In 2013, the Prime Minister announced that Brisbane would host the 2014 G20 Leaders' Summit in November and Cairns would host the Finance Ministers' Meeting in September 2014. With an agenda of growth and resilience, the Leaders’ Summit is the most important event in the G20 calendar. Members from 19 countries plus the European Union attended in addition to countries invited by the Australian Government. The G20 meetings are considered to be the largest security and safety event that Queensland/Australia has undertaken.  My aim for this presentation is to discuss the challenges and lessons learnt through inter-operability at federal, state and local government levels, including inter-agency operability.

I will discuss both the challenges faced during the planning phase and lessons learnt by the organisation in our ability to provide a ‘business as usual’ response capability whilst undertaking the establishment of a dedicated workforce to manage and respond to: (i) any public safety hazard that may have arisen within the G20 meeting and accommodation precincts, (ii) the constantly changing direction by Commonwealth and (iii) the planning impacts on response activities.