November 26, 2025 • 11 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm very pleased to say that I've got a special
guest in the studio today. Now, she's someone who's spent
several decades in the public service, most notably leading some
of the Northern Territori's frontline services, with an extensive career
in emergency management, which has seen her lead the response
to a number of significant events locally as well as interstate. Now,
(00:23):
since twenty sixteen, she's been the executive director of Bushfire's NT,
and earlier this year she was appointed the acting Commissioner
of the NT Foreign Emergency Services while current Commissioner Andy
Wharton embarked on a sabbatical overseas. But well after tomorrow,
Colleen Bremner will hang up her hat and ride off
(00:46):
into the retirement sunset, and she joins me in the studio.
Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And good morning Katie.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Congratulations, Thank you very much. I've been it's been a
long time coming.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, it's been an illustrious career. It's you know, how
many years twenty seven?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, this, yes, it has been twenty seven, this stint
in the public service. I only came for a year
to work in the early childhood area and managing children's services.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
And it was a twelve month stint. I used to
run a child CIA center before that.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And yeah, just be careful what you accept, isn't.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It be careful what you do. Except one year it's
turned into twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It has, it has.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
How did that happen? How did you end up on
this road and you know, in the Northern Territory for
such a long period.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, I'm born in the territory. Yeah, so you know,
obviously a Territorian. But the reason I went into government
was just for twelve months to I suppose to drive
some do some stuff like drive improvements to child care
and the rest of it and some of the standards.
So twelve months it was you know, one of she's
now a girlfriend, but one of my friends was going
(02:01):
on maternity leave.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So it was a great opportunity.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And yeah, but when you're in a larger organization and
you know, you get elections, governments change, you get you
know what they call machinery, government changes, work changes. So
it continued to you know, things you didn't get bored.
Just when you think and you're getting bored, something would
happen and you'd have a new challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So something changes and you end up down another path. Well,
yours has been, you know, like you've You've done lots
of different roles within government over that period of time,
haven't you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I have.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And I was thinking, just went out for dinner the
other night and talking to some of my colleagues, and
I said.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You know, the Internet wasn't around when I started. People.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You know, my intro was on the desk way back
in the day when I was a nurse. I don't
know if you can say, but you know, we used
to sneak smokes in the in the they used to
have what was it waiting that the laundroom. I don't
have lund rooms anymore. You certainly don't have smoking. It
(03:04):
can't even do that on the grounds. And I'm one
of those. I'm one of those terrible retired smokers anyhow, So.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Things certainly changed, no doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Colling.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
While you might be acting Commissioner holding that role and
the executive director, are you the first woman, the first
woman to lead those two agencies.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Look, I think previously Fleur might have done it for
a week, you know, from him and to some time
ago and bushfires and te possibly again that was that
was another acting gig was offered an opportunity with an
outgoing executive director, and so I think I was the
(03:47):
first woman certainly, And the last ten months as the
Foreign Emergency Services, well it's only been two commissioners really, Andy.
I was very welcome to have him back, just quite
and and myself. So that's been an amazing that's been
an amazing time as well.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Colleen.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
You don't strike me as someone who would have ever
let your gender get in the way of you doing anything.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, no, absolutely not. It wasn't. I mean, that's the
that's the beauty of the territory.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And I you know, one of the one of the committees,
one of the national sort of committees that I was on,
is the Women's Champion of Women's Champions of change in
Emergency Services. And I don't need to be on that,
you know, why do we need to be on that?
My boss was, you know, the CEO was a female
(04:35):
at the time. It was Eva Laula was our minister.
Now we've got you know, the chief Minister as a woman.
I said, we don't have those issues in the Northern
Territory that I certainly that I've come across. In fact,
you might know Tony Fullow. He would say it was
the last man standing, you know, surrounded by women.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So yeah, So I think that's the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Beauty of the territory and one of the reasons, one
of the many reasons I still in the territory and
had my career and my daughter has stayed as well.
It's just there's opportunity, opportunity, but not even just for women,
for anyone who wants to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I totally agree with you, and I think that's one
of the things that we maybe don't sell ourselves as
well about. You know that we could that there's so
many opportunities in the Northern Territory that you might not
get somewhere else. And you've probably seen some of those
opportunities more than most in the roles that you've held.
