This paper makes recommendations as to how Australia can be better prepared for and recover from future natural disasters.

Suggestions include:

• measuring and reporting on community resilience;
• providing disaster funds on the condition that new structures are made to be more resilient than the structures they replace;
• asking the  Productivity Commission to investigate if the Commonwealth has got value from the billions spent on disaster response and recovery;
• declaring an annual national disaster prevention day;
• developing national hazard mapping and a national sea level rise policy statement;
• introducing  durability ratings for buildings;
• providing information to individual insurance policy holders on the risks associated with their property;
• developing a national policy on retreating from hazardous areas to reduce people’s exposure to severe risks; and;
• starting a national communications campaign to encourage individual and community preparedness.