So, you think you can manage an emergency?
All over the Northern Rivers, amateur crisis response co-ordinators have filled a vacuum left by under-resourced and under-prepared official agencies.
Most community volunteers have felt little other choice and getting paid for the pleasure of helping their neighbours is unlikely to enter their minds.
But doesn’t hard work deserve decent pay? Like, around the $100K mark?
Perhaps it’s time we reconsidered a disaster response system based largely on volunteerism, especially when studies in recent years show fewer and fewer Australians have time to volunteer thanks to work and family pressures.
Emergency work in paradise
Enter: the NSW government’s Emergency Management Coordinator.
It’s a newly advertised position with a starting salary of around $99K plus super.
An ad for the full time Local Land Services job position earlier this week said it included responsibility for the central & North Coasts including Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, Port Macquarie, Lismore and the Far North Coast.
The job location was negotiable, the ad said.
‘Imagine living where the rest of the world goes on holiday,’ the ad read.
‘Spend endless days on uncrowded beaches, and explore the pristine volcanic hinterland, or take a hike through ancient rainforest.’
Customer service skills required
No doubt there are many hospitality and retail workers on the Northern Rivers who have found themselves coordinating disaster relief and it seems those customer service qualities could earn them significantly more in the bureaucratic job.
The ad said the the ideal candidate would be ‘customer-focused’ and ‘able to deliver results’.
‘You will revel in developing and maintaining collaborative engagement with stakeholders, the community and customers’, the ad read.
Volunteer rescue and recovery responders could also put their honed quick-thinking skills to a better remunerated use.
The Emergency Management Coordinator would have to be adept at ‘functioning in an operating environment of change where risks and issues require challenging responses’, the ad read.
Other requirements for the role were:
- demonstrated experience in emergency response management situations;
- an ability to negotiate with stakeholders and customers;
- an ability to plan and make recommendations with respect to preparedness for, response to and recovery from biosecurity and natural disaster emergencies impacting landholders;
- previous experience in managing and undertaking a range of projects and associated activities with a view to achieving outcomes.
The successful candidate also needed a current NSW Driver License and an ‘ability and willingness to travel throughout the North Coast Region, including overnight stays’, the ad read.
The new Emergency Management Coordinator would have to report to the government’s ‘Team Leader Partnerships’, form productive relationships with regional stakeholders and provide advice to landholders.
How to apply: contact Grant Lewis
A role description was available online as well as an online video explaining Local Land Services’ role in Emergency Management and the way the organisation worked with other agencies.
Interested or know someone you think is qualified?
‘Applying is easy!’ the ad said, ‘simply submit your resume and a cover letter online and tell us why working as the Emergency Management Coordinator is for you’.
Potential candidates were advised to contact Grant Lewis, Business Manager, on 0428 291 829 or via [email protected].
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
