The Disaster Ready Fund (DRF), administered by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), is the Australian Government's flagship disaster resilience and risk reduction initiative. To be eligible for funding, projects must fall under one of two eligible streams: infrastructure project or systemic risk reduction project. This performance audit was conducted to provide assurance to the Parliament about whether the award of DRF funding is effective and consistent with the published guidelines.

The report made six recommendations for improvement to the DRF, which were noted, accepted or accepted in part by NEMA.

Key findings

• The award of funding under the Disaster Ready Fund was largely effective. Improvements to program design and strengthened assessment arrangements would provide greater confidence about projects' contribution to the DRF's objectives.
• Funding guidelines for the first two rounds were not published in a timely way but were largely appropriate.
• The approach taken to assessing candidate projects was partly appropriate.
• Funding decisions were appropriately informed and documented through written briefings.