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Panel Members of the Australian Disasters Conference 2009

Session: The Future Risk Environment

The aim of this session is to explore the future risk environment and raise issues relevant to the four conference sub-themes. Dr Gael Jennings will address scenario questions to a panel of eight senior level experts representing key emergency management functional areas. Panel members include:

Session: Panel Outcome Discussion – The Future of Emergency Management in Australia

This session will recommend strategic measures to enhance mitigation and preparedness activities to build community resilience for the future.

The Conference will inform Australian Government emergency management policy, through submissions to the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC), chaired by the Secretary, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, and the Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management (MCPEM), chaired by the Australian Government Attorney-General.

The AEMC is the peak body charged with responsibility for managing national strategic emergency management issues and policies. The AEMC has decision making authority and recommending authority to Ministers.

The AEMC members are well placed to participate in thimcdos panel discussion and will act as Session Chairs throughout the conference to identify the key issues emerging from the presentations.

 

Tony PearceTony Pearce
Director General, Emergency Management Australia

Tony Pearce commenced his appointment as Director General - Emergency Management Australia in August 2006 after having spent 27 years in the intelligence and emergency management sectors. He spent 9 years in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as an Intelligence Analyst before commencing with the emergency services. After leaving the RAAF he spent twelve years with Ambulance Service Victoria in senior operations management positions responsible for emergency management and major incident response planning functions and is a qualified Paramedic. Two and a half years in the position of Deputy Chief Officer of the Victoria State Emergency Service preceded a move to the role of Director Emergency Management and Security in the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner in Victoria in July 2003.

Tony holds an Associate Diploma of Health Science, a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Emergency Management, a Graduate Diploma in Management and an Executive Master of Public Administration from Melbourne University.

He is the President of the Oceania Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), a member of the US Board of the IAEM, Editor in Chief of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management and an Advisory Board Member to the Research Network for a Secure Australia.

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Dr John CarnieDr John Carnie
Chief Health Officer, Department of Health Services Victoria

Dr John Carnie is the Chief Health Officer for Human Services Victoria. Prior to this he held the position of Director Disease Control & Research. He has expertise and experience in a range of public health issues including emerging community risks, communicable diseases and environmental health. He has been a member of numerous public health, scientific and research advisory committees and is a Fellow and Past President of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine.

He is a member of the National Health Committee and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

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Andrew CoghlanAndrew Coghlan
National Manager, Emergency Services,  Australian Red Cross

Andrew was appointed National Manager, Emergency Services in February 2006. His pivotal role is to oversee the national Emergency Services function, and ensure Australian Red Cross' ability to promote resilience and build community capacity, both in preparation for and response to disasters throughout Australia. Amongst achievements and contributions to date, Andrew has developed and overseen the implementation of a new vision for Red Cross in the emergency sphere, including the restructure of the emergency services team throughout Australia into a tight knit group incorporating staff in both National and Divisional offices. 

Together, the team have elevated the organisation’s profile within the emergency services sector and established relationships with key agencies at all levels of Government. A major achievement has been the development and recent launch of the Emergency REDiPlan project, a four step household preparation program aimed at fostering individual and community resilience throughout Australia.

Prior to joining Red Cross, Andrew was the National Recovery Consultant with Emergency Management Australia where he coordinated the Australian approach to disaster recovery. Major achievements in this role included a national review of community recovery arrangements, development of the Australian Recovery Manual and representation of the community sector on a range of national and international emergency management forums.

Andrew is Vice-President of the International Research Committee on Disasters, a member of the Australian Journal of Emergency Management Editorial Board and represents Red Cross at key external forums and consultations including the Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum and the Australian Government’s Not for profit Advisory Group.

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Peter DaviesPeter Davies
Director, Northern Territory Emergency Service

Peter Davies has been Director of the Northern Territory Emergency Service since July 2006. After leaving school at Scotch College in Perth in 1976, he joined the Australian Defence Force graduating from the Royal Military College Duntroon as an Infantry Officer. During his thirty year military career, he pursued two career streams in operations and project management. His operational career involved three postings with 6 RAR and appointments included Chief of Staff of Headquarters 1 Brigade and Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander Headquarters Northern Command. Mr Davies deployed overseas twice as the Chief of Staff of the Australian Joint Taskforce Headquarters in Iraq during Operation CATALYST in 2005 and as a Liaison Officer for the Australian deployment to Rwanda during Operation UNAMIR II in 1994.

