A second group of Northern Territory Public Sector staff will travel to Queensland to relieve colleagues who have assisted with recovery efforts following the affects of Cyclone Debbie.

The group of 13 staff depart today (Friday, 21 April 2017), while eight public sector colleagues return on Sunday (23 April) after two weeks working in recovery hubs.

Department of the Chief Minister CEO Jodie Ryan thanked the returning staff for their contribution  and wished those departing for the seven-day exercise good luck. 

Ms Ryan said the returning staff had performed a variety of roles by supporting social recovery for Queenslanders and communities in the Whitsunday region.

“They have shown incredible flexibility and empathy to support people who have experienced great trauma, hardship and losses due to outages and damage to property," Ms Ryan said. 

“This strengthens partnerships with the Queensland Government who would also help out the Territory in a similar time of need.

“The experiences gained by these public sector staff will be valuable to future disaster recovery planning in the Northern Territory.”

The duties undertaken by the staff included outreach services to residents in need of financial and personal support, offering referrals to government agencies and non-government organisation partners such as Lifeline and Australian Red Cross.

Other experiences involved case management, planning, logistics and community engagement in pop-up community recovery hubs in difficult to reach areas.

The departing group has a range of public sector staff from Darwin, Katherine and Tennant Creek.

Ms Ryan said this second staff rotation would likely be the final deployment of Northern Territory staff for this stage of the recovery.

Media contact:
Tom Davis 0417 145 050