Economic Recovery

Business Beyond Disasters webinar recording 2025

0:00
Hello, my name is Katrina Lucky and I'm the Manager for Stakeholder Engagement at the Northern Rivers Adaptation Division of the Reconstruction Authority.

0:10
I'd like to thank you for taking the time to join us and listen to this webinar today that we're recording so that we can share with people about our new Business Beyond Disasters programme.

0:20
Before I commence, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional custodians of the lands where we're meeting today.

0:27
I would like to pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging and also celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to the lands and waters of NSW.

0:40
I would also like to acknowledge that we are now three years on from a significant flood event that affected the Northern Rivers in 2022.

0:49
And whilst we've come a long way from that, we're still bearing the impacts and learning from the magnitude of that particular event, which shows us we still have a long way to go in terms of future preparedness and adaptation.

1:01
And I'm mindful that not so long ago the Northern Rivers experienced the Tropical Cyclone Alfred and really wanted to acknowledge that.

1:10
I think the great capacity that our business community demonstrated in terms of your preparedness and capability to be able to reopen quickly.

1:18
However, I'm mindful that these events can also bring up different issues or needs related to those particular impacts.

1:27
And if you or your team watching this feel any need for any mental support or health or well-being, we can put you in touch with disaster recovery clinicians or other local support services.

1:39
So just send an email to our future Build Northern Rivers email address and we can provide you with any contacts you might need in that regard.

1:47
Basically, the event that we're running today is to provide a bit of an overview of a couple of the programmes that the NSW Reconstruction Authority is undertaking, particularly around looking into disaster adaptation planning and how this will look in terms of future economic adaptation.

2:05
And then we also want to share with you a specific programme we've designed in collaboration with Renee Hanvin, the founder of Resilient Ready, who's basically an expert in terms of business resilience to build capacity of businesses for their capability to operate both during or after disasters.

2:26
And I'd like to note that whilst these modules have been designed for the Northern Rivers, the information and many of the resources that are contained within the Business Beyond Disasters programme could be applied by businesses in any other location across NSW.

2:42
So if you're a business in another part of the state, you're more than welcome to sign up and attend the programme and join any of our check insurance at any time.

2:52
As noted before, if anyone has any queries, please send an email through to our future build NR at reconstruction.nsw.gov dot AU email address.

3:04
If you need any further information or want to access any other details about this recording.

3:12
I'd now like to introduce Narrator Buckley.

3:15
Narrator is the director of our Resilient and Adaptation branch to talk about economic revitalization, recovery and adaptation.

3:24
Thanks, Narrator.

3:26
Thanks, Katrina, and thanks for having me here today.

3:30
Look, I'll just set the scene a little bit in terms of what we're looking at in the Northern Rivers.

3:36
We're working on a Northern Rivers Disaster Adaptation plan and that will be looking at 9 different hazards and the influence of climate change on those hazards and essentially developing a strategy for responding.

3:50
But this impacts all parts of the community, all sectors of the community, including businesses.

3:56
As Katrina mentioned, we've already experienced extreme weather events in our day to day lives and in our work in recent years.

4:04
And we know that with climate change, those extreme events such as storms, flooding and Bush fires are likely to worsen.

4:10
And we know that Australia has already warmed by 1.5° since 1910.

4:17
The impacts of these events can include cost to operations, service disruptions, damage to assets, increases in insurance claims, workforce availability.

4:28
And so essentially, we really want to make sure that we're providing a strategy that supports businesses and industry as well to consider how this might impact them in the future.

4:40
In a recent global study, 42% of businesses ranked climate change in their top three risks facing their business over the next year.

4:47
So in terms of what the Northern Rivers Disaster Adaptation Plan will do, it will set out that longer term strategy to respond to disaster risks, looking at opportunities to mitigate the risks or seize opportunities.

5:00
And that's an important perspective for businesses to take as well.

5:05
Sometimes these events can create opportunities.

5:08
We are working across the four water catchments in the seven local government areas in the Northern Rivers and looking at impacts across 4 domains.

5:18
So the economic, built, social and natural domains.

5:24
Luckily, we're not starting from scratch.

5:26
So we have done a significant amount of work in to collate existing plans and strategies and working with our local government counterparts to collate existing data and plans that have been developed.

5:40
And we're building upon those by developing a regional risk profile.