As a project manager, Mr Davies specialised in equipment acquisition and organisational transformation. Highlights included managing Project Bluefin which re-equipped the Australian Defence Force's Special Forces for the Sydney Olympics and planning the establishment of Electronic Systems Division of the Defence Materiel Organisation, an 800 strong organisation geographically dispersed throughout Australia.

Mr Davies is a graduate of the Royal Military College Shrivenham (UK), Command and Staff College Queenscliff and the Joint Services Staff College. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), a Master of Defence Studies and a Master of Business Administration.He was awarded a Commendation for Distinguished Conduct for his contribution as the Chief of Staff of Australia's Joint Taskforce Headquarters in Iraq.

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Bruce EsplinBruce Esplin
Emergency Services Commissioner, Victoria

Bruce Esplin has an impressive career spanning more than twenty years in the emergency management sector. He was appointed Victoria’s first Emergency Services Commissioner in June 2000. Bruce is an advocate for an inclusive approach to emergency management and encourages continuous dialogue between community, government departments, agencies and organisations to lead the way in sector standards.

As the commissioner, Bruce travels extensively across Victoria, during and after emergencies to ensure that every Victorian has the appropriate opportunity to talk directly with senior representatives from government. The commissioner provides a conjugate for communities to contribute to the planning and policy of the way emergencies are managed.

Bruce has a vision for progressive emergency management arrangements where communities are not passive recipients of services, but active participants in their own safety planning and decision making.

Bruce has played a central role in the whole of government response to many major emergencies in Victoria including bushfires, gas explosions, extreme storms and floods, and critical infrastructure failure. He has conducted a number of independent, highly sensitive inquiries into the activities of government agencies and the appropriateness of the State’s emergency management arrangements. Such as, the ‘Report of the Inquiry into the 2002-2003 Bushfire’ 2003, the ‘Report of Fire Service Delivery in Latrobe City’ August 2005, ‘Report of the Response to a Emergency at Melbourne Airport’ March 24 and currently the ‘Review of the Gippsland Floods’.

Bruce is a passionate and committed spokesperson for the emergency management sector, particularly in Victoria where he is well known and respected as a leader in the future direction of emergency management.

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David FinlaysonDavid Finlayson
Assistant Secretary Public Affairs, Attorney-General's Department

David has 25 years’ experience in public communications, including on campaign development, media and issues management, marketing and as a print journalist.

He has worked for a range of government and private organisations, including as a senior consultant with an international public relations agency.

David has 25 years’ experience in public communications, including on campaign development, media and issues management, marketing and as a print journalist.

He has worked for a range of government and private organisations, including as a senior consultant with an international public relations agency.

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Maj Gen (Retd) Hori Howard

Maj Gen (Ret'd) Hori Howard
Chair, Australian Emergency Management Volunteers Forum

Major General Brian (Hori) Howard served in the Australian Regular Army from 1959 until 1990. Amongst his many military appointments, he commanded a battalion and an infantry brigade, was Director General of Operations and Plans for the Australian Army, instructed at the British Army Staff College, and served in several overseas countries including Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Japan, and Uganda. He saw operational service in South Vietnam for which he was awarded the Military Cross. He successfully completed the Canadian Armed Forces Command and Staff College and the Australian Joint Services Staff College.

His last military posting was as Director General of the then Natural Disasters Organisation, which is now Emergency Management Australia, the national counter disaster organization for Australia. For this service, he was awarded the Order of Australia. He resigned from the Army in 1990.

In that same year, he was appointed as the Director General of the New South Wales State Emergency Service, the organisation responsible for dealing with floods, storms, land and inland water searches, and the majority of road accident rescue outside the major cities. He was also made responsible for setting up a modern emergency management and rescue system for the State. This involved creating legislation, a State Emergency Management Committee, which he chaired, a State Emergency Operations Centre, which he controlled for a number of years, and developing a suite of emergency plans capable of dealing with all hazards, including the results of a terrorist attack. The current New South Wales emergency management system is largely his design, and he was awarded the Emergency Services Medal for his efforts.

