IGEM Report 1: 2017-18 - THE CYCLONE DEBBIE REVIEW

Inspector-General Emergency Management

Volunteers

Themes

A number of volunteer organisations play a role in disaster management to enhance capacity across all levels of disaster management but particularly at the local level. There are two types of volunteers recognised in the Queensland Offers of Assistance Guidelines. These are:

The SES is an emergency service for the community. It will prioritise households before businesses, and can only repair storm damage, not rebuild houses. After Debbie, there was a concerted effort to ensure SES got to all communities, not just the ones known to have been affected. This was a positive outcome as this practice was based on the experience of Tropical Cyclone Marcia where some com- munities were reportedly forgotten. Volunteering Queensland leads the management of offers from spontaneous volunteers in times of disaster. 135 It matches those offers with the needs of councils or others seeking support, who then take on responsibility for their management and costs. Effective volunteer management needs pre-existing arrangements. In Debbie, Volunteering Queensland was asked to support Logan City Council. It was able to assist until relieved, and this arrangement worked well. However direct volunteer management on the ground is not the role of Volunteering Queensland, and it is not anticipated to be the model for the future. 136 The recently released QFES Volunteerism Strategy has identified a “critical need to develop more flexible strategies to support the broader community and to ensure we have the systems in place to attract, retain and support our volunteers both now and in the future.” 137 There is potential for further work in this area. Complementing the QFES work is the research being undertaken by the Bushfire and Natural Hazard Collaborative Research Centre into volunteering. The research is examining sustainable emergency volunteering, improving retention and engagement, and non- traditional emergency volunteering.

“Volunteers” – individuals who are formally affiliated with an emergency service organisation or NGO, and act under the respective organisations direction and authority, and

“Spontaneous volunteers” – individuals or groups who are not skilled or trained to perform specific roles in disasters and are often not affiliated with an emergency or community organisation but are motivated to help. 134

Organisations including but not limited to the SES, the Australian Red Cross, Surf Life Saving Australia, the Salvation Army, Lifeline, St. Vincent de Paul, Adventist Development and Relief Agency Australia, RSPCA, BlueCare, St. John Ambulance and GIVIT have a pre-existing volunteer base. Together they provide distinct services across disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Local governments also used volunteers to assist with disaster management. There is potential for councils to extend their use of volunteers, matching them with gaps identified by business continuity planning. In Debbie, the deployment of additional SES resources to support local capacity in areas requiring assistance was done quickly, although power outages and resultant communications failures prevented alerting text messages getting through to some. As in previous events their role was not completely understood.

Finding Volunteers played a vital role during Debbie. Traditional emergency management volunteers, such as State Emergency Services, and spontaneous volunteers ensured rapid relief to communities. Continued support and advocacy of informal and non- traditional volunteering through organisations such as Volunteering Queensland and the social sector

ensure the community is rapidly supported following an event.

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The Cyclone Debbie Review

Lessons for delivering value and confidence through trust and empowerment