The COVID pandemic relentlessly rolls on but prescribed burns have now also begun across Australia as the next bushfire season rapidly approaches. Such actions highlight that compounding, overlapping disasters are the new normal and now need to be planned for. Indeed, last year’s Bushfire Royal Commission declared: “Natural disasters are expected to become more complex, more unpredictable, and more difficult to manage. We are likely to see more compounding disasters on a national scale with far-reaching consequences.”
This problem is bigger than continental Australia. The latest World Risk Index ranks the Oceania region at greatest disaster risk worldwide. Of 181 countries assessed, Vanuatu has the highest disaster risk, Tonga ranks number 2, Solomon Islands 5, Papua New Guinea 8, Fiji 15 and Kiribati 18.
The increasing scale and frequency of disasters has meant the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will become more and more involved in domestic and foreign Humanitarian and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations.
Please click here to read the full “Preparing Australia to respond to disasters—at home and abroad” article published at The Interpreter, written by Griffith Asia Institute Visiting Fellow, Dr Peter Layton.
