MINUTES
THE HILLS SHIRE
LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
MONDAY 6
THFEBRUARY 2023 COMMENCING AT 1.00PM
THE HILLS SHIRE COUNCIL 3 COLUMBIA COURT, NORWEST
COMMUNITY MEETING ROOM 6
All correspondence to be addressed to the:
Local Emergency Management Officer The Hills Shire Council, PO Box 7046, Norwest 2153
Telephone: (02) 9843 0205 Fax: (02) 9843 0409 [email protected]
1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS/OBSERVERS Michael Lathlean (The Hills Shire Council – Chair, LEMO)
Darrin Batchelor (NSW Police Force – LEOCON)
Jason McSweeney (NSW Police Force – Deputy LEOCON) Glen McCartney (NSW RFS)
Peter Dadd (NSW SES)
Jennine Kiely (NSW Ambulance)
Peter Randall (NSW Reconstruction Authority)
Diane Minns (NSW Department of Community and Justice) Justine Niven (NSW Department of Community and Justice) Evan Ferdous (Western Sydney Local Health District) Mel Dunn (National Emergency Management Agency) Diane Anderson (St John Ambulance)
Dave Wood (Castle Hill RSL Group)
2. APOLOGIES
Glen Streat (Red Cross)
Lisa Faulkner (NSW Ambulance) Darren Newman (NSW Police Force) Chris King (REMO)
Craig Samuel (REMO)
3. LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP LIST
The list of the Committee’s current Members and Observers was circulated at the meeting for updating.
4. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER 2022
A copy of the minutes is attached.
Recommendation: The Committee adopt the Minutes of the LEMC Meeting of 5th September 2022
Moved by Michael Lathlean and seconded by Darrin Batchelor.
5. OUTSTANDING MATTERS FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
At the meeting some discussion took place regarding a desktop simulation exercise that was planned to be held prior to this meeting. The exercise was to be conducted by the Police’s Command Development Unit (CDU) using a computer simulation tool. Unfortunately the CDU was double booked for the 6th February. As a result it has been agreed to conduct the exercise prior to the next meeting of the LEMC that is planned for 3rd July 2023.
Recommendation: The information be noted.
Moved by Glen McCartney and seconded by Peter Dadd 6. NATIONAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
In response to the series of natural disasters that have been experienced across the nation over the past few years, the Federal Government has combined the former National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Emergency Management Australia to form the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). The NEMA’s objective is to create a single nationwide agency to provide a better response to emergencies, help communities recover and prepare the country for future disasters.
Further details on the NEMA can be found on its website at https://nema.gov.au/
The NEMA has appointed Mel Dunn as the Recovery Support Officer for the Sydney Metropolitan Area. Mel briefed the Committee on her role and the relationship between NEMA and the various state-based emergency management arrangements and organisations.
Recommendation: The presentation from Mel Dunn be received.
Moved by Michael Lathlean and seconded by Peter Dadd
7. NSW RECONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY
As Committee members would be aware, the NSW government recently announced the creation of the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA). Many of Resilience NSW’s functions became part of the NSWRA.
The functions of the NSWRA include:
Disaster prevention and preparedness
Reconstruction and recovery following disasters and other emergencies
Community engagement and collaboration on disaster prevention, preparedness, recovery, reconstruction and adaptation
Developing a State disaster mitigation plan
Ensuring development needed to prevent or recover from a disaster can be delivered quickly.
The interim CEO of the NSWRA is Department of Planning and Environment Secretary Mick Cassel.
Further details on the NSWRA and its role can be found at the following link
NSW Reconstruction Authority | NSW Dept of Planning and Environment
Recommendation: The report be received.
Moved by Glen McCartney and seconded by Darrin Batchelor
8. JUNE/JULY 2022 FLOOD
As discussed at the previous LEMC meeting, another significant flood event occurred on the Hawkesbury Nepean River system commencing in late June and continuing through the first seven to 10 days of July 2022. This was the third major flood event on the THSC section of the Hawkesbury River over a 15 month period. Another less serious flood occurred in October 2022 The main impacts of the June/July flood for THSC occurred along low-lying areas adjoining the Hawkesbury River and the lower reaches of Cattai Creek. Those impacts included extensive damage to most caravan parks along the river as well as some dwellings and many outbuildings.
