The Australia–New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee (ANZCTC) provides national coordination across jurisdictions to strengthen preparedness and capability. As part of this mandate, jurisdictions are jointly investing in a shared digital exercise platform designed to support cross-agency capability development under a federated governance and co-funded delivery model.
This presentation shares lessons emerging from the ongoing implementation of this national initiative, with direct relevance to the broader emergency management sector.
Historically, complex exercises across emergency management have often been designed, delivered and evaluated within jurisdictional silos. This limits visibility of shared capability gaps and reduces opportunities to reuse effort across agencies. The shared platform is enabling collaborative design, adaptation of scenarios and structured reuse of exercise content across jurisdictions, reducing duplication while improving consistency of approach. Standardised workflows and shared libraries support more efficient development of multi-agency activities at scale.
Governance arrangements underpin the platform’s operation. A federated model balances national coordination with jurisdictional data ownership, permissions control and operational sensitivities. The shared funding approach reinforces collective responsibility for capability uplift while preserving local autonomy, a model applicable to other nationally coordinated emergency management initiatives.
Technology is also strengthening how lessons are captured and applied. Training objectives are mapped during design, performance observations are collected in real time, and data is consolidated across events to provide greater visibility of capability trends. Rather than isolated after-action reports, exercise insights are contributing to a connected, evidence-informed readiness picture.
Three key learnings are emerging for emergency management agencies:
• A shared platform enables scalable collaboration across jurisdictions without eroding local ownership.
• Real-time data capture and visualisation improve the quality and credibility of evaluation.
• Consolidated cross-event data strengthens system-wide readiness discussions and informs capability investment.
This case study offers transferable insights for agencies seeking to enhance whole-of-system preparedness through shared digital infrastructure and collaborative governance.