Vol. 13 Issue 3. 2019

AUSTRALIAN EMERGENCY LAW with Professor Michael Eburn
A DISCUSSION ON
THE LAW THAT
APPLIES TO OR
AFFECTS AUSTRALIA’S
EMERGENCY
SERVICES AND
EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT
PHD
Barrister
Leading expert in Law
relating to Emergency
Management &
Emergency Services
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Prevent or Respond ?
A question for Emergency Services
The mantra is Prevent, Prepare,
Respond and Recovery.
Preventing an emergency is better
than responding to one; but equally
we want resilient communities where
individuals and communities take
responsibility for managing their
own risk. But that still leaves the
emergency services to respond if and
when the residual risk manifests.
So where does the role of the
emergency services sit when it comes
to ‘prevent’? That is the essence of
today’s question that comes from
Adelaide. My correspondent has
noticed:
A large tree is growing in one of
the private residences, right on the
edge, literally, of a lane – there is no
footpath. This tree has a diameter
at the base of abut 1.5 metres and a
height of, maybe, 30 to 40 metres – I.e.
a ‘significant’ tree. A broken branch
was lying across two other branches
at a height of 15 to 20 metres. The
butt of the branch was about a metre
into the lane on the tree side and the
branch extended across the lane and
finished about 2 to 3 metres over the
first-floor open car park area of a
business on the other side. It had been
there for some time because the leaves
were dead.
I advised the resident in the house
and she said that she would inform
the owner (she is renting). I advised
the business on the other side and the
receptionist said that she would notify
the council, which I had intended to
do, as well.
Jan 29, 2019
As an SES volunteer, I also called it in
to the SES reporting line. In Adelaide,
these calls go the MFS call centre. After
I explained the situation, the call-taker
said that it was not their responsibility;
it was the responsibility of the landowner.
I knew that it was too high for
SES to handle, but the MFS has aerial
units that would reach it and I thought
that they may respond.
I suspect that it is the responsibility of
the land-owner, but is this the case?
Would it constitute enough of a risk for
emergency services to be involved?
The problem is, in essence, that the
emergency services legislation says
very little about what the emergency
services do. It may be axiomatic that
fire brigades respond to fires so if
there is a fire everyone knows that
it’s the fire service job. And the fire
brigades have specific duties and
powers with respect to preventing
fires (see Fire And Emergency
Services Act 2005 (SA) ss 71-95A and
ss 105A-105K (relating to the Country
Fire Service)). But for other hazards
the issues are not so clear.
The South Australian State
Emergency Service has a number
of functions relating to dealing
with emergencies, including ‘to
assist the State Co-ordinator, in
accordance with the State Emergency
Management Plan, in carrying out
prevention, preparedness, response
or recovery operations under the
Emergency Management Act 2004’ (s
108(1)(b); emphasis added); and ‘to