Five Ideas to Strengthen Civil-Military Coordination Before a Crisis Recently, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) headed off to again to support another humanitarian response, this time in Vanuatu . The ADF has a long history of supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) operations overseas and providing defence assistance to the civil community (DACC ) in Australia. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review reiterated that ‘climate change is now a national security issue’ and this reality will …

The impact of climate change is becoming more evident in Australia, leading to profound environment, social and economic impacts. 2019 was Australia’s hottest and driest year since records began in 1910, with 40% less rainfall than average across the nation, and the annual national mean maximum temperature at 2.09ºC above average. This hot, dry weather led to the devastating Black Summer bushfires, in which 33 people directly lost their lives (and hundreds more subsequently passed from smoke-related …