The development of the National Emergency Management Strategy for Remote Indigenous Communities was initiated by the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC) in 2004, and the completed Strategy has been endorsed by the Augmented Australasian Police Ministers’ Council (now renamed the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management or MCPEM).  The Strategy addresses recommendations made in the Council of Australian Governments’ directed review Natural Disasters in Australia: Reforming mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements (2002) and aims to improve the disaster resilience of remote Indigenous communities.

The Strategy was developed by the Remote Indigenous Communities Advisory Committee (RICAC), a sub-committee of AEMC, with funding provided through the Australian Government’s ‘Working Together to Manage Emergencies’ Program.

RICAC is chaired by the Director General, Department of Emergency Services Queensland and membership includes both emergency management and Indigenous representation from:

• New South Wales
• Northern Territory
• Queensland
• South Australia; and
• Western Australia

The Australian Government was represented on RICAC by the Attorney-General’s Department through Emergency Management Australia (EMA) and the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs through the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination.  EMA provided secretariat support to the committee.

RICAC gratefully acknowledges the work of Vision Network Pty Ltd in consulting with stakeholders and drafting of the Strategy.  In particular, RICAC acknowledges the contribution made by Indigenous communities and agencies and emergency management agencies in RICAC member states and territories to the development of the strategy.

Download the complete Strategy as a PDF file (1671KB) or read the Strategy online.