5:45
We will then use that risk profile to assess different options that we might use to reduce the risk of priority risks and potentially themes of risks as well.

5:59
So we'll be identifying short, medium and long term actions that we can investigate further to reduce the risk or to adapt where we can't reduce the risks.

6:11
So one of the important aspects of a disaster adaptation plan, particularly for the Northern Rivers, is that it is being undertaken at a regional scale.

6:20
This means that we can look at the commonalities and trends across the region.

6:26
We can look at how disasters interact with the regional economy, with future population growth and say housing considerations.

6:36
And in this way we can look at a bigger suite of initiatives than maybe a single council might be able to look at.

6:47
We will be looking at options say where state goal or federal government need to step in and there is a role for us to support risk reduction where it might be beyond the capacity of councils, for example.

7:02
And so we will be looking at options through that regional lens that include land use planning changes, resilience measures and infrastructure investment as well as community resilience initiatives.

7:16
So whilst building this evidence-based strategy for a resilient future in the Northern Rivers, there are some no regrets actions to support communities and businesses.

7:27
That includes a multi billion dollar pipeline of infrastructure and housing and preparedness projects.

7:33
We're working on a community flood risk awareness campaign.

7:37
We have kicked off some regional flood evacuation route modelling with the NSW SES.

7:44
So we'll be identifying evacuation route and infrastructure upgrades through that piece of work.

7:50
We're also building up over a bust evidence base and we'll be working in close alignment with the CSIRO as they deliver their Northern Rivers Resilience initiative and Richmond catchment model over the coming year and a half.

8:07
And obviously, we're also working with our colleagues in the business resilience team to ensure that any of the initiatives that we investigate further will have benefit for business industry in the region as well and a long term, a stronger economy longer term in in the region as well.

8:28
So I'll hand over back to you, Katrina.

8:30
Thank you.

8:33
Thank you narrator.

8:34
And I think what we're trying to highlight with this presentation is that the work that narrators are leading in terms of the disaster adaptation plan will also inform, will also be informed by other pieces of, of projects and economic planning work that's being led by other agencies such as Business NSW, the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development Australia, Northern Rivers in in this area.

9:00
So I would also now like to hand over or introduce Renee Hanven.

9:04
Renee is the founder of Resilient Ready, and they're the experts that we've engaged to develop this or to deliver this new online training programme called Business Beyond Disasters for the Northern Rivers.

9:16
And I think it's important to recognise that Renee is a small business owner herself.

9:20
So she's developed this programme thinking about what might work from a small business perspective and really draws upon a practise known as nudge theory, which is where we try to work with businesses and nonprofit owners and other operators in the region on sort of very short 5 minute targeted modules to actually really help you take some learnings and build that into your business practise.

9:44
So Renee, if you can give us a bit of an overview about why we're doing this programme and how businesses can benefit from it.

9:52
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Katrina.

9:55
And it's really great to be collaborating with the Reconstruction Authority on this.

9:59
So as mentioned, I'm Renee Hanvan.

10:01
I'm the CEO and Founder of Resident Ready, a social enterprise really focused on building business community resilience.

10:09
So we've been delivering a programme in communities across Australia and are collaborating with the Reconstruction Authority for one in the Northern Rivers, which as Katrina mentioned before, we welcome other impacted NSW regions to participate as well.

10:24
Now it's a free 10 week programme that kicks off from Monday the 5th of May and basically over 10 weeks you're going to get a different module topic each week which I'll share with you in a minute.

10:35
It's been created by me.

10:36
I Co designed this with multiple communities after the 2019-2020 bushfires.

10:42
It is by a business person for business people and if you are from a non-profit in the region and you're thinking it doesn't affect me, absolutely it does.

10:52
There's a programme for you and whilst you might not see yourself as a profit-making business, your nonprofit entity still runs like a business.

11:02
So it's very, very relevant for you as well.

11:05
So as I mentioned, we have 5 programmes running in parallel.

11:09
And we're specifically done this so that we can tailor information and case studies for each industry group.

11:17
So there's a retail, professional services and education programme, There's one for Agri business and Aqua business.

11:24
We have one for tourism, one for healthcare and community services, and one for construction, trades and manufacturing.

11:33
Now you can have multiple people from your same business or nonprofit entity participate.

11:38
We very much recommend that you do that because each of you will get different learnings and takings from it.

