19 September 2018

Michael Ferguson, Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management

Progress on Blake Report

Today, the Tasmanian Government is publicly releasing a report that details the progress made on the recommendations in the Blake Independent Review into the Tasmanian floods of June and July 2016.

The Review provided 24 recommendations to improve Tasmania’s response and resilience to flood events. Five of the recommendations are complete, eight are scheduled for completion by the end of this year, and the remaining 11 recommendations are underway and on schedule.

Since the report was completed last year, the Government has been getting on with the job of implementing the recommendations, to ensure we are best able to respond to future flood events.

This includes:

• A commitment to end the controversial practice of cloud seeding;
• A commitment of recurrent funding for a central flood policy unit responsible for coordinating flood policy across all Tasmanian Government agencies;
• The commencement of a major flood mapping project, worth a total of $3 million, with equal contributions from the Tasmanian and Australian Governments;
• The state emergency service progressing development of a Flood Warning System, designed to be consistent with future national flood warnings frameworks, and scheduled for release by the end of 2018;
• The Department of State Growth’s completion of Phase I of the ‘Enhancing Tasmania’s Bridge Infrastructure Emergency Management Planning’ project;
• The Department of Premier and Cabinet’s development of new whole-of-government arrangements to support community recovery and better coordinate Government activity after emergencies; and
• The establishment of a Recovery Partners Network to support liaison and collaboration between Government and non-Government organisations involved in the delivery of a range of recovery services.

The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to enhancing community resilience and supporting actions that mitigate risk and help communities recover after natural disasters.

The Progress Report is available at http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/divisions/osem/blake_review_progress.

The Government thanks all Tasmania’s emergency services personnel who act with diligence and bravery when responding to emergencies. They do an incredible job in the face of extreme and challenging circumstances.

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