Emergency management & recovery | Repair & rebuild
Once you know what damage you have sustained, you can make the decision to either repair or rebuild your business.
If you decide to rebuild, you’ll need to talk to a builder as soon as possible, as you may find they are in high demand. Talk to your local council about whether you will need any planning permits. You may also need to talk to your accountant or tax office about the tax treatment of the newly built/repaired buildings or infrastructure.
Part of being an adaptable business is learning from a crisis. After an emergency there may be an opportunity to make changes in the way you operate to avoid further damage in the future. For example, when rebuilding you can use more flood, fire or earthquake resistant construction materials.
Seek help from the community
In the event of a disaster a whole community may be affected. Often getting together with your local businesses and community leaders can help develop innovative solutions to rebuild the whole community. For example, some local councils arrange free temporary business centres with computers, phones and internet access to help businesses get back on their feet.
Recover your systems
If you have sustained damage to your systems, consider if you need to purchase replacement information systems (including computers, peripherals and software). Retrieve any data backups you have offsite and restore or recreate your systems. If your backups were also damaged, you may consider having a professional data recovery specialist to recover any data from your damaged computer. You may be surprised what is recoverable.
What to do…
- Contact the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)
emergency support information line on 1800 806 218 for specific tax advice.
- Speak to your local council about any applicable planning permits and for disaster-related assistance including possible temporary business centres. For contact details, look up your local council in our Directory of government & business associations.
- Enterprise Connect
Business Advisors are available to answer enquiries about business recovery and can be contacted on 13 17 91.
- Call the AusIndustry Hotline on 13 28 46 or email hotline@ausindustry.gov.au to find out about the Small Business Advisory Services – Natural Disaster Assistance program.
- Find tips on recovering water-damaged digital records
on the Queensland State Archives website.
- Use our Business recovery checklist for a quick reference of all the steps you should consider when recovering from an emergency event.
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