Enhancing the ACT Government responsiveness to affected communities during storm and flood events / ACT State Emergency Service, Canberra Connect.

Winner: 2007 Australian Safer Communities Awards, Federal/State government agencies, Post-Disaster category.

Winner: 2007 Australian Safer Communities Awards, State Award Recipient - Post-Disaster Category.

The Australian Capital Territory Government is both the local government and territory government for the residents of Canberra and surrounds. This makes their situation unique in Australia. Canberra Connect is the ACT service set up as a ?one stop shop? for a wide range of enquiries for resident services, such as to renew a licence or register a dog, to pay rates and fines, even where to catch a bus, and to access assistance for a business enterprise. The State Emergency Service (SES) is the organisation responsible for response to storms and floods operating as a division of the Emergency Services Agency (ESA) that provides the telecommunications, transport, training and other services. SES experience has shown that in times of major emergency response, telephone call volumes can be beyond the capacity of the Agency to effectively manage, resulting in delays to delivery of emergency services. So ESA decided to investigate a partnership with Canberra Connect to share their call service. As the number is widely advertised as the ?one stop shop?, it was the logical choice for the overflow in such extreme events. This solution has the benefit of utilising existing infrastructure and expertise within Government and can be scaled up at short notice to allow the emergency services to concentrate resources on incident management and response. It uses a software system that allows queued calls to be prioritised so emergency calls would be answered ahead of general requests. Job details are submitted electronically so requirements can go to the SES for action without delay. This also allows for comprehensive record keeping and statistical reporting. The partnership draws on the individual expertise of each organisation to solve what is essentially a whole of government situation of delivering effective emergency services to the Canberra community.