The flood also resulted in the temporary closure of various roads including Wisemans Ferry Road at Cattai Creek and Little Cattai Creek, Cattai Ridge Road at Cattai Creek, River Road at numerous locations, Mud Island Road and Pages Wharf Road.
Pages Wharf Road near No. 165 was closed to vehicles over 3 tonne in weight for a considerable period of time following the flood but was re-opened to traffic following completion of reconstruction works in mid-November 2022.
Council provided direct assistance to property owners affected by the flood through the provision of skip bins to assist with the collection and disposal of flood related waste. This followed Public Works Advisory’s initial clean-up efforts which concentrated on commercial properties and caravan parks. The provision of the skip bins has now concluded with Council spending over $130,000 on the service. This expenditure will be claimed back under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
Photos 1 and 2: Pages Wharf Road, Sackville North near No. 165
Wisemans Ferry Park again suffered significant damage with flood waste and tens of thousands of tonnes of sand deposited on the park which is still yet to be fully removed. Although the park is partially open to visitors, it will be still some time before it can be fully restored.
Photos 3, 4, 5 and 6: Wisemans Ferry Park
Council provided direct assistance to property owners affected by the flood through the provision of skip bins to assist with the collection and disposal of flood related waste. This followed Public Works Advisory’s initial clean-up efforts which concentrated on commercial properties and caravan parks. The provision of the skip bins has now concluded with Council spending over $130,000 on the service. This expenditure will be claimed back under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
Recommendation: The report be received.
Moved by Michael Lathlean and seconded by Peter Dadd
9. NSW AUDIT OFFICE PERFORMANCE AUDIT ON RESPOSNE TO COVID 19 (JUNE TO NOVEMBER 2021)
In late December 2022 the NSW Audit Office released a performance audit report on the coordination of the response to Covid 19 in the period between June to November 2021.
A copy of the report can be found at the following link
Coordination of the response to COVID-19 (June to November 2021) | Audit Office of New South Wales (nsw.gov.au)
The audit focused on the activities of five government agencies across the Fairfield and Dubbo local government areas during that period. Those government agencies were:
• NSW Police force
• NSW Health
• Resilience NSW
• Department of Customer Service
• Department of Premier and Cabinet The audit made seven recommendations, being:
By June 2023, the Department of Premier and Cabinet should:
1. improve transparency and accountability during an emergency by working with relevant agencies and Ministers to publish advice provided to decision-makers when emergency powers or Public Health Orders are used.
By June 2023, the State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) should:
2. capture lessons learned from the new models of cross-government coordination developed during the response to Delta;
3. include the Department of Customer Service, Aboriginal Affairs NSW and Multicultural NSW as members of the Committee;
4. report on and continuously improve the preparedness of emergency management at local and regional levels including representation of and engagement with local and vulnerable communities;
5. monitor risks from proposed changes to the governance arrangements of functional areas, including the impact on local level capability, relationships with local councils and representation of vulnerable communities.
By June 2023, the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the SEMC should:
6. work with relevant agencies to develop financial support models suitable for rapid deployment during emergencies.
By November 2023, NSW Health should:
7. publicly report on progress addressing recommendations of its COVID-19 Response Debrief.
Recommendation: The information be noted.
Moved by Michael Lathlean and seconded by Darrin Batchelor
10. NORTHWEST METROPOLITAN REGION EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING
The last REMC meeting was held at the Commonwealth Bank stadium on 29th September 2022.
Several presentations were made to the meeting on the following topics:
ADF capability to support emergency operations and the process for requesting such support
Foot and Mouth and Varroa Mite update by DPI
Sydney Metro Northwest presentation by Metro Trains Sydney
Discussions also took place regarding the need to identify a new facility for an REOC given the current constraints at several facilities including The Hills RFS District Office. The good news is that Fire and Rescue has offered its Metropolitan West Area Command Office at Huntingwood for such use.
