Emergency Management in New South Wales

 

Communities in NSW live with a variety of natural and man made hazards.

The NSW Government acknowledge the inevitable nature of emergencies and their consequences, and have established a structure that coordinates the planning, preparedness, response and recovery aspects of an emergency involving all agencies.

The NSW State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989 (as amended) is the legislation that provides the basis for this structure. The Act establishes the following three tier structure of the Committees and Plan:-

 

 

 

The Committee structure is designed to involve stakeholders at each level that are best able to plan and respond.

The hierarchy of disaster plans (DISPLAN) are designed to devolve control and coordination of emergency operations to the lowest possible level and lays out a structure that allows a response to be educated as the need requires.

The DISPLAN objectives are to:-

• Identify the combat agency primarily responsible for responding to an emergency 
• Specify the tasks to be performed by all agencies in support of the combat agencies
• Specify the responsibilities of the Minister and the State, District or Local Emergency Operations Controller

 

Sub-Plans and Support Plans

A Sub-Plan is a plan developed to address specific hazards where the planning required is either more specialised or more detailed than that provided in the DISPLAN.

Examples of a Sub-Plan are:-

• Storm Plan
• Bushfire Plan
• Pandemic Plan

 

Support Plans outline outline arrangements for groups of agencies which may be acting in a supporting role. (Functional Areas).

Examples of Support Plans are:-

• Engineering Services
• Health Services
• Welfare Services

 

Further information on the NSW State Emergency Management Structure can be found on the Office of Emergency Services (OES) website.