The Australian Government uses a 4-tier approach to guide and support appropriate and consistent levels of coordination in response to crises.

There is no standardised response to crises. Every crisis is unique and will present different challenges. As the nature of a crisis changes over time, the Australian Government must be able to shift and adapt its coordination in accordance with the severity and complexity of the impacts and consequences.

The Australian Government’s 4-tier crisis coordination model helps Australian Government ministers and officials:

• assess the severity and complexity of a crisis and its impacts and consequences
• determine the appropriate crisis coordination and decision-making needs and the appropriate mechanisms to respond to these needs
• decide when to escalate or de-escalate the tier of crisis coordination
• manage responses to both a crisis and its consequences as they become clear
• adjust the coordination over time if required by evolving impacts and consequences, including the ability to change the Lead Minister and Australian Government Coordinating Agency.

The Handbook provides Lead Coordinating Senior Officials with principles-based crisis management guidance, including the application of the 4-tier model.

Footnotes

15. The tiers of coordination refers to the scale of Australian Government coordination required. The severity and complexity of a crisis would influence the scale of coordination required among other factors, and therefore influence how the tier of coordination is determined. Return to footnote 15 ↩