Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, , 23:55 to 30:34
NEMA's Coordinator-General outlines recent emergency responses, preparedness exercises, internal payroll improvements, and the results of the APS employee census.
Topics: Drought and disaster support, Public service staffing, Workplace culture
Speakers: Mr Pat Hetherington, Sanandan Dasgupta, Senator Susan McDonald, Senator Jana Stewart, Unknown Speaker
I would chair. Thank you, Chair and members of the committee for the opportunity to make a statement. The National Emergency Management Agency supports communities during emergencies and to help Australia prepare before disasters occur. In recent months, we've worked with governments, industry, community organisations and emergency management partners to strengthen preparedness and national resilience. A key milestone was our fourth annual national preparedness summit, which brought together more than 300 representatives from government emergency services, industry and the not-for-profit sector. The summit focused on strengthening readiness ahead of the high-risk weather season, sharing lessons from recent events, and testing Australia's ability to manage complex and compounding crises. Since establishing our national crisis exercise capability, NEMA has delivered 11 national level exercises to strengthen preparedness and coordination, identify emerging risks and support continuous improvement. Preparedness is not just confined to exercises. NEMA's also delivered national preparedness briefings and leadership engagements across government and key sectors. This work helps ensure that those responsible for keeping Australians safe have the information relationships and plans they need before emergencies occur. While preparedness remains a significant focus, NEMA continues to support responses to domestic and international events. Between 1 April and 9 October, national plans were activated nine times, including for natural hazards, biosecurity incidents, overseas assistance operations, overseas repatriations and space debris reentry. During this period, NEMA coordinated 11 requests for Australian government non-financial assistance and convened 26 national coordination mechanisms to support coordination and shared situational awareness. Even during what is traditionally the lower risk weather season, our crisis coordination team was active for 170 of 192 days. This reflects both the breadth of NEMA's responsibilities and sustained demands on its coordination capability across all types of hazards. Recent work has included deploying a planning team to the Northern Territory to support the response to elevated bushfire conditions and coordinating the response to H5 AVA avian influenza alongside the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestries Forestry. We also supported the response to space to bring Queensland and coordinated the repatriation and quarantine of Australians following the MV Hondius Hentavirus incident. Overseas, NEMA supported Australian assistance to Nepal following the catastrophic flooding and landslides. Australia's aerial fire fighting deployment to France was also conducted during this period. Recovery also remains a significant focus for the agency. Since July 2025, assistance under the disaster recovery funding arrangements has been activated for 78 disaster events affecting 237 local government areas across Australia. NEMA continues to work closely with states and territories to support communities as they recover and rebuild. Senator McAllister mentioned Oz Alert, Australia's new national cell broadcast public warning capability became operational on 1 October. It has strengthened the ability of emergency management agencies to deliver targeted warnings directly to people in affected areas. Community trials and a successful national test provided confidence in the capability before it went live. Our focus is now on supporting national adoption, finalising implementation arrangements with jurisdictions and ensuring personnel are trained to use the capability effectively. We'd also like to update the committee on payroll improvement work within the agency. In recent months, we've strengthened payroll governance and administration and progress remediation planning. We've also prioritised the transition of our payroll services to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Shared Services Hub. This transition is intended to strengthen payroll controls and to support a more sustainable payroll environment into the future. While this work is complex, our focus remains clear to ensure our staff are paid in line with their entitlements and on time. Address any identified discrepancies and put in place arrangements that provide greater assurance and confidence for our workforce. And finally, I'd like to acknowledge the results of our 2026 APS employee census. The results show that NEMA employees remain strongly connected to the agency's purpose and committed to serving the Australian community. They also identify areas where improvement is needed, including change management, internal communication, well-being and leadership alignment. Bullying and harassment also remains an area that we want to focus on throughout the course of the next month, few months. We're analysing the results further to inform targeted action in the areas identified for improvement, and we remain committed to fostering a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace. Chair, the demands on Australia's emergency management system continue to grow in scale and complexity. NEMA remains focused on strengthening preparedness, supporting communities and building the capabilities Australia needs when crises occur. Thank you, and we welcome questions.
Thank you very much. We'll proceed to questions and begin with Senator McDonald.
Thank you very much, Chair. Good morning to you. How many staff are currently housed with NEMA? What's your FTE?
In ASL terms, we are about 380 ASL. You'll see in our budget pose of just us the acting coup to find exact numbers for you. But we're about 380 ASL in our 26-27 PBS. You can see that we have a budgeted ASL of about 425. I think in head count terms, we're probably closer to 390 or so people. But I'll if I'm incorrect, I'll be corrected by our coup.
So London does with the acting chief operating officer National Emergency Management Agency. Senator, that's correct. If I'm looking at and is until the 31st of August 2026, the airs actually is at least 380.8. If I'm looking at an EPS headcon perspective as our 31st August 2026, it's 45.
405.
On notice, can you give me a breakup of whereabouts in the country, those bodies of the 405 where they're based, please?
Yeah, we can, Senator. I mean, in broad terms, the vast majority are here in Canberra. We have an office in Brisbane and we have outposted staff in every jurisdiction, but smaller numbers obviously outside of Canberra, we can provide that on notice if you're terrific.