11:45
And if you're not quite sure which programme to sign up to, there's an information flyer on the website to help.

11:52
So how it works is every week across 10 weeks, a new module comes out and they come out via text or email on a Monday morning at about 10:30 AM.

12:01
There's instructions for you to decide how you want to receive them.

12:05
So the modules are all designed to help you in five-minute intervals.

12:09
So as Katrina mentioned, it's based on nudge theory.

12:12
We're trying to nudge you towards being more resilient and doing Better Business beyond disasters.

12:18
So everything in each of the modules is in little 5 minute intervals.

12:22
It starts with two yes, no, yes, no questions and literally we ask you 2 questions to get you thinking about the module topic and ask you to put yes or no, which then gives you relevant information.

12:34
We give you really great resource links, so links to government documents and other support services and also very simple worksheets, again designed for you to print out or get up on your screen.

12:46
Grab a cup of coffee, get some workmates and talk about them and complete them now.

12:51
Each module has a lived experience case study video from a Northern Rivers regional person so you can learn from experiences of other people just like you.

13:01
And on the next slide, we go through the 10 module topics.

13:05
So we've had an advisory group identify what topics we want to present to you to get you thinking about.

13:12
So there's 10 topics across the 10 weeks.

13:15
They're all the same except for week 7.

13:18
So our first week is the 8020 rule where we focus on an all hazards approach.

13:22
So it's a how you can be efficient in your disaster preparedness and planning.

13:27
We look at your essential operations, what's absolutely critical for your business or your nonprofit entity to be able to keep trading.

13:35
We'll talk about operating through disasters, essential information.

13:39
What is that information that you really need to access and have you got it set up so that you can access it when you're in times of chaos?

13:48
Understand insurance choices are really, really important.

13:51
One that's going to get you absolutely thinking differently about what insurance is and what choices you need to make.

13:58
Financial viability, obviously cash flow is absolutely central to a business being in business.

14:05
Week 7, I'll come back to in a minute.

14:06
Week 8, we look at evacuation triggers.

14:09
Do you know the national warning system and do you know what a warning means in terms of triggering your business to do actions responding to the trigger?

14:18
Disasters can bring opportunities.

14:21
Disasters obviously can bring great distress and disruptions to businesses, but also they can bring great opportunities.

14:29
And we've got some wonderful case studies from local community business people on those.

14:34
And then we end with competitive collaborations about how working together with your competitors and other business or non-profit peers across the Northern Rivers or wider region really helps you do Better Business in the good times and get together to help each other in those hard times.

14:51
So module 7 I mentioned is different.

14:53
So for some of the programmes, we have climate impacts.

14:57
For other programmes, we have supply chain, so that's for our construction programme.

15:02
And then for our AG business and Aqua business, we have bio security.

15:05
So we've purposely chosen those because they're really important to each of the different programmes.

15:11
But otherwise all the modules across the programmes are the same.

15:15
So you're probably thinking, oh, that sounds great, but what are the benefits to me?

15:19
Why should I put some time into this programme?

15:22
So it's really about getting you thinking differently about your business, and that means your non or your nonprofit in five-minute intervals.

15:29
So you're going to create your personalised toolkit, which means you're going to collect the information and the worksheets that you complete into a toolkit that you can keep thereafter.

15:40
It's a way to connect with other Northern Rivers business people like you to discuss your challenges and preparedness.

15:47
We have online check in sessions that are going to happen each Wednesday of the 10 weeks of the modules.

15:53
Again at about 10:30.

15:54
They'll go for about 30 minutes, really informal.

15:57
We're going to record them if you can't catch up.

15:59
But it's a really great part of the programme where you can print the worksheets and your tool kit, chat with the other people in your business, chat with the business next door, or come to an online check in.

16:10
So when you sign up to the programme, you'll have a homepage relevant to the industry programme that you've signed up to.

16:16
And please take a look to notice the faces that we have behind these campaigns because they are Northern Rivers faces.

16:23
Each programme in the welcome page gives you a bit of information and some module topics.

16:27
You can choose how you receive your weekly alerts.

16:30
There's either text or email or both.

16:33
We highly recommend you put us in your safe email sender.

16:36
All the emails always come out from info@resinready.org and your text alerts always come out from this number ending in 789.

