About Victoria's Inspector-General for Emergency Management

The Inspector-General for Emergency Management identifies what is working well and what improvements can be made in the way Victoria manages emergencies.

What is an emergency and what is emergency management?

An emergency is an event that is about to happen or is happening that could damage, endanger or threaten life, property or the environment.

Emergencies can happen from natural events, like earthquake, flood, bushfire, and heatwave or they can happen from human-made events, like cyber attack, water supply contamination, or war.

Emergency management includes everything from the legislation, organisations, people, knowledge and skills, equipment and actions that come together to help communities before, during, and after emergencies.

We focus on how all the parts of emergency management work together as a system and work towards supporting the improvement of this system.

However, we can't resolve individual issues or provide personal advice and support.

Victorian legislation directs what we do and how we work. It gives us the independence to advise and report to the government and communities on what to keep, change or remove from the emergency management system. We conduct system-wide reviews, evaluations and investigations.

We also make sure that emergency management organisations put agreed changes or improvements from past reviews and inquiries in place, and that the changes are actually making our communities safer.

Our work connects a wide range of individuals, agencies and organisations responsible for performing a variety of emergency management roles and Victoria's communities are at the core of our work.

Find out more about us and our work at igem.vic.gov.au.