Between 1990 and 2001, he controlled a number of major emergency operations following major flooding and severe storms to which New South Wales is vulnerable every summer. He retired as Chairman of the New South Wales State Emergency Management Committee in December 2005, but retains the appointments as Chairman of the Australian Council of State Emergency Services and the Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum. He was recently appointed to chair the National Flood Risk Advisory Group (NFRAG) which is a sub-group of the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC).

During his long service in emergency management his advice and assistance have been sought by three of the other Australian States, and he has provided assistance to Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Hong Kong. He has recently assisted the Government of Sri Lanka in a range of operational emergency management issues.

Hori is a widower, has two married sons and two grandsons. He lives at Austinmer NSW, a beach suburb, and he enjoys the water. He is also a keen follower of rugby union.

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Allen KearnsAllen Kearns
Deputy Chief, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Allen Kearns is an environmental scientist with research interests in the social and ecological consequences of urban and industrial development.  He is Deputy Chief of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, based in Canberra, where he has been working since 1995. Allen also leads the Sustainable Cities and Coasts Theme in CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship.

Prior to joining CSIRO, Allen worked for thirteen years in environmental chemistry and applied ecology with the international consulting company, Dames & Moore. He ran consulting practices for the company in Australia, California and France working on a wide range of natural resource management and infrastructure development projects for the mining, energy, chemical, manufacturing and urban sectors.

Allen also worked in research teams investigating groundwater contamination from waste disposal sites and the development of biofuels (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, USA) and marine pollution chemistry at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville. Allen is a Chartered Chemist and originally educated in Agricultural Science at the University of Sydney.

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Andrew LeaAndrew Lea
Director, State Emergency Service, Tasmania

Andrew Lea was appointed the Tasmanian Director, State Emergency Service (SES) in February 2001 after a 21 year career in the Royal Australian Navy. He directs 25 permanent staff and over 570 SES volunteers.

Originally from Nowra, NSW, he completed most of his schooling in Canberra, ACT, prior to joining the Royal Australian Navy in 1980. After specialising as a Seaman Officer and serving in many ships, he sub-specialised in mine warfare and clearance diving. Two seagoing commands and service with the US Navy were the highlights of his career. He concluded his service while Officer-In-Charge of the Navy’s Mine Warfare Faculty in Sydney. He remains a Royal Australian Naval Reservist.

As Director SES, Andrew performs the functions and powers under the Emergency Management Act 2006. This involves the management of the SES and the maintenance of a prepared and motivated volunteer work force. His duties and responsibilities also include Executive Officer of the State Emergency Management Committee, and as such, represents Tasmania on various national emergency management groups or committees, such as the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC). He chairs the AEMC Tsunami Working Group, the AFAC/ACSES Operations Group and several State-level committees, such as the Nuclear Powered Warship Visits Committee and the combined emergency service Critical Incident Stress Management Committee.

Andrew lives in Hobart and is married with two teenage children.

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Gregor_MansonGregor Manson
Emergency Services Commissioner, ACT Emergency Services Agency

Gregor has 25 years’ experience managing national treasures such as the Great Barrier Reef, national parks within the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area as well as Kosciusko National Park and is a specialist in emergency management.

Since December 2006 Gregor has been appointed to the position of ACT Emergency Services Commissioner. Gregor’s role so far has been to introduce new governance and business management planing systems across the agency, manage a significant overspend of budgets to bring them back into balance as well as the integration of four operational services under a streamlined management system.

As the Executive Director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority from 2000 to 2005, Gregor dealt with two major shipping accidents – the grounding of the Malaysian container ship, the Bunga Teratai Satu and Greek registered bulk carrier, the Doric Chariot off the reef off Cairns.

From 1994 to 1998, as a manager in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Gregor was an emergency incident controller for the Blue Mountains and Sydney region bushfires.

Gregor was also the Snowy Mountains Regional Director for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service from 1995 to 1998 and responsible for an area including the Kosciusko National Park and extending from Albury to Bombala up to the ACT border. He was part of the response team at the 1997 Thredbo landslide and spearheaded the recovery effort in the wake of the disaster.

