Portfolio Overview
The Home Affairs Portfolio brings together the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Institute of Criminology and the National Emergency Management Agency.
The Portfolio is charged with leading activities related to national security, cyber and critical infrastructure security, emergency management, multicultural affairs, immigration, and border management and enforcement related functions. By design, the Portfolio supports a robust national security posture, and improved information and intelligence sharing and enables coordinated and effective responses to increasingly complex national security challenges, including responses to all-hazards crises and critical disruptions.
Agency Overview
Australia’s interconnected economy and infrastructure face rising threats from natural and human-driven hazards that can cause major national disruption. While many emergencies are local, events with national impact are becoming more frequent.
Established in September 2022, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) leads national emergency management, covering preparedness, disaster relief, recovery, risk reduction, and resilience—especially as climate risks grow.
NEMA coordinates Commonwealth crisis management and all-hazards response, recovery and mitigation, overseeing national arrangements like COMDISPLAN and driving critical emergency management capability in partnership with states, territories and key stakeholders.
NEMA also leads strategic disaster risk reduction across all levels of government and fulfils Australia’s domestic and international resilience commitments.
The key duties of the position include:
Ideal Candidate
This high-profile role requires a skilful communicator and negotiator with strong personal presence and a proven record of achievement. The successful candidate must demonstrate integrity, teamwork, the capacity to lead significant organisational change, and provide strategic vision and direction.
They will have demonstrated their ability to drive success within organisations that navigate complex operational and strategic risks. Operational, business, strategic and political acumen will have been gained through some experience in an emergency management, regulatory or similar relevant environment.
Position Summary
The Coordinator-General for National Emergency Management is responsible for the effective operation and administration of NEMA and is directly accountable to the Minister for Emergency Management. The Coordinator-General supports the Minister in meeting their accountability obligations to Parliament.
The Coordinator-General provides leadership at both Portfolio and APS levels, modelling APS Values, the Code of Conduct, and Charter of Leadership Behaviours; the position holds a high level of accountability for delivering outcomes.
The Coordinator-General leads NEMA to deliver evidence-based advice to the Minister and represents NEMA in diverse stakeholder engagements across the nation’s emergency management architecture. The role encompasses national crisis management across all-hazards emergency management, driving a whole-of-nation approach to emergency management and civil contingencies, and advancing national emergency capabilities, intelligence, early warning systems, and international cooperation.
General Responsibilities
As the Coordinator-General, you will be accountable for:
* Providing integrated leadership and strategic direction for NEMA, delivering outcomes of national importance and representing NEMA across government, industry, media, and public forums.
* Driving the highest standards of performance, behaviour, integrity, leadership and collaboration; across NEMA, and at all levels. Upholding the highest standards of integrity, accountability, and leadership behaviours in line with APS Values and the Code of Conduct.
* Exercising stewardship of public resources, ensuring sustainable capability, robust governance, and enduring organisational culture.
* Leading the development and maintenance of national emergency management capabilities, including situational awareness, planning, intelligence, data, and early warning systems for all hazards and high-risk events.
* Building and sustaining national capacity in planning, exercising, lessons management, and promotes effective collaboration both nationally and internationally through sharing resources and expertise.
* Ensuring that officers within NEMA comply with legislation, regulation and broader policies and frameworks.
* Navigating the parliamentary, political, and public service environment with professionalism and sound judgement.
* Building capability through the attraction of talent, development and retention of people and acquisition of technology; consistent with Government and Portfolio requirements and priorities.
* Engaging with our people, building diversity, leading innovation and managing change well; to enhance culture, equity and diversity, performance, agility and professionalism.
Eligibility
The successful candidate must:
* be an Australian citizen; and
* obtain and maintain an AGSVA security clearance at a minimum Negative Vetting 2.
Relevant tertiary qualifications are highly desirable.
Notes
Reporting lines
You will have a direct reporting line to the Minister for Emergency Management, relating to the operations of NEMA.
The Coordinator-General is the Accountable Authority under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth) and is responsible for ensuring appropriate systems of control and oversight are in place for NEMA.
Remuneration
Your remuneration will be determined by the Remuneration Tribunal.
The Remuneration Tribunal is the independent statutory body that handles the remuneration of key commonwealth offices. Please visit Remuneration Tribunal (remtribunal.gov.au) for more information.
Getting to know the National Emergency Management Agency
Who we are: NEMA works closely with local communities as well as state and territory governments to deliver the best outcome for communities across Australia. To help communities respond and recover, while preparing Australia for future emergencies, we:
* fund programs and initiatives, big and small, that help communities in times of emergency, as well as to recover and prepare, including through disaster recovery funding and the Disaster Ready Fund to help reduce the risk and impact of disasters;
* work with communities, industry and non-government organisations by connecting local Regional Support Officers and other NEMA staff right around Australia, to share lessons learnt, provide awareness on navigating government services, and gain community and industry-led ideas and concepts to inform strategic policy and planning;
* provide national leadership to share knowledge, situational awareness, and trends in disaster efforts to inform, guide and shape the national picture and decision-making at the Commonwealth, state and local government level – including through policy development and strategy to improve risk reduction, resilience and recovery; and
* provide round-the-clock all-hazards monitoring and operational coordination for domestic and international emergencies, including supply chain disruptions, critical infrastructure outages, biosecurity risks and widespread cyber-attacks, and through supporting preparedness and response activities, including through the operationalisation of the Australian Government Crisis Management Framework.