Yabbies - a novel

Emergency Management Act

From student notes, Faculty of Law, Derwent University

Excerpts and summaries from Emergency Management Act 1986: Act No.30/1986, with its various amendments up to 15 June 2000:

Objectives of the Act The purpose of the Act (section 1) is to provide for emergency management of and within the State; this is expanded (in section 4A) under the keywords 'prevention', 'response' and 'recovery'.

Definition of 'emergency' Section 4(1) defines 'emergency' as anything which threatens or causes actual harm to persons or property. It lists typical expected emergency-events – such as earthquake, fire, explosion, road-accident, epidemic, war, riot, or any 'disruption to an essential service' – but expressly does not limit it to any of these. It also asserts (section 4(1)) that in the context of the Act an 'essential service' can be anything declared as such by the State Governor (section 2).

Co-ordinator In Chief and Deputy Section 5(1) states that 'the Minister' [unspecified] is automatically the overall co-ordinator; however, the actual control must (section 5(2)) be passed to a deputy, who must be the Chief Commissioner of Police. The Co-ordinator In Chief is permitted to appoint an alternate deputy (section 7), though the conditions under which this may be other than the Chief Commissioner of Police are not stated. The Commissioner may in turn (section 21H) delegate 'any or all' of the Commissioner's powers to anyone.

Emergency Management Council Sections 8(1) and 8(2) require an advisory council to be set up, to advise the Co-ordinator In Chief, who may (section 8(2)(a)) appoint someone else to act as chair.

Head of government declares 'state of disaster' The head of govern­ment for the State is defined (section 23) as the only person who can declare or revoke a 'state of disaster' – an 'emergency which ... constitutes or is likely to constitute a significant and widespread danger to life or property' – and may do so at any time (section 23(2)). The declaration must be broadcast 'from a broad­casting station in the State', and be published in the Government Gazette (section 23(4)); such publication is legal evidence of the scope and terms of the declaration (section 23(5)).

Duration of state of disaster The Act (section 23(6)) states that the declaration of a state of disaster may remain in force for not more than a month, but may be redeclared indefinitely.

Priority over other law The Commissioner may, under a declared state of disaster, effectively overrule any existing law or 'sub­ordinate instrument' (sections 24(2)(b) and 24(4)).

Sequestration or use of property The Commissioner may, under a declared state of disaster, 'take possession and make use of any person's property as the Co-ordinator in Chief considers necessary or desirable for responding to the disaster' (section 24(2)(c)). The Act defines no limitation as to the extent of such sequestration. Compensation for such sequestration and/or use is allowed for in the Act (section 24(5)), but only offers 'such compensation as is determined by the Co-ordinator in Chief'.

The Act acknowledges only one reason why anyone should have any need to remain within, or not be evacuated from, or return to, a declared disaster area: 'pecuniary interest in the land or building or in any goods or valuables on the land or in the building' (sections 24(7), 36B(2) and 36B(3)). [By law, money is the only thing that matters: nothing else – family, pets, livestock, treasured memories, things of emotional or spiritual value – is considered to have any value at all.]

For the context of martial law, refer to the equivalent federal Act. The key addition is that any use of the armed forces for disaster relief and/or maintenance of law and order shall be under the direction of the civil authority. At the local level, this would in practice be as authorised by individual police officers at their own discretion.