The Noggin Blog

In March 2018, the Australian Parliament passed the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. As you probably know, the Act majorly ramps up state scrutiny of so-called critical infrastructure assets (ports, as well as electricity, gas, and water entities), by attempting to improve cooperation and collaboration between government bodies and the owners and operators of those assets. To do so, the Act compels asset operators and owners to relay detailed operational information (as well as relevant updates) to a government authority.

Critical events have become increasingly disruptive facts of corporate life. A recent Forrester report documented that all companies experienced a critical event in the last two years. In fact, many dealt with multiple incidents, the average being more than four discrete critical events in a two-year period.

In the last decade, Australia and New Zealand launched broad-based reforms to retool their occupational health and safety systems. Australia implemented a rigorous harmonisation regime: its commonwealth Model Work Health and Safety Act now forms the basis of the majority of state WHS laws. New Zealand, then, used Australia’s Model Act as the basis for its regulations.

Nowadays, most jurisdictions impose a strict duty of care obligation on employers. In other words, employers must provide a baseline level of care for their employees, i.e. ensure security and safety. That requirement, however, doesn’t just apply to employees working within the four walls of the traditional office; it also extends to lone workers. 

2019 has only just begun, and already we’ve got a strong contender for crisis management challenge of the year – queue the 2018 corporate crisis PTSD.

The Crown agency in charge of housing services in New Zealand, Housing New Zealand (HNZ) has been around since the early 2000s.

No doubt, you’ve heard of a team of rivals: the idea, popularized in a history of Abraham Lincoln, of recruiting your ablest rivals to positions of prominence and using their acumen in times of turmoil. Turns out, the theoretical concept isn’t that different from what actually happens in crisis management. Only, there, organizations staff crisis teams with business experts, rather than political rivals.

The business disaster data suggests yes – emphatically yes.

Organizations underestimate the emergency disaster threat to business viability at their peril. According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, anywhere between 40 to 60 percent of small businesses never reopen following a national disaster.

Factors driving the push for critical infrastructure security reform in Australia

2018’s Security of Critical Infrastructure Act didn’t come out of a policy bubble. The fact is we live in a globalized world; cross-border trade is the norm. The benefits of high levels of integration to comparatively open economies like Australia have been obvious for some time now, specifically in the realm of foreign direct investment (FDI).

We’ve said it time and again, but comprehensive, crisis management planning, while essential, is only the first step towards crisis preparedness. No matter how brilliant, dynamic, or intuitive your crisis plan is, when the time comes to execute, staff still needs to be comfortable performing assigned tasks. And that entails, regular training in crisis-like conditions. How, then, to create those conditions?