Attorney-General, Robert McClelland visited the Torrens Resilience Institute on 2nd July and delivered a speech on the Federal Government’s Agenda and future plans on emergency management and resilience. The visit was timely as it followed the launch just two days earlier of the Australian Government’s Critical Infrastructure Resilience Strategy. The new strategy promotes a resilience approach to ensuring the delivery of essential services such as power, water, health, communications and banking in the face of a major disruptive event.

In his speech, Mr McClelland said that “.... Australia has always been a country of extreme natural events. While previous generations confronted similar challenges to those we face today, we are seeing disasters increase dramatically in both their frequency and severity. This presents Governments, communities and citizens with unprecedented demands on their resources and expertise .... which should now be brought together and consistently applied, regardless of the cause. Accordingly, the Government has pursued a comprehensive agenda drawing together Commonwealth agencies, different levels of Government, the private sector and communities towards a consistent all-hazards approach.  Put simply, an all-hazards approach is about protecting Australia from risks to its safety and interests whether from man made or natural events.”

He concluded by stating that “.... a resilience-based approach to critical infrastructure is vital so that we can better adapt to change, reduce our exposure to risk and be better able to learn and bounce back from any type of hazard. Improving the resilience requires more than the efforts of individual organisations. It is a shared responsibility across Governments with business who are the owners and operators of critical infrastructure.”

In his address, the Attorney-General stressed the important role of the Torrens Resilience Institute as an organisation “.... which is making a valuable contribution to emergency management policy. I look forward to working with the Institute on issues that are of central relevance to all Australians.”


Download:

Attorney-General’s address to the
Institute, 2 July, webcast (48MB)

Attorney-General’s address to the
Institute, 2 July, pdf text (251KB)

Australian Governments Critical
Infrastructure Resilience Strategy
pdf text (478KB)

Australian Government’s Critical
Infrastructure Resilience Strategy
Supplement pdf text (225KB)