Peter Cosgrove and the Convergence 06 Hypothetical Panel

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Stage 4 was the final assessment of the situation 2.5 hrs after the explosion with a focus on the effects on transport and the movement of people. It becomes clear that the explosion was an industrial accident, but the threat of a water mains rupture continues.  

The biggest surprise of the day came after the IAG crisis management team had worked through their decision making framework to issue the command to 'Shelter-In-Place'.

Their critical decision was followed by a [mock] live "breaking news" TV broadcast by Michael Usher from Channel Nine.

The news report stated, amongst other things, that "the IAG building was on fire". The media spin was understandably wildly dramatised and demonstrated the ability and speed of getting a story to air. The news story was inconsistent with the information the IAG crisis management team had used to issue the directive to Shelter-in-Place.

In the absence of official information received from Emergency Services the IAG crisis team were faced with a 'critical thinking' moment when they had to decide whether to factor in the media story and manage the impact the news [hypothetically] had on thousands of their staff who were being advised by the informal communications channels.

The moment the crisis management team reached their decision to continue to advise staff to 'Shelter-in-Place' and discount the information from the media (based on the "real" information) was the highlight of the day. It was the dawning of the complexity of the decisions they faced and the need for the most senior and most capable crisis management team available to make decisions that would affect the lives of many people. The take outs were:

The need for knowledge of the Government plan and full understanding of the decision-making framework especially the need to determine and assess the triggers to Stay, Shelter or Evacuate.

The necessity for skills development for business in critical thinking, information veracity, decision making under pressure, teamwork and strategic planning with time pressure.

The need to plan, prepare and to be broad as well as specific in the planning process, for plans to be integrated within business and between business and government including direct communication channels with emergency services.

The importance of testing plans individually and collectively within organisations and with other businesses and Government agencies...

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Hypothetical scenario brings Sydney CBD to a stand-still highlighting gaps in business capability

In a landmark moment for Australia, the Government and business willingly worked together in front of a live audience to run through a scenario of an explosion occurring in the Sydney CBD.

The purpose of the hypothetical was to give the business community and the government agencies the chance to test the current planning and thinking around a "significant and co-ordinated response" that would be required in the event of a major emergency in a CBD.

The hypothetical scenario examined the impact on staff and businesses of a major explosion deep below a construction site on York Street.

The initial explosion breaches gas and water mains causing a gas fire that impacts office buildings, residents and hotels adjacent to the site, causing damage to windows falling glass and fire in parts of the buildings. The reverberations that are felt throughout the train line below cause the activation of building alarms, some immediate loss of power and the self-evacuation of some buildings.

A formidable panel made up of representatives from business and government included five members of the IAG Crisis Management team, led by the Crisis Director and including the Crisis Coordinator, Head of Security, Chief Fire Warden and a member of JPMorgan's Crisis management team. Representatives for Critical Infrastructure, Government and media included NSW Police, NSW SEOCON, NSW SEMC, NSW Fire Brigades, Ministry of Transport, Alinta, Water Services IAAG, City of Sydney, Telstra, Channel 9 and The Australian.

The Hypothetical ran in four phases and demonstrated the dependencies that exist, the communications process between different parties, decisions that need to be made and crisis management capability that the executive team are required to have.