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Geoff McDonaldGeoff McDonald
First Assistant Secretary Security and Critical Infrastructure Division, Attorney-General's Department

Geoff McDonald is the First Assistant Secretary of the Security Critical Infrastructure Division of the Attorney-General's Department which is responsible for national security issues, such as policy on the protection of Australia’s critical infrastructure, electronic surveillance, the national security legal framework and broader security policy coordination. Previously as head of the Security Law Branch, he developed a range of security legislation, including the anti-terrorism legislation. Before that he was head of the Criminal Law Branch of the Department where he played a central role over the past decade in the development of the Model Criminal Code and the federal Criminal Code working closely with State and Territory Governments. In 2006 he was awarded a Public Service Medal for his work in those branches. He is a Macquarie University law graduate and started his career working in the New South Wales local courts.

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Jim McGowanJim McGowan
Director-General, Department of Emergency Services, Queensland

Jim McGowan was appointed as acting Director-General of the Department of Emergency Services in September 2007 and was formally appointed to the position in January 2008.

Previously Jim was Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney‑General. 

Jim has extensive experience in the public sector, including Deputy Director‑General, Department of Industrial Relations, General Manager, Public Sector Industrial and Employee Relations, Department of Industrial Relations.  Between 1974 and 1999 Jim had an extensive career in education having taught at a number of State high schools, including the positions of Principal and Deputy Principal.

He is the Queensland Government Champion for Aurukun.

He has a Bachelor of Economics, Diploma of Education and is a Commissioner of Declarations.

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Commissioner Greg Mullins, AFSMCommissioner Greg Mullins, AFSM
New South Wales Fire Brigade

Greg Mullins was appointed as Commissioner of the NSW Fire Brigades (NSWFB) in July 2003, and is the first fire officer in the 124 year history of the NSWFB to be appointed as both Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive Officer. He joined the NSWFB in 1978 after serving as a bushfire brigade volunteer from 1972.

Since 2000 when he was appointed Director State Operations, he has been intimately involved in the development of the NSWFB’s capabilities and role in managing the consequences of terrorist attack, including Urban Search and Rescue, and Chemical, Biological, and Radiological attack.

Commissioner Mullins sits on the NSW CEO’s Counter Terrorism Coordinating Group, is a Ministerial adviser on the NSW Cabinet Standing Committee on Counter Terrorism, represents all Australian Fire Services on the National USAR Capability Development Board, has represented Australia at the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (UN), and is a member of the State Rescue Board and Deputy Chair of the State Emergency Management Committee.

During his career he has received awards for courageous action and meritorious service, and holds tertiary qualifications including a Masters Degree in Management. In 2002, he completed the Executive Fire Officer Program at the United States Fire Academy and in 1995 completed a Churchill Fellowship that involved researching fire services in Europe, the UK, USA and Canada.

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David PlaceDavid Place
Commissioner of Fire and Emergencies, SA Fire and Emergency Services Commission (SAFECOM)

David is the current Commissioner of Fire and Emergencies of the SA Fire and Emergency Services Commission (SAFECOM). His role is Chair of the SAFECOM Board as well as Chief Executive of SAFECOM, to which the State Emergency Service (SES), Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) and Country Fire Service (CFS) report.

The sector has 1,200 employees and has responsibility for around 20,000 volunteers. The Commissioner is Chairperson of the Emergency Services Leadership Council (ESLC), National Chair of the Remote Indigenous Communities Advisory Committee (RICAC – a committee that is leading policy for remote Indigenous communities in terms of emergency management). David is one of two Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC) members representing South Australia on the national Emergency Management Committee (EMC).

David previously held the dual positions of Chief Executive of SAFECOM and Chief Office of the SES, following his appointment as Chief Officer of the SES in 2004.

Prior to these roles, David was a senior executive for the SA Ambulance Service (SAAS), involved in Regional Operations, Communications and other Corporate Services. David commenced with SAAS in 1984 and spent 10 years as a frontline Ambulance Officer prior to being promoted through the operational ranks. David’s career with SAAS spanned 20 years.

A keen four wheel drive enthusiast and scuba diver, David loves exploring remote Australia with his family and capturing those memories through photography, both above and below the water.