Public-private partnerships in emergency and disaster management: Examples from the Queensland floods 2010-11

Numerous international studies have corroborated the value of public-private sector partnerships in reducing vulnerability and building resilience to emergencies and disasters. This paper proposes a simple conceptual framework for publicprivate partnerships in emergency and disaster management that could be applied to research and policy analysis in Australia. The framework proposes three dimensions: sector types (public, business and community), partnership arrangements (legislated and formal to informal agreements), and partnership roles (strategic and resilience-building and response and recovery). This paper describes how the three sectors can work together under various partnership arrangements for preventive or responsive measures in emergency and disaster management. Public-private partnerships during and after the Queensland floods of 2010-11 are used to illustrate the relationships presented in the framework and to give a snapshot of these partnerships in Queensland.