Australian emergency marketAussie emergency services industry continues to grow

Over the past five years, emergency services funding in Australia has been driven by population growth, which has led to an increase in demand for emergency services. International terrorism attacks, rising cyber crimes, and perceptions of weakening safety of the community have also supported demand for police services. One-off events such as the catastrophic flooding in the eastern states in 2010-11, and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, have led to a spikes in emergency services expenditure. Industry research firm IBISWorld has, accordingly, updated its report on the Emergency Services in Australia: Market Research Report.

Emergency services refer to the services provided by police, firefighters, and ambulances. IBISWorld expects that the emergency services industry will generate revenue of AUS$20.2 billion in 2011-12, an increase of 4.5 percent on the previous year. According to IBISWorld industry analyst David Stephen, “Revenue mainly comes from government funding, though it is also derived from donations, levies on property owners, user charges and insurance companies.”

Over the past five years, funding has been driven by population growth, which has led to an increase in demand for emergency services. Terrorist attacks, rising cyber crimes, and perceptions of weakening safety of the community have also supported demand for police services. One-off events such as the catastrophic flooding in the eastern states over 2010-11, and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, have led to a spikes in emergency services expenditure. These types of events also increase funding over the medium term, especially in cases where subsequent investigations identify improvements and shortcomings in the emergency response. As a result of increased funding, industry revenue is expected to grow 5.9 percent per annum over the five years through 2011-12.

“Over the next five years, there will be increasing focus on the inter-agency operability of all emergency services,” adds Stephen. This will occur through standardizing communications systems and the provision of interagency training and equipment, following a number of operations that required the skills of multiple units such as the recent flood and bushfires. Industry revenue is forecast to increase over the next five years to 2016-17.

IBISWorld notes that the market share concentration level of the emergency services industry dipped in 2008-9 as the government reallocated resources to firefighters to combat severe bushfires in Victoria and again in 2010-11 when personnel were mobilized to address severe flooding, particularly in Queensland. These events aside, there has been a trend of increasing concentration as the top four players are police organizations: NSW Police Force, Queensland Police Service, Police Department (Victoria), and Australian Federal Police (AFP). Concentration levels differ from segment to segment. Within the police services segment, industry concentration is virtually monopolistic as each police department has exclusive jurisdiction in certain areas. The AFP and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) have powers that extend nationally, but which generally do not conflict with powers of state police forces. The concentration level is also high in the ambulance services segment. The concentration level is medium in the firefighting services segment.

— Read more in Emergency Services in Australia: Market Research Report