16:44
So please feel free to add us into your phone and remember we're going to give you lots of helpful resources and information about business resilience planning.

16:53
So while you're signed up before the modules come out, there's lots of links that you can access for NSW support for businesses.

17:01
Now, once the modules start coming out, we go to the module page.

17:04
So this is an example of the first week's module called the 8020 rule.

17:08
I mentioned there's two quick yes, no questions at the top of the page.

17:12
And I promise you if you do nothing more that read those questions and just think a little bit about them, they're going to get you thinking differently about your business preparedness and resilience.

17:22
Each of the yes, no answers, depending on what you choose, give you links to more information and again, a video of a local business person just like you.

17:33
And on the next slide, I think we're going to give you a little case study.

17:36
We're going to let you see a case study video from Donna from Summerland Bank.

17:41
Hi everyone, I'm Donna Kildee.

17:42
I'm the chief operating officer from Summerland Bank.

17:45
We're a, what we call a mutual bank located in Lismore in Northern NSW.

17:51
As you're probably aware, Lismore went through a terrible flood about two years ago.

17:56
And so we've had to go through and rebuild and prepare for the future.

18:01
Our bank covers from Eleanora in Queensland down to Grafton and out West to Nimbin, Kyogle and Casino.

18:09
And we service just on 28,000 members answering the question, has our business been impacted by a disaster?

18:20
As I said previously, in the last two years, we experienced probably the biggest flood we've ever seen in the Northern Rivers.

18:27
In addition to that, prior or prior to that was COVID.

18:30
And prior to that, we had a lot of Bush fires within our region.

18:36
It's been a really difficult time and we've had to learn to adapt and change, particularly after the flood, because one of the big issues that occurred in Lismore is that we no longer are able to get insurance.

18:50
So we know that we will flood again in Lismore.

18:54
So we've had to rebuild in a way that we can recover quickly and we spend a lot of time on building much more resilient building and preparing our staff and doing things like testing how it works and doing simulations.

19:13
So we know that when it happens, we'll be able to jump in very quickly and get back to work as quickly as we can.

19:21
As a business located in the Northern Rivers, we know that we'll continue to have climate change impacts in this region.

19:31
We also know that because we are in a rural area, we are impacted by things such as resourcing and the ability to get services into this area.

19:43
So as a business, we need to be able to manage ourselves through difficult times and we've done a lot of work as a business to understand how we can be far more resilient and be able to recover quickly from disasters in the future.

20:00
The next question is, are we using the 8020 rule for all hazard disaster planning for our business?

20:08
Well, to me that's not even a question.

20:11
We  have to plan for disasters generally, whether it be flood.

20:18
Bush fire or any other disaster that is likely to occur.

20:23
So what we need to do is have a business continuity plan in place which establishes the ground rules for how we deal with disasters, that we train our staff to understand what that that is, that we practise those skills and we embed them in our business.

20:42
The 20%, which is maybe the flood is different to fire.

20:48
We then elaborate or put more detail into that area to do specific things for Pacific specific disasters.

20:57
I love living in the Northern Rivers and more importantly I love working for Summerland Bank.

21:03
We're a great organisation that gives a lot of benefits to our local community.

21:09
People will say to us, why do we stay in Lismore?

21:11
Well, Lismore is a great town and the disasters that we've seen in Lismore have happened over many years and will continue to happen.

21:21
And the people in Lismore have a very resilient and strong and come back.

21:29
And so I hope today the lessons that we've learnt through the disasters we've been through that will assist your business beyond disasters.

21:46
Hi everyone.

21:46
I'm Donna Kilday.

21:47
I'm the Chief Operating Officer from Summerland Bank.

21:51
We're a, what we call a mutual bank located in Lismore in Northern NSW.

21:57
As you're probably aware, Lismore went through a terrible flood about two years ago and so we've had to go through and rebuild and prepare for the future.

22:07
Our bank covers from Elanora in Queensland down to Grafton and out West to Nimbin, Kyogle and Casino and we service just on 28,000 members.

22:21
Answering the question, has our business been impacted by a disaster?

22:25
As I said previously, in the last two years, we experienced probably the biggest flood we've ever seen in the Northern Rivers.

22:32
In addition to that, prior or prior to that was COVID, and prior to that we had a lot of bushfires within our region.

