Submission to the Environment and Communications References Committee inquiry on recent trends in and preparedness for extreme weather events

Overview The Australian Psychological Society believes that the threat of extreme weather events on Australian communities requires coordinated, evidence-based efforts across 3 levels of government and across sectors to improve communities’ capacity to prepare, respond and recover. Our submission focuses on the health sector and emergency services in particular, with special attention paid to the mental health, psychological and social wellbeing of people at risk of, or impacted by extreme weather events. Overall we believe that State and Federal agencies need to broaden their frame for examining extreme weather events, and accept that the altered, climate-changed world in which Australians are now living requires a broader framing of risk communications and adaptation responses that encompasses both extreme weather events and climate change. This may require a rethinking of whether event-specific and season-specific disaster preparedness and warning initiatives are the best strategies going forward. In our submission we have made the following key recommendations.