City of Gosnells calls on State Government to take over emergency management responsibilities

Two of Perth’s biggest local governments disagree with a City of Gosnells suggestion that councils consider handing over responsibility for emergency management in times of bushfires and other disasters to the State Government. The City of Gosnells last month voted to advocate for either a sole district level or metropolitan-wide level approach to emergency management. Currently, all 137 WA local governments must maintain emergency management arrangements and an emergency management committee. That’s a responsibility Gosnells wants to shed, suggesting it should be passed on to the State Government for good. Mayor Terresa Lynes told PerthNow the current “one size fits all” approach to emergency management was ineffective across metropolitan councils. “Most emergencies in the metropolitan area such as bushfires, severe storms, floods and heatwaves will affect multiple local governments,” she said. “The response to those events will invariably be managed by relevant State Government agencies.” She said local governments held an important role to play in recovery from disasters, but immediate responses were already co-ordinated and conducted by State agencies such as police, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services or the Health Department. “Those agencies don’t need local governments to tell them what their roles are or how they should co-ordinate their response to an emergency,” she said. “Representatives from police and DFES that attend the city’s local emergency management committee meetings have said they would be highly unlikely to refer to the city’s local emergency management arrangements when responding to an emergency in the city. “So it begs the question, why are we still required to create them?” The City of Perth told PerthNow it maintained a “well-attended” local emergency management committee that met four times a year. “We value the multi-agency attendance and relationships which assist in our prevention, preparedness, response and recovery for emergencies in the city,” a spokesperson said. “This summer, our emergency planning frameworks were activated in part during several heatwaves.” The City of Stirling also said it was not looking to back reform and their emergency management arrangements were recently referred to during a blaze at Lake Gwelup Reserve that threatened homes on February 18. “While it is recognised that local government face varying hazards, particularly when comparing metropolitan and regional areas, the city is comfortable with the current approach to emergency management,” a spokesperson said. “The city regularly engages with the various hazard management agencies to identify opportunities for improvement and ensure appropriate levels of support.” A DFES spokesperson said local governments were best placed to provide “specialist local knowledge and support” for the community and could scale back their arrangements. They said current arrangements drew benefits, such as allowing two or more local governments to unite for the purposes of emergency management. “Local governments have well-developed community links and support mechanisms to advise the designated hazard management agencies, such as the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) and police,” they said.