The facility includes:
ample on-site and off-site parking spaces
the location is easily accessed – safe from bush fire and floods
the facility caters for and suits our requirements with equipment, rooms and size
24/365 access.The North West Metropolitan Police Command Office in Parramatta will remain listed in the Regional EMPLAN as the alternate REOC location.
The next meeting of the REMC will be held at the Fire and Rescue Training Academy at Orchard Hills on 21st February 2023.
Recommendation: The information be noted.
Moved by Peter Dadd and seconded by Glen McCartney
11. REGIONAL EMPLAN RISK REVIEW
In 2015 members of the then LEMC undertook an emergency risk review that was based on the Risk Management principles as detailed in the Emergency Risk Management Australia Manual 5 – Emergency Risk Management Applications Guide and the Australian/New Zealand Risk Management Principles and Guidelines AS/NZS 4360:1995 (Third Edition 2004), revised and redesignated as AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009.
The outcome of the emergency risk review was used to inform the current EMPLAN.
The REMOs are currently working on a review of the Regional EMPLAN which will include a new risk review across the region based on the National Emergency Risk Management Guideline which was published by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience in 2020.
The risk management review process detailed in the Guideline involves the identification of the potential emergency management risks faced by a community, their consequences and the level of risk. The process requires the consequences to be assessed against four different categories being people, economic, environmental and public administration. The likelihood of a risk is also assessed based on an average recurrence interval (ARI). A traditional risk matrix is then use to calculate the severity of the emergency risk from Very Low to Extreme.
For those members and observers who may be interested, a copy of the Guideline can be found at the following link
aidr_handbookcollection_nerag_2020-02-05_v10.pdf
The LEMO has undertaken a review of the potential emergency management risks likely to be faced by The Hills Shire LGA against the Guideline.
The REMO has requested the Committee endorse the review undertaken by the LEMO so that it can be incorporated in the Regional EMPLAN
Recommendation: The Committee endorse the emergency risk review as undertaken by the LEMO.
Moved by Darrin Batchelor and seconded by Glen McCartney
12. TRAINING
As Members and Observers are reminded at all LEMC meetings, details on all emergency management training courses can be found at the following link
Emergency Management Training - Resilience NSW
Recommendation: The information on training be received.
Moved by Michael Lathlean and seconded by Peter Dadd
13. REPORTS FROM MEMBER AND OBSERVER ORGANISATIONS NSW Police Force
LEOCON advised of changes in the management of recovery after an emergency event following the release of the NSW Flood Enquiry. Expect to see significant changes in the management of recovery operations following an emergency.
NSW Ambulance Service working on Business Continuity Plan for the provision of services during a flood event through the St John of God Hospital at Richmond.
Rural Fire Service advised that the current fire season has been relatively benign. However above average vegetation growth will be an issue for future HR plans. The new Fire Danger Rating system has been rolled out and appears to be operating satisfactorily.
State Emergency Service continues to be actively involved in flood and storm events. In 2022 The Hills Unit contributed:
17,294 volunteer hours
7,091 operational hours
1,204 community event hours
road fleet travelled 43,215 km
marine fleet 1,440 running hours
1,782 total requests for assistance
Department of Community and Justice now have around 100 staff available for the provision of welfare services during an emergency event who are trained in accidental mental health.
Western Sydney Local Health District is conducting a symposium on HEAT and understanding the impact on physical and mental health.
St John Ambulance continuing local duties and training.
Castle Hill RSL mentioned involvement in flag changing ceremony at Castlebrook Memorial Park on Australia Day where they recognise former defence and emergency services personnel who are interned in the park. Also advised that the RSL had acquired the adjoining Castle Hill bowling club.
14. GENERAL BUSINESS 15. LEMO LEAVE
The LEMO will be interstate on leave from Friday 17th February to Sunday 5th March inclusive.
During that period the Alternate LEMO Mark Colburt will be assuming the role of LEMO.
Recommendation: The LEMO’s leave be noted.
16. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be scheduled for Monday 3rd July 2023 at The Hills District RFS office.
Times will be confirmed as the intention is to have the exercise in the morning followed by lunch and the LEMC meeting afterwards.
