CRC supports Queensland's future

The future of Queensland’s emergency services has now been set out in a strategic plan, with research and insight from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.  

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) engaged the CRC with a contract research project in 2018 that looked at the agency’s strategic planning into the next decade as part of its new Strategy 2030.  

The CRC coordinated workshops, conducted additional research studies and used focus groups to contribute to the final report. 

Strategy 2030 aims to position QFES as an innovative and trusted leader in community safety, making it adaptable to the changing needs and expectations of the community.  

“It is a strategy to ensure the agency is well positioned and well prepared for the future, to better meet unforeseen challenges and supporting ways to work better with communities,” CRC’s partnership development director Sarah Mizzi said. 

This has been a key aspect of research that the CRC is undertaking; looking towards future utilisation of research and capability development.  

In helping QFES prepare for its Strategy 2030 plan, the CRC coordinated a number of components of QFES’ strategy development framework that included thought leadership from CRC core staff, original research and strategic foresight. 

The CRC is well positioned to provide support to QFES in this process, Ms Mizzi explained. 

“We have developed a lot of knowledge at the CRC on natural hazards and emergency management, building on work conducted over 15 years under the Bushfire CRC and the current centre. We are more than just a research centre; we are committed to delivering value to our partners by supporting them to use insights from our research to deliver better services and work closer with the community over the longer term. 

“We want to help our partners and the community better prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies and create a more disaster resilient Australia,” Ms Mizzi said. 

The CRC worked alongside strategic foresight consultant Kate Delaney from John Robinson Consulting Services as well as other key stakeholders to develop and align services that meet the needs of the Queensland community.  

CRC staff hosted eight focus groups within both rural and urban Queensland in order to canvass views directly from the community on the expectations of QFES into the future across prevention, preparation, response and recovery. Four strong themes were identified by the CRC from these groups; vulnerability, demographic change, new technologies and climate extremes.  

Involved in the CRC’s research was CRC researchers A/Prof Chris Bearman and Prof Vivienne Tippet, who each provided informed insights to QFES by conducting research on community expectations of emergency services, both now and how these expectations might change in the future. This was done to ensure that QFES continues to develop and align services that meet the needs of the Queensland community.  

The CRC’s involvement in the development of Strategy 2030 is just one part of the process for QFES, who also worked with key stakeholders across the sector on how it can better work together to meet the needs of the community.   

By partnering with the CRC for this work, QFES was able to develop a better understanding of how it can work with the community, rather than for the community, during times of need. Through the strategy development process, QFES has also benefited from expertise in the CRC’s ongoing research across a number of programs including emergency management capability, incident management, volunteering, emergency warnings and communications.  

You can access the QFES Strategy 2030 document here.