I mean, you've you've led agencies throughout some of the
(05:32):
more difficult times that we've had as well in terms
of weather events. What have been some of your highs
and lows?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There was a big side there so been. You know,
you do a lot of planning. Back in one of
the jobs I had, which was the Director of Security
and Emergency Recovery and Chief MENS and one of the
when I came into that job again, another acting job,
which then turned into quite a number of years. Again,
what I what I decided to do was to think
(06:03):
about some of those things that kept me up at night,
you know, when you do emergency management what and so
I was able to sort of start some.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Projects around how you might do it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And that was like looking at some of some of
the first some of the early thinking around if you
got a cyclone and it was bouncing around the remote communities,
an incident controller has to make a decision about whether
to an evacuate a community early enough or to make or.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Say stay in place.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
So to do that you need to have you need
to provide them with some evidence or some information to
make those decisions. They're really their life and death situ.
So they were some of the things that concern me.
So we did some early early work on that and
it was really it was really useful. I used to call,
you know, the community of warral Wee our platinum frequent
(06:54):
flyers because every time, you know, when we got LAMB
cyclone Monika, they would be the community would be evacuated
because there was at that time nowhere suitable for the
community to to safely to safely shelter shelter Ye correctly, yeah, correct, So,
and so you have to get them out early because
(07:14):
you can't wait for the winds to come because they're
an island.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You can't fly a plane in winds.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So it was really good to see this last this
last cyclone that they could stay in their community in shelter.
So that was one of the things that we worked
for and put on the plan as warr we needs
to have a shelter so they could stay.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And so, yeah, it must feel good like knowing that
some of those changes are your.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Legacy, yes, well mine and many others.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, but you know you've been a big part of
that and a big part of you know, making sure
that Territorians have got something like that. Like you said,
you know, it's a big team effort, people working together.
But you must feel pretty proud of that.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, it is great to see and even you know
this this last cyclone. Yeah, I didn't actually have a
thing to do with cyclone Feena, because Andy made it
out of you know, call out of the big freeze
just in time, and and so you know, he stepped
in and that just provided some leadership in the organization
(08:15):
all the way through. So I was a member of
the public back home, you know, but we had our generator,
we had our stuff cleared and all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Good to go.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
But it was good to see how well everybody did.
And there is a there is a change of guard
in the territory in relation to you know, in many positions,
because we're getting on.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, it's time for you to enjoy your life. You know.
I know you've enjoyed your work life. I have, but
you want to be able to enjoy retirement. You know,
while you're able to get out there and do what
you want to do, what's on the what's on your
agenda in retirement?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, i'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
If you're the caretaker of the bees Creek Primary School,
a few weeks ago, you would have seen a a
prato with a small caravan trying to reverse down a
road and park into car parks. As I was trying
to learn how to tackle this new challenge. So yeah,
my mum and some of my family still live in
(09:15):
Tennant Creek, so I will be before Christmas starting off
the journey towing the caravan.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I think I'm good to go.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Good on you, you reckon, You've practiced. You're reversing and
you're alright with it.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well, no, my cousin said, you're not. Many people have
to reverse a caravan or down a whole road. You know,
you can do a couple of times. It's probably as
bad as good as I'm going to get.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh, Colleen, what are you going to miss the most?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I've been thinking about sometimes. You know, you look out
the window in your backyard. You know, I live on
acredge in it, and it looks fantastic this time of year,
and we're so lucky to have rain in November. I
don't know how many you know, I just hated it
when the country gets so parched, and of course it's
still really dry and it's hot, and the fires continue
(10:04):
now in the rural area, it's so green. What I'll
miss probably is is the people. Yeah, And then I think,
oh gosh, Now I'm going to be just a resident,
not someone leading a leading a division, or or providing
that sort of influence over how or direction for an agency. Now,
(10:26):
as I said to the Chief Minister at a recent event,
I'm going to become a keyboard worried and you're probably
a pest.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Bring us whenever you want to, I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What it's really like.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
You can text us or ring us. Colleen, When do
you finish? Do you finish well?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I'm going to finish today, so nothing more x than
an ex commissioner. The cyclone has changed a lot of
the meeting dates and stuff that we had, and of
course there's still recovery going on, you know, obviously the
