Hon Adam Giles MLA, Northern Territory Chief Minister and Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services, met in Darwin on Thursday 4 July and Friday 5 July 2013.

SCPEM promotes a coordinated national response to law enforcement and emergency management issues. Itincludes Australian and New Zealand ministers for police and emergency management and a representative of the Australian Local Government Association.

Meeting in Darwin, Ministers discussed a range of national emergency management issueswith a focus on measures to strengthen community resilience to disasters. Ministers also agreed a number of activities to progress the national response to firearms crime; agreed to develop a national response to dangerous psychoactive substances and endorsed a National Plan to Combat Cybercrime.

National Strategy for Disaster Resilience

The National Strategy for Disaster Resiliencewas endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments in February 2011.

Ministers welcomed the significant amount of work being progressed at national, state and local levels that contributes to implementation of the Strategyand strengthens community resilience to disasters.

Ministers agreed to focus the forward work plan on:

  • disaster mitigation
  • increased engagement with the private and not-for-profit sector, and
  • improving the resilience of vulnerable sections of society, including Indigenous Australians, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, children and youth, the elderly and people with disabilities.

National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience

The National Partnership Agreement on Natural Disaster Resilience provides funding of approximately $26million per annum to support disaster resilience initiatives that are aligned to the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience and state and territory disaster risk assessments.

Ministers expressed support for ongoing negotiations on the development of a new two-year Agreement.

Publication of State-Wide Risk Assessment Information

Communitiesthat understand disaster risk are critical to improvingAustralia’s resilience. Publication of risk assessments is an important tool that provides the public with information needed to make informed decisions and take appropriate protective action.

Ministers were briefed on the progress of publication of state-wide risk assessments by jurisdictions. Public versions of state-wide risk assessments are currently available, or will be available by the end of 2013, in every state and territory of Australia.

A number of states and territories areworking to ensure their state-wide risk assessments will be consistent with the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines by the end of June 2015. By the end of June 2017, all states and territories will publish a new, revised or updated statewide risk assessment.

Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre

Ministers discussed progress made in establishing the new Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

The new Cooperative Research Centre will conduct coordinated and interdisciplinary research, including work with communities, to improve disaster resilience and reduce the human, social, economic and environmental costs from a broad range of natural hazards.

The new Cooperative Research Centre will ensure that the valuable work done by the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre can continue while developing a complementary natural hazards research program into flood, earthquake, cyclone and tsunami events.

National Disaster Resilience Community Engagement Framework

The Community Engagement Framework is designed specifically for the emergency management sector and offers a practical approach to connecting with communities. It recognisesthe key role of local communitiesin developing disaster resilience.

The Framework has been endorsed by Ministers and will be available on the Australian Emergency Management website (

National Warnings Policy

The national warnings policyis a suite of emergency management documents that will guide the development and distribution of warnings by governments, and the re-publication of warnings by private industry.

It comprises three policy documents – Australia’s Emergency Warning Arrangements,Best Practice Guide for Warning Originators, and Code of Practice for Warning Re-publishers – that will help practitioners make critical decisions about what to warn about, when to warn and how to issue emergency warnings.

Ministers approved the policy documents whichwill be available on the Australian Emergency Management website (

Implementation of the Review of Relief and Recovery Payments

Ministers discussed progress on the implementation of the COAG-endorsed outcomes of the Review of Commonwealth and State/Territory Relief and Recovery Payments.

Action is focused on the development of a National Impact Assessment Model, which is expected to be trialled by the end of 2013. The new model will help to determine the impact of a disaster and more effectively target recovery assistance and services to those in need.

Canterbury Earthquakes: Lessons from the Response and Recovery

Ministers considered the outcomes of recent reviews into the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes that provide useful information for both Australia and New Zealand in the management of such major disasters.

Governments, business and the wider community can learn a great deal by understanding past disasters. Formal investigations and outcomes that cover response, recovery and lessons learned are particularly valuable in this regard.

Firearm Crime

Ministers agreed to progress a number of important measures as part of the National Response to Firearm Crime, including the implementation of the Australian Ballistics Information Network. The Network will provide another significant new national capability which will allow police in all jurisdictions to better use ballistics to link guns to crimes that are committed in the community.

Ministers agreed to continue the development of the National Firearms Interface which will help track the life of each firearm in Australia from ‘cradle to grave’, a capacity previously unavailable to police agencies which will increase their ability to combat firearm crime.

Ministers also agreed that each state and territory will consider, in consultation with their Attorney-General, whether it would be appropriate and beneficial to implement additional firearm search powers in their jurisdiction to target known firearm offenders to prevent them from reoffending, with jurisdictions to report back ahead of the next SCPEM. The ACT did not support this resolution.

Ministers also agreed to adopt a number of other measures agreed by the Firearms and Weapons Policy Working Group, including uniform standards for firearm identification and categorisation, uniform deactivation outcomes and improved intelligence sources for firearm registries. These measures will produce a significant national benefit by facilitating better cooperation between jurisdictions.

National Plan to Combat Cybercrime

Ministers further considered the issue of cybercrime and the growing use of technology by criminal groups. Ministers noted that the borderless nature of cybercrime requires a coordinated response involving governments, industry and individuals and recognised the need for an overarching national strategy to align collective efforts in this space.

Ministers endorsed the National Plan to Combat Cybercrime which articulates a framework for a coordinated and effective national approach to tackling cybercrime.

Advancements in Forensic DNA Analysis

Ministers considered emerging DNA issues and projects being conducted by the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency National Institute of Forensic Science, including research into DNA familial testing and kinship matching. These new DNA techniques and methodologies have the potential to increase the benefits that DNA analysis can provide to the investigation of crime. Ministers considered how current legislative frameworks for the use of DNA could be improved to take advantage of these new and emerging technologies.

National Response to New Psychoactive Substances

Ministers discussed the range of risks to the community posed by new psychoactive substances and agreed that jurisdictions must work together to develop a coordinated national response. These substances include synthetic cannabinoids, stimulants and hallucinogens being marketed as alternatives to traditional illicit drugs under names such as Kronic, Bath Salts and N-Bomb. Many of these have been implicated in serious injuries and deaths, with N-Bomb in particular believed to be responsible for the recent tragic death of a NSW teenager.

Ministers agreed that the Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs will consider the development of a draft national response which will be considered by SCPEM at future meetings.

The Commonwealth Minister advised Ministers that the Commonwealth will develop legislation to prohibit the importation of any unauthorised psychoactive substance (also known as a reverse onus scheme) and will work with states and territories on a coordinated national approach to ban the sale, manufacture or advertising of new psychoactive substances without authorisation.

Ministers also noted that the Commonwealth will establish a national drug monitoring system to collect and disseminate information on new psychoactive substances.

1