August 2009 - The Police Association Victoria

12
Black Saturday
Who was in charge?
On Black Saturday 2009, more than 100,000 emergency services staff and volunteers
stood ready to defend the community against Australia’s worst recorded natural disaster.
The frightening picture emerging
from the Royal Commission is
that there was no particular
individual in charge.
The question about whether
the role of the Country Fire
Authority’s Chief Fire Officer was
to “co-ordinate” or take the lead in
relation to fire warnings on the day
has been well debated in the media
and the commission will make its
finding in due course.
But other submissions have raised
questions about the role of Victorian
police on the day. The submission
by Jonathan Beach QC, and others,
on behalf of electricity distributor
SP AusNet, accuses Victoria Police
of abandoning “their responsibility to
warn the public” and of “abdicating
or assigning to others” its statutory
responsibility to monitor the
timeliness of warnings to the public.
SP AusNet said the Victoria Police’s
failure to release any warnings to
the communities around Kinglake
and Kilmore was “a breach of the
Emergency Management Manual
Victoria and therefore a breach of the
Emergency Management Act 1986”.
The SP AusNet submission says
the newly-formed Integrated
Emergency Co-ordination Centre
(IECC) was more like a co-location
of the CFA and the Department
of Sustainability on the day of the
fires. But no-one was in charge of
the IECC and there was no common
integrated system between them,
using common information. It was
therefore “dysfunctional”.
The submission says
Superintendent Collins was in
charge of the police-run State
Emergency Response Co-ordination
Centre (SERCC) but not in charge
of the IECC. (Rod Collins is an
experienced, professional and
highly regarded police officer of
more than 37 years experience).
The IECC did not regard itself as
responsible generally for the issue
of warnings and did not monitor
warnings. The Victoria Police told the
Royal Commission (through Deputy
Commissioner Kieran Walshe) that
they did not regard themselves as the
responsible entity for warnings and
they were not asked to issue warnings.
The SP AusNet submission refers
to a guideline on the establishment
of the IECC on a “trial” basis.
Superintendent Collins gave evidence
that one effect of the establishment
of the IECC was to move the
warnings function from police to the
IECC. But the evidence revealed that
the Emergency Management Manual
Victoria was not changed and the
IECC guideline was never authorized.
SPAusnet said, “If the Police had
abided by their responsibilities as
recorded by the Manual they would
have issued warnings according to the
information the CFA had given them
through Collins at the IECC and through
information flowing from the Kilmore
Incident Control Centre and the Kangaroo
Ground Incident Control Centre. And they
would have ensured that consideration
was being given to alerting the public to
existing and potential danger … either
direct or through the media, and to
the need for evacuation. The Victorian
Police did none of these things.”
The submission says there was a
way to address the dysfunctional
communication between the CFA,
the DSE and Victoria Police, but
it was not used. SPAusNet said,
“Relevant legislation permits a State
of disaster to be declared. This would
have simplified command lines and
should have occurred on 7 February
2009. No-one on 7 February 2009
turned their mind to this.”
It is clear, pursuant to Section 23
of the Emergency Management Act
1986, that the Minister and Chief
Commissioner may advise the
Premier, who may then declare a
State of Disaster. What is not clear
is whether or not the Premier was
advised by either that the situation
on ‘Black Saturday’ was one which
“…constitutes or is likely to constitute a
significant and widespread danger to
life or property in Victoria.” (Sec.23[1])
Was he so advised and, if not,
why not? If he was advised, why
was there not a State of Disaster
declared? Wide powers over all
government agencies are conferred
upon the Chief Commissioner once
Sergeant Jon Ellks in Kinglake.
August 2009 The Police Association Journal
www.tpav.org.au