22:42
It's been a really difficult time and we've had to learn to adapt and change, particularly after the flood, because one of the big issues that occurred in Lismore is that we no longer are able to get insurance.

22:56
So we know that we will flood again in Lismore.

22:59
So we've had to rebuild in a way that we can recover quickly, and we spend a lot of time on building much more resilient building and preparing our staff and doing things like testing how it works and doing simulations.

23:18
So we know that when it happens, we'll be able to jump in very quickly and get back to work as quickly as we can.

23:27
As a business located in the Northern Rivers, we know that we'll continue to have climate change impacts in this region.

23:36
We also know that because we are in a rural area, we are impacted by things such as resourcing and the ability to get services into this area.

23:48
So as a business, we need to be able to manage ourselves through difficult times and we've done a lot of work as a business to understand how we can be far more resilient and be able to recover quickly from disasters in the future.

24:06
The next question is, are we using the 80/20 rule for all hazard disaster planning for our business?

24:13
Well, to me that's not even a question.

24:17
We have to plan for disasters generally, whether it be flood, Bush fire or any other disaster that is likely to occur.

24:28
So what we need to do is have a business continuity plan in place which establishes the ground rules for how we deal with disasters, that we train our staff to understand what that that is, that we practise those skills and we embed them in our business.

24:47
The 20%, which is maybe the flood, is different to fire.

24:53
We then elaborate or put more detail into that area to do specific things for specific disasters.

25:02
I love living in the Northern Rivers and more importantly I love working for Summerland Bank.

25:08
We're a great organisation that gives a lot of benefits to our local community.

25:14
People will say to us, why do we stay in Lismore?

25:17
Well, Lismore is a great town and the disasters that we've seen in Lismore have happened over many years and will continue to happen.

25:27
And the people in Lismore have a very resilient and strong and, come back.

25:35
And so I hope today the lessons that we've learnt through the disasters we've been through that will assist your business beyond disasters.

25:53
Thanks, Vivian.

25:53
And if we move to the next slide, if we move to the next slide.

26:01
Thanks so much.

26:02
Then a little bit more about what is in the module information.

26:06
So in each of the modules we ask you those two questions.

26:09
So as Donna just shared with you, the two, the first question we asked was, has your business been impacted by a disaster or disruption?

26:17
And I, I think it's pretty hard to find anyone else, particularly across the Northern Rivers that would not say yes to this.

26:23
So an example of the couple of worksheets that we have, 1 is about the types of hazards that you should know about.

26:29
And it's not just about natural hazard impacts, because there's also things like cyber-attacks, power outages, supply chain issues, etcetera.

26:36
So you can literally pick these up on screens, tick the boxes with your workmates and just think about what are all the different disaster impacts that could impact my business because you can't actually plan for 80% of them all at once.

26:49
And then the second question, are you already using the 80/20 rule for disaster planning?

26:54
And again, we get you thinking about why you could do some all-hazards disaster planning and some links there to some support documents and information from the NSW Government.

27:07
So the benefits.

27:08
The programme is open until the 31st of December with access to the modules.

27:13
So while the 10 modules come out over those 10 weeks, you still have access to all the modules and information in the programme until the end of the year.

27:20
It's going to help you do business better and this is for not for profits as well.

27:25
It's going to help you do the process of business better in the good times and get you more prepared for those challenging times ahead.

27:32
And it's all about coming together across the Northern Rivers NSW region, about helping each other and supporting each other to get ready and do Better Business during disasters.

27:45
So thank you.

27:46
I think that's it for me, but I'm really excited to be delivering this programme.

27:49
And yeah, please reach out to the Reconstruction Authority team if you have any questions and we'll see you in the online check insurance.

27:58
Thanks so much for that background, Renee.

28:01
And I'd also just like to acknowledge the funding sponsors for this programme.

28:06
This programme is being funded under the Disaster Ready Fund by both the Australian and NSW governments.

28:12
As you can see, this slide here gives you AQR code, which if you click, you know, highlight that you can sign directly up to the programme.

28:22
And we look forward to you joining us as soon as, as soon as the programme starts on the 5th of May.

28:29
And I think we have one more slide there that also provides a, another QR code.

28:34
If there's any feedback you want to give us both about this webinar or other programmes that we're running so that we can actually continue to support businesses in your future preparedness and adaptation journeys.

28:45
Thank you for your time.

28:46
See you later.