A NATIONAL REVIEW OF AUSTRALIA'S MARITIME ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE ARRANGEMENTS

Abstract

ABSTRACT Australia's National Plan for Maritime Environmental Emergencies (‘the National Plan’) is a cooperative national strategy for the preparing, responding and recovering from maritime casualty and marine pollution incidents. A review of the National Plan was conducted between 2011 and 2012 following a series of shipping and offshore petroleum incidents which presented the most significant challenges to National Plan since its inception in 1973. The Review incorporated two streams of work – a national risk assessment modelled the current and 10 year outlook of the marine pollution threat to Australia and a capability analysis, involving consultation with over 90 stakeholder groups, identified areas for improvement in national preparedness. Forty-seven recommendations were forthcoming from the review including:Implementing a modern governance model for the National Plan, clarifying responsibilities and providing for the formal engagement of stakeholders.Alignment of planning and response systems with mainstream emergency services to improve the national response capability.Implementing a single response arrangement for maritime casualty and oil and chemical pollution.Addressing gaps in capability, including the development of a national chemical response capability, nationally accredited training and succession planning for the National Response Team. This paper describes the conduct of the Review, the significant outcomes for Australia's preparedness and the ongoing program to embed these outcomes into all levels of response planning in Australia.