Fire and emergency services agencies are well placed to provide leadership and to collaborate with governments, business, communities, educational institutions, and individuals to develop strategies and take action to reduce disaster risk and support resilient communities, through mitigation, influencing policy and regulatory change, and education and engagement.

Readiness is critical for the industry to ensure that the response and recovery missions are appropriately executed and successful. The fire and emergency services sector are committed to providing management and specialist training, leading the country’s risk reduction efforts, and providing research and data collection and analysis.

Accurate, reliable and timely information is critical to effective decision-making and modern systems rely on the rapid transfer of information to deliver impact and value. By utilising current and emerging technologies across a wide range of systems, sources and capabilities, fire and emergency services can enhance community advice and understanding before, during and after emergency events.

Fire and emergency services are working to build an inclusive culture, by embracing the value of bringing people from different backgrounds and different points of view to work together, to cultivate a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community. Governance and resource management of this significant resource needs to be contemporary, adaptable and accountable.

Partnerships will be established and maintained to deliver pure and applied research and importantly look beyond the sector to understand how to achieve the path to our goals. By scanning the environment and collaborating across Australia and internationally, opportunities can be identified and utilised. Our research focus will be driven by community safety outcomes and we’ll confidently refocus our efforts to maximise value.

Accountability is a core component of effective governance, made up of four key elements – transparency, responsibility, enforcement and responsiveness. Our sector is accountable for its emergency management responsibilities to governments and the communities they serve. This requires clarity in the delineation of responsibilities for decision-making authority, functions, advice and information sharing.