still clean up and I'm looking eating the window and
there's still trees down and the rest of it. So
I'm going to finish up this afternoon, but I'll come
(11:07):
back and catch up with a crew for a party
next week.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But I don't need to be at work for that.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Sure got on you. I wish we had a bottle
of champagne for you, Colleen.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I know I say this still time.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Maybe someone can drop one off. Colleen Bremner, congratulations on
an incredible career. You're a wonderful Territorian and I really
appreciate all the time that you've given me over the
years on the show. So thank you so much for
speaking with this this.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Morning, and thank you Katie. It was my pleasure to
come in. Thank you
I'm very pleased to say that I've got a special
guest in the studio today. Now, she's someone who's spent
several decades in the public service, most notably leading some
of the Northern Territori's frontline services, with an extensive career
in emergency management, which has seen her lead the response
to a number of significant events locally as well as interstate. Now,
(00:23):
since twenty sixteen, she's been the executive director of Bushfire's NT,
and earlier this year she was appointed the acting Commissioner
of the NT Foreign Emergency Services while current Commissioner Andy
Wharton embarked on a sabbatical overseas. But well after tomorrow,
Colleen Bremner will hang up her hat and ride off
(00:46):
into the retirement sunset, and she joins me in the studio.
Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
And good morning Katie.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Congratulations, Thank you very much. I've been it's been a
long time coming.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Well, it's been an illustrious career. It's you know, how
many years twenty seven?
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, this, yes, it has been twenty seven, this stint
in the public service. I only came for a year
to work in the early childhood area and managing children's services.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
And it was a twelve month stint. I used to
run a child CIA center before that.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
And yeah, just be careful what you accept, isn't.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It be careful what you do. Except one year it's
turned into twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It has, it has.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
How did that happen? How did you end up on
this road and you know, in the Northern Territory for
such a long period.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, I'm born in the territory. Yeah, so you know,
obviously a Territorian. But the reason I went into government
was just for twelve months to I suppose to drive
some do some stuff like drive improvements to child care
and the rest of it and some of the standards.
So twelve months it was you know, one of she's
now a girlfriend, but one of my friends was going
(02:01):
on maternity leave.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So it was a great opportunity.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And yeah, but when you're in a larger organization and
you know, you get elections, governments change, you get you
know what they call machinery, government changes, work changes. So
it continued to you know, things you didn't get bored.
Just when you think and you're getting bored, something would
happen and you'd have a new challenge.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So something changes and you end up down another path. Well,
yours has been, you know, like you've You've done lots
of different roles within government over that period of time,
haven't you.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I have.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And I was thinking, just went out for dinner the
other night and talking to some of my colleagues, and
I said.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
You know, the Internet wasn't around when I started. People.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
You know, my intro was on the desk way back
in the day when I was a nurse. I don't
know if you can say, but you know, we used
to sneak smokes in the in the they used to
have what was it waiting that the laundroom. I don't
have lund rooms anymore. You certainly don't have smoking. It
(03:04):
can't even do that on the grounds. And I'm one
of those. I'm one of those terrible retired smokers anyhow, So.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Things certainly changed, no doubt about that.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Colling.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
While you might be acting Commissioner holding that role and
the executive director, are you the first woman, the first
woman to lead those two agencies.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Look, I think previously Fleur might have done it for
a week, you know, from him and to some time
ago and bushfires and te possibly again that was that
was another acting gig was offered an opportunity with an
outgoing executive director, and so I think I was the
(03:47):
first woman certainly, And the last ten months as the
Foreign Emergency Services, well it's only been two commissioners really, Andy.
I was very welcome to have him back, just quite
and and myself. So that's been an amazing that's been
an amazing time as well.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Colleen.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
You don't strike me as someone who would have ever
let your gender get in the way of you doing anything.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, no, absolutely not. It wasn't. I mean, that's the
that's the beauty of the territory.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
And I you know, one of the one of the committees,
one of the national sort of committees that I was on,
is the Women's Champion of Women's Champions of change in
Emergency Services. And I don't need to be on that,
you know, why do we need to be on that?
