Evacuation plans for flood risk communities are being refined to reflect a possible wet spring and COVID-19 requirements.

The Victorian Government is reviewing State of Disaster legislation to ensure that existing powers in relation to evacuation are adequate for different emergency scenarios.
 

The Victorian Government will continue to invest in different communication strategies to build a common understanding of risk and what individuals, households and communities can do to act and mitigate risk (for example, seasonal campaigns, engagement through the Safer Together Program and other year-round opportunities).

EMV and responder agencies will forge stronger partnerships with the private sector in emergency planning and response as part of the shared responsibility model, building on the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Plans and Sector Resilience Networks.

EMV and its sector partners will use the Victorian Preparedness Framework to plan and test different high-impact, plausible scenarios across the sector and with communities, to embed what shared responsibility means.

As part of the development of a state-wide community led preparedness strategy in response to the community preparedness recommendation of the 10-year Review report EMV will work with the sector to ensure that the shared responsibility model in the SEMP is further progressed through the regional and municipal emergency management planning processes.

EMV released the SEMP in September 2020. The SEMP sets out the roles and responsibilities of individuals and households, as well as clarifies roles and assign responsibilities to the emergency management sector agencies, business, community groups and networks. The SEMP forms part of Victoria’s new emergency management planning arrangements, including new arrangements at regional and local levels.

DELWP will commission a comprehensive review of fuel management targets and provide advice to Victorian Government. New targets will be developed in consultation with stakeholders and the community and be communicated as part of the sector’s new strategy for land and fire management, by December 2021. This will link to engagement on bushfire fuel management agreed in response to Recommendation 5.

DELWP will deliver a new spatial dataset (to underpin bushfire risk modelling) that provides enhanced understanding of asset location by June 2021.

DELWP is currently undertaking work to improve modelling of the impact of fuel management on environmental values, including threatened species. These modelling improvements will drive improvements in evaluation and reporting, and strategic bushfire management planning.