Does anyone have a crystal ball? Shifting mindsets for the future of Queensland disaster management

19 Aug 2026
Australian Disaster Resilience Conference | Meeting Room 212
The future of disaster management demands transformative leadership that adopts foresight and defies short-termism. In 2025, the Office of the Inspector-General of Emergency Management (IGEM) commenced a commitment to help transform DM through two initiatives: the IGEM Futures Connect Round Table and the Queensland Disaster Futures Champions Summit. These events brought together leaders from each Queensland Government agency to confront the pressing need for a paradigm shift.

In the ADRC presentation, Kate and Kylie will explore the insights and ideas for action that emerged from these 2025 events.
Delegates will imagine a future where disaster and emergency management is embedded as a shared responsibility and a core element of everyday decision-making and culture.

Key themes include:
-How leadership can inspire a culture of prevention and preparedness
-The rationale behind prioritising long-term resilience over short-term fixes
-Overcoming resistance to build true shared responsibility
-Insights into the changes needed to get us there.

This presentation is a unique insight into the minds of thought-leaders. The presentation advocates for systemic change that is inclusive of all stakeholders. It calls for work to address the root causes and to see resilience as both a mindset and an action.

Supporting doctrine:
-National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework’s:
“Integrate plausible future scenarios into planning”
“Establish proactive incentives, and address disincentives and barriers, to reducing disaster risk”.

-Second National Action Plan’s:
“Explicitly consider future disaster risk and betterment in investment decisions”
“Better align… resilience activities, governance, funding, policy and processes to support betterment and long-term disaster risk reduction.”

-Global Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework Report 2023 identified the need for “shifting the temporal frame from short-term to long-term thinking in decision-making”.

-Queensland’s Strategy for Disaster Resilience:
“It is critical to identify opportunities to mitigate and reduce future disaster risk through continued investment in resilience.”
 
Speakers
Kate Retzki
Kate Retzki, Director, Research and Communications, Office of the Inspector-General of Emergency Management