All 537 councils in Australia are expected to participate. Already some 50 councils are involved. While obvious geographic logistics, COVID-19 and the occurrence of natural disaster hazard events themselves can affect program availability, councils are encouraged to register to help inform the roll-out schedule for 2023 and 2024.

No. While there are many community and government activities underway relating to disaster management, recovery and resourcing, this program is uniquely capturing and creating new data and information through the lens of local government. The program is additionally responding to recommendations from the Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Funding that identified local government data was non-existent.

Each Council’s Chief Executives, senior executives and key advisors who are involved in planning and management are all encouraged to be involved. Qualitative and quantitative information and data sharing during these focused engagement sessions are reported as invaluable by participants and aid in the identification and understanding of the different perspectives and future collaborations for successful, long-term risk mitigation.

It is an ongoing program, so councils can take part regularly – and we encourage councils to do so.An annual workshop can monitor activity and be useful in strategic, budgeting and other planning and reporting such as essential legislative and regulatory requirements. Running through the program again after a local natural hazard disaster or related event can also be valuable. The power of the program is its ability to monitor experience and changes over time which can be very useful in setting priorities, even applying for funding and grants because the data and information can help track activities as well as identify gaps and needs.