NSW disaster agencies slammed for ‘failures of leadership’

Both of NSW’s leading disaster agencies have been slammed for failures of leadership following this year’s catastrophic floods.

Former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller in Lismore in northern NSW on Wednesday. Picture: Scott Powick

Both of NSW’s leading disaster agencies have been slammed for failures of leadership following this year’s catastrophic floods, with the State Emergency Service set to be downgraded and Resilience NSW abolished.

The long-awaited NSW flood inquiry found that “poor organis­ational culture” at the SES led to multiple failures that magnified the disasters. “Unfortunately, an agency’s embracing of the principles of emergency arrangements is only as good as the culture present in that agency,” the inquiry said of the SES.

The report’s authors, former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller and scientist Mary O’Kane, found there been a clear failure by management to learn from previous disasters, and recommen­dations from previous reviews had been ignored. “The inquiry heard the proposition of ‘planning for the worst and going big early’ was not in the minds of SES leaders,” the authors said.

Many of the criticisms ­appeared directed at SES Commissioner Carlene York.

“Poor organisational culture will consume good emergency management arrangements, as evidenced in previous SES ­reviews – of which many recommendations are still unactioned,” the report said.

It recommended a new deputy police commissioner take the role of State Emergency Operations Controller, and lead a proposed new agency, Recovery NSW.

The capability gaps in the ­response by the SES were particularly evident in the Northern Rivers, where the inquiry heard of inadequate flood warnings, emergency calls not answered and a general lack of preparation.

Warnings were often ­issued with little time to spare, giving residents no time to prepare and get to higher ground. “It is clearly in everyone’s interests for warnings to be timely and orders to be ­issued as a public safety direction rather than a last-minute call that danger has arrived and to ‘get out quick’,” the report said.

Evacuation orders were the frontline of public safety and should not be used to signal the commencement of rescues.

The SES’s Beacon system, used to log and record calls for help, was not fit for purpose, the report found. The systems were turned off or ignored by overwhelmed SES crews and in one location up to 3000 calls for service were never actioned, the report said. Calls directed from triple-0 to SES were not taken and often went through to a recorded voice message.

An SES spokesperson denied that the Beacon system had ever been turned off during the February-March flood emergency, telling The Australian that any failure to respond was simply due to the sheer scale of the event.

SES advice to some individuals in the Northern Rivers was to climb into roof cavities, where they became trapped with rising floodwaters, further complicating rescue activities.

The inquiry heard the SES would not undertake night-time rescues because of safety concerns for members, despite community rescuers doing so themselves.

The report highlighted how on one occasion in Lismore, civilian volunteers began launching private vessels to conduct flood rescues in response to a request from the SES, but that call-to-arms was cancelled when the situation was judged too dangerous. The “Tinnie Army” went ahead anyway, despite SES orders not to do so. “The flotilla of community-owned boats and jet skis saved many hundreds of lives despite SES HQ initially hampering the effort with ‘Do not enter the water’ request,” the inquiry heard from a witness.

The government has accepted a recommendation for a community first responders program to provide equipment and training for volunteers.

The inquiry reported a widespread view that Resilience NSW, headed by former Rural Fire Service chief Shane Fitzsimmons, failed in leadership and planning, and recommended it be disbanded and Recovery NSW be established to drive recovery in the first 100 days post-disaster.