• Charles Sturt emergency management experts enhance the Australian Defence Force (ADF) provision of emergency support to communities
• Charles Sturt provides ADF with contemporary emergency management training and advice by a world renowned emergency management expert
• An increase in research and analysis of health-related emergency management innovation and practice likely post-COVID-19

In February each year staff in the Charles Sturt emergency management program work with the ADF’s Joint Operations Support Staff (JOSS) to deliver emergency management training sessions at their annual induction and professional development course.

Lecturer in emergency management in the Charles Sturt Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, Mr Ian Manock, said, “The aim of our emergency management program involvement in the JOSS course is to enhance the ADF’s delivery and capability for the provision of emergency management support to the civilian emergency services and communities.

“JOSS is the ADF’s emergency management support unit and has dedicated staff from all three armed services in each state and territory.

“These staff coordinate the ADF response to civil emergencies in support of the states and territories, and were heavily involved during the bushfire crisis earlier in the year, coordinating ADF support to the bushfire affected communities.”

Mr Manock explained that the engagement of the military during civil emergencies is quite strictly regulated, with requests being coordinated through state governments to the federal government, and then to the military coordinators (the JOSS staff).

“The fact that the ADF were heavily involved in the post-bushfire recovery response earlier in the year, and will quite likely be involved in logistics and medical and health support during the COVID-19 pandemic, is something that fits within its ‘Defence Aid to the Civil Community’ (DACC) mandates and roles,” Mr Manock said.

“Charles Sturt University's involvement with the ADF not only enhances and cements our relationship with the ADF, but enables the ADF to receive contemporary emergency management training and advice from a world renowned emergency management expert, who is an integral part of the University's emergency management academic team.”

Charles Sturt sessional Adjunct Lecturer and principle partner at Crisis Management Australia, Mr David Parsons, conducts three days of the five-day ADF program in which students undertake a range of tasks and scenarios faced by disaster leaders − from bushfires to plane crashes.

“Each year we conduct emergency management training for ADF staff who are going to perform the role of inter-agency liaison officers in national, state, regional, and local emergency operations centres,” Mr Parsons said.

“ADF Liaison Officers are deployed into emergency operations during natural disasters, major events, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.

“Liaison Officers facilitate effective information exchange and tasking between the ADF and the agency leading the emergency.

“We train more than two dozen ADF staff each year from Army, Navy and Air Force, and our training covers our national emergency management arrangements, the Australian Inter-Service Incident Management System, emergency planning, and disaster recovery.

“Our ADF students from last year were deployed during the major bushfires last summer and this year’s students are currently being deployed to work with state and territory governments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr Manock anticipates a future increase in emergency management course enrolments, as the events of the recent past and present influence students’ future study choices.

“Within our courses there’s a good mix of students from the emergency services (both permanent and volunteer), as well as local government agencies, state government agencies (health, corrections, justice, compliance, etc.), and private industry, particularly the essential services, energy, and mining sectors,” he said.

“Students in our undergraduate Bachelor of Emergency Management are asked to conduct work-based projects relating to enhancement of community emergency preparedness.

“The majority of these projects relate back to the students’ own workplace communities, developing preparedness strategies and plans for their own organisations.

“In the past these have often related to the likely threats that could affect their own organisations, however I am sure that COVID-19 will see an increase in health-related threats as the focus of future plans and strategies.

“Similarly, students in our postgraduate Master of Emergency Management are also required to examine contemporary and innovative emergency management practice as part of their studies.

“In the past we have seen a preponderance of analyses relating to the use of social media and technology, such as drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in emergency management.

“I envisage that post-COVID-19, we will see an increase in research and the analysis of health-related emergency management innovation and practice, as those topics remain the focus of everyone’s attention.”