Well, its 25 years since I started work in disaster management. Like most things I’ve done, I didn’t think I would last this long. But it has been a cool ride. I realised that I have written about this journey a couple of times before, when I reached 20 years, and this keynote I did […]

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Its an early morning start, but it’s a beautiful morning here in Meanjin. The day starts with breakfast overlooking the Brisbane River, calm and serene, meandering its way through downtown. Its easy to forget, and often with floods their impacts are easily hidden. Deloittes Australia were hosting a discussion on how government’s can make infrastructure […]

Read more "Day 1, A river runs through it"

The sky is brighter, the air is warmer, there’s a vibe in the air. I, along with 3000 others, are in Meanjin/Brisbane to talk about reducing disaster risk. Every 2 years the UN brings governments across the world together in their regions to talk about how they will continue to tackle disaster risk, so that […]

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“Be provocative”, they said. “How can we bring all this together and make it stick?”, were the riding instructions. The more I thought about it walking Sydney streets early morning, the more the ideas came. How can I fit watching this sector change, develop, transform over 25 years into 4 minutes? How could I link […]

Read more "Six ideas, four minutes"

The first session focuses on the why this work is important. The impacts. These sessions are generally full of doom and gloom as we set out all that is going and can go wrong. These can be really hard to take in, this is when the sense of being overwhelmed can become apparent. The Minister […]

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Ironing a shirt today for the first time in about 3 years, wearing grown up clothes makes you think grown up things. How will we get true action to reduce disaster risk in this country? I’m in Sydney for the From Risk To Resilience Summit. This summit is part of a process to design an […]

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The ongoing armed conflict in the Ukraine and its raw imagery on our TV and in our social media feeds, is likely to be distressing to many people. Those Ukrainians in Australia with family and friends, and memories in Ukraine. It will also be distressing for Russians in Australia who do not agree with the […]

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Coping with climate anxiety ahead of COP26, with @Shona Whitton

Read more "Still in the control room….just"

Guest blog Hi, preparedness and recovery folk. I’m Margaret McCarthy, a colleague of John at Red Cross, coming to you from a town in storm recovery. I’m here to take give you a break from pandemics, earthquakes and bushfire recovery by taking you on a whirlwind tour of a town called Blackwood in Central Victoria […]

Read more "The calm before and after the storm"