Inspector-General Emergency Management to review responses to major flood event

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today announced that there will be a review of Queensland’s response to the flood event that so severely impacted the south-east of the state.

The independent review will be undertaken by Inspector-General Emergency Management, Alistair Dawson.

The Premier welcomed the review.

“This is how we constantly improve our response to natural disasters,” the Premier said.

“Learning from the last event makes us better prepared for the next.”

Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan said that during his tenure as Inspector-General, Mr Dawson had delivered several key reviews to government including the 2019-20 Queensland Bushfires Review and the K’Gari (Fraser Island) Bushfire Review.

“Whenever there is a major natural disaster like the devastating flooding event we have just witnessed in south-east Queensland, we will call upon the Inspector-General to conduct an independent review.

“The role of the Inspector-General was recognised by the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements as a leading example of continuous improvement and best practice that has worked successfully and that similar arrangements to the Queensland model would be desirable for other jurisdictions.

“The unfortunate reality is that Queensland is the nation’s most disaster-prone state, and while we get a lot of practice responding to these kinds of events, we are always looking to see if we can do things better.

“That is the Inspector-General’s job, to examine the response to the floods, and see if there are any lessons that can be learned, or improvements that can be made to the way we deal with these events.”

As part of the independent review, the Inspector-General Emergency Management will be inviting submissions from the public and will host some public forums. 

The Terms of Reference and further details about how to make a submission will be made available on the Inspector-General’s website: www.igem.qld.gov.au.

ENDS

Media contact: Phil Willmington 0411 535 180