Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson interview with Bridie Tanner.
ABC North Coast
Subject: Small business natural disasters and resilience
Bridie Tanner
You know about your bushfire emergency plan. But what about a small business disaster plan? Something that can be easily put into place in a disaster? The Australian Government requested a report from the Small Business Ombudsman which found that only one in four small businesses have a disaster plan in place. And it's made a list of recommendations to the Government about whose job it is to make sure that businesses are prepared and supported in times of disaster.
Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson joins us. Bruce, the clean-up and rebuild and replacement of equipment after disaster is enormous and expensive and as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Isn't it?
Bruce Billson
Bridie, you're on the money. That is really the essence of what we are urging. We found after visiting three dozen disaster impacted communities and really talking firsthand with small and family businesses that are such a vital part of those communities and the economy, that only one in four actually had a disaster plan or what's more funkily known as a business continuity plan.
So, with one in four only having thought about the possibility of a disaster and then putting in place a plan with simple action steps and a few preventative measures, we thought, look, let's encourage more to think about that. The disaster might be a natural disaster, might be something like a COVID lockdown, or heaven forbid, it might actually be an episode of illness for the business owner and business leader. It's important to have a plan to understand how to deal with those events and navigate a way out.
Bridie Tanner
In the inquiry, you found that community connectedness matters when it comes to having a small business disaster plan.
Bruce Billson
It was a real recurring theme Bridie, where we went into communities where business owners who, let's remember, are also often the community leaders. They may be, you know, people involved with the volunteer emergency services, the chambers of commerce. They might be involved with sporting associations. They're really very plugged in to the community more broadly.
And where those business owners also have a relationship and a network of other businesses in an area, we found those kinds of businesses and those business communities fared best because when you're with your peers and you're chewing the fat about what's going on with your business, you can share learnings with each other. You can actually draw from the wisdom in the room and benefit from that experience and that perspective.
There's rarely a business challenge that someone else hasn't had to navigate, Bridie, and this is a great way of effectively sourcing knowledge from the business community crowd that you can then pick up and apply in your own business and was equally valuable in the recovery phase where there's a bit of a co-dependency on each other, where the vitality of the business community is interwoven into the success of the business centre recovery.
So, it's not like you're a stand-alone island trying to do it all yourself and relying only on yourself and hoping you're doing okay. There's a need and a benefit in being engaged and connected with other businesses to help with that preparation, to get that support, to share the knowledge and experience and then be well placed with almost a team effort after a disaster to get the local town and the business centre up and going again.
Bridie Tanner
And certainly, in Lismore it was the local and community spirit that really helped a lot of small businesses and people to safety and to try and salvage as much as they could. So, among the other recommendations, you've put here, a tell-us-once triage system what is that?
Bruce Billson
Well, this is partly from the consultations we had with the Lismore community. They were sharing with us the experience they had where after a disaster it's pleasing and encouraging how many government departments and organisations and community groups come forward and businesses come forward to help. But what they found and what many found across our consultations - so frustrating and frankly, adding to the trauma - is having to tell their story over and over again to different agencies, to different departments, to different sources of assistance.
So, the idea we were putting forward was in the event of a natural disaster, the business community would know what the response is going to be. There's an identified, designated location where businesses can come. Service providers can all congregate in one place, and you can almost have a triaging while you're there where the business can share their story, their circumstances, their needs, and some of the challenges they're experiencing once and then, that triage centre can share that story and that information across a number of different support providers rather than have already traumatised and, you know, frankly overwhelmed businesses, leaders having to go through that story over and over again.
Bridie Tanner
Another recommendation, the Australian Government should implement a good neighbour program. What it is?
Bruce Billson
Well, that's a nice way of saying something that's probably got a little bit of cheek to it Bridie. When we've traveled to different areas around this vast continent of ours, often the local community feedback was, you know, we were doing all the right things, but the adjoining property owned by government isn't being managed with a disaster management lens. It's not being cared for in terms of fuel load. In another case, we saw a Defence establishment where the storm water was gushing off their property and causing problems for the adjoining neighbour. That's basically saying, hey, you know, public owned land, government manage land, let's make sure that the government is a good neighbour and mitigates the risk of risk and the consequences of that generating on the property that it owns and manages, to help support the work of the private land owners and the business owners that are adjacent to that land.
Bridie Tanner
How much would it cost for the Australian Government to implement all of these recommendations?
Bruce Billson
Well, there's a couple of things that we've tried to highlight. One, recovery is expensive. So, when government funds are being used to build road networks or to provide blackspot telecommunications coverage, build it in such a way that it's robust. Harden that infrastructure so it doesn't fall over and become a weak link very quickly in the event of a disaster. That's really about more thoughtful design and implementation of work government would otherwise be doing.
Another idea is - and we've seen this through government reports, Productivity Commission, the insurance industry has quoted this number - of all the money, taxpayer funding spent on disasters 97 cents in the dollar is spent after the event. It spent in the recovery phase. We're urging that this risk management, risk mitigation lens, sees more of that funding go to preparation and to avoiding and minimising the impact of natural disasters rather than, you know, solely being focused on the very important work, and at times expensive work, of the disaster response and recovery.
So, a little bit of front end, a little bit like your introduction, Bridie, about an ounce of prevention. We just think that should be a greater focus and pleasingly it is with what we're hearing from the government.
Bridie Tanner
Thanks, Bruce. That was Bruce Billson, the Australian Small Business Ombudsman, on why every small business should have a disaster plan.
ENDS
