A lack of cohesion and leadership underpin Australia’s failure to improve disaster resilience, according to a Monash Business School report.

Change will not happen while there is no clear owner of climate adaptation, says adjunct senior research fellow Michael Spencer, from the school’s Green Lab, which researches environmental challenges.

He says that at the national level, there are siloed approaches to risks and threats.  

“At national cabinet, adaptation and resilience is the domain of the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council, while disaster management and resilience are the remit of the National Emergency Management Ministers’ Meeting.”

Dr Spencer says it is absurd that two ministerial councils are responsible for resilience “when so little is being done”.

“We need a single focal point for adaptation and resilience that has the authority to provide broad-scale leadership on the issue but also the capacity to support and provide a service centre for locally led adaptation,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Green Lab proposes climate resilience districts be established to unite local government areas with other stakeholders in a governance structure focused on adaptation.

Higher levels of government would help the districts understand risks and develop and implement plans, but the areas would be legal entities and able to sign contracts and implement works.

As an example of institutional failure, Mr Spencer cites the NSW floods in May, when 12 local government areas were subject to disaster declarations.

Seven of the 12 are in the top 20 LGAs in NSW for disaster declarations, but none rank in the top 20 recipients of cash from the Disaster Ready Fund and previous Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Program.