Australia's WMD Response Capability

Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Response Capability

The Australian Government today announced funding of $8.4 million over four years to improve Australia’s ability to respond to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents.

“This funding reflects the ongoing need for research and development to improve our capabilities to deal with terrorism ,” Mr Ruddock said.

The Australian Government will spend $6.0 million on research and development to support Australia’s CBRN capabilities covering areas such as:

• personal protective clothing and equipment

• decontamination

• detection

• rapid mitigation, and

• site restoration.

A further $2.4 million will provide for deployable mortuary services to help manage large numbers of fatalities that might result from terrorist attacks involving CBRN weapons.

The Australian Government will work closely with State and Territory emergency, police and health representatives as well as the National Disaster Victim Identification

Committee to ensure interoperability of the Australian Government funded service with local, regional and state level services.

“I am pleased that this funding will assist our fire-fighters, police, ambulance and public health specialists who would be at the front line of our response to terrorist attacks on Australia,” Mr Ruddock said.

“Our response personnel must be properly equipped, trained, and exercised to respond to terrorist threats and attacks.

“The programme will be administered by Emergency Management Australia, a division of the Attorney-General’s Department,” he said.

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