Review of the thunderstorm asthma emergency response

All hazards

Risks spanning across multiple hazard types and across the emergency management system.

Biosecurity

Exotic animal and plant disease outbreaks and pest incursions can have significant economic, community and environmental impacts.

Bushfire and other fires

Bushfire and other fires have potential consequences including loss of life and property, and damage to infrastructure and environment.

Climate change

Risks include more days of extreme heat, harsher fire weather, less rainfall and rising sea levels.

Communications disruption

Communications services are crucial in keeping communities safe, connected and informed before, during and after emergencies.

Cyber security and ICT systems failure

Risks relating to the confidentiality, availability, integrity of information and data and disruption of services.

Energy supply disruption

Reliable energy supplies are critical to many social and economic activities.

Flood

Major flood events have occurred in Victoria every 10 to 20 years, with much of the increasing risk created by human settlement.

Hazardous material incident

Potential risks relate to many places where Victoria’s hazardous materials are manufactured, stored, transported, used and disposed.

Heatwave

Heatwaves are considered to be the ‘silent killer’ of extreme weather events and are the leading cause of weather-related deaths in Australia.

Public health emergency

Risks may relate to the delivery of public health services, with impacts on community health and wellbeing and potential for loss of life.

Supply chain disruption

Geopolitical, environmental, economic, societal and infrastructure-related shocks can expose supply chains to wide ranging consequences.

Terrorism and extremism

Attacks carried out by individuals or non-state groups with ideological, political or religious goals can result in loss of life, severe injury and/or material damage.

Water supply disruption

Risks include collection, storage, treatment, delivery, availability and allocation of water for consumption and environmental, recreation and cultural uses.

Workforce and resourcing

Risks may relate to human resource supply and skills to support emergency management operations.

The Victorian Government has requested the Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM) to review the emergency response to the Melbourne thunderstorm asthma event of 21-22 November 2016.

In conducting the review IGEM will consider:

the appropriateness and adequacy of the response under the Public Health Response Plan during events of 21 and 22 November, including the speed of escalation
the role of, and coordination between, Emergency Management Commissioner, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other relevant agencies in respect of this public health event, and the adequacy of support provided to emergency and public health services
the triggers for, and provision of, public warnings and information and health advice, taking account of predictability, preventive steps and methods of distribution available for this type of emergency
the identification of any other relevant matters or opportunities for improvement.

The primary goal of this review is to identify opportunities to learn from this event in order to improve future preparedness and response arrangements and performance. This includes the provision of recommendations, where required, about potential improvements to future public health emergency planning and response arrangements.

IGEM will provide a preliminary report to government by 30 January 2017 and the final report by 21 April 2017.

Final report

IGEM's Final Report was delivered to government on 21 April 2017. Government responded and released the report on 27 April 2017, accepting in-principle all IGEM's recommendations.

Read the Final Report and government's response Review of response to the thunderstorm asthma event of 21–22 November 2016 – Final Report

Preliminary report

IGEM's Preliminary Report was released on 1 February 2017.

Read the Review of response to the thunderstorm asthma event of 21–22 November 2016 – Preliminary Report

Public submissions

The Inspector-General invited public comments and submissions in response to this review, its scope and lines of enquiry to inform their final report to government.

For further information on this review and how submissions were used visit Engage Victoria (External link)

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