My boss was, you know, the CEO was a female
(04:35):
at the time. It was Eva Laula was our minister.
Now we've got you know, the chief Minister as a woman.
I said, we don't have those issues in the Northern
Territory that I certainly that I've come across. In fact,
you might know Tony Fullow. He would say it was
the last man standing, you know, surrounded by women.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So yeah, So I think that's the.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Beauty of the territory and one of the reasons, one
of the many reasons I still in the territory and
had my career and my daughter has stayed as well.
It's just there's opportunity, opportunity, but not even just for women,
for anyone who wants to give it a go.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I totally agree with you, and I think that's one
of the things that we maybe don't sell ourselves as
well about. You know that we could that there's so
many opportunities in the Northern Territory that you might not
get somewhere else. And you've probably seen some of those
opportunities more than most in the roles that you've held.
I mean, you've you've led agencies throughout some of the
(05:32):
more difficult times that we've had as well in terms
of weather events. What have been some of your highs
and lows?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
There was a big side there so been. You know,
you do a lot of planning. Back in one of
the jobs I had, which was the Director of Security
and Emergency Recovery and Chief MENS and one of the
when I came into that job again, another acting job,
which then turned into quite a number of years. Again,
what I what I decided to do was to think
(06:03):
about some of those things that kept me up at night,
you know, when you do emergency management what and so
I was able to sort of start some.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Projects around how you might do it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
And that was like looking at some of some of
the first some of the early thinking around if you
got a cyclone and it was bouncing around the remote communities,
an incident controller has to make a decision about whether
to an evacuate a community early enough or to make or.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Say stay in place.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
So to do that you need to have you need
to provide them with some evidence or some information to
make those decisions. They're really their life and death situ.
So they were some of the things that concern me.
So we did some early early work on that and
it was really it was really useful. I used to call,
you know, the community of warral Wee our platinum frequent
(06:54):
flyers because every time, you know, when we got LAMB
cyclone Monika, they would be the community would be evacuated
because there was at that time nowhere suitable for the
community to to safely to safely shelter shelter Ye correctly, yeah, correct, So,
and so you have to get them out early because
(07:14):
you can't wait for the winds to come because they're
an island.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
You can't fly a plane in winds.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So it was really good to see this last this
last cyclone that they could stay in their community in shelter.
So that was one of the things that we worked
for and put on the plan as warr we needs
to have a shelter so they could stay.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
And so, yeah, it must feel good like knowing that
some of those changes are your.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Legacy, yes, well mine and many others.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah, but you know you've been a big part of
that and a big part of you know, making sure
that Territorians have got something like that. Like you said,
you know, it's a big team effort, people working together.
But you must feel pretty proud of that.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, it is great to see and even you know
this this last cyclone. Yeah, I didn't actually have a
thing to do with cyclone Feena, because Andy made it
out of you know, call out of the big freeze
just in time, and and so you know, he stepped
in and that just provided some leadership in the organization
(08:15):
all the way through. So I was a member of
the public back home, you know, but we had our generator,
we had our stuff cleared and all.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Good to go.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
But it was good to see how well everybody did.
And there is a there is a change of guard
in the territory in relation to you know, in many positions,
because we're getting on.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, it's time for you to enjoy your life. You know.
I know you've enjoyed your work life. I have, but
you want to be able to enjoy retirement. You know,
while you're able to get out there and do what
you want to do, what's on the what's on your
agenda in retirement?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Well, i'll tell you.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
If you're the caretaker of the bees Creek Primary School,
a few weeks ago, you would have seen a a
prato with a small caravan trying to reverse down a
road and park into car parks. As I was trying
to learn how to tackle this new challenge. So yeah,
my mum and some of my family still live in
(09:15):
Tennant Creek, so I will be before Christmas starting off
the journey towing the caravan.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I think I'm good to go.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Good on you, you reckon, You've practiced. You're reversing and
you're alright with it.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Well, no, my cousin said, you're not. Many people have
to reverse a caravan or down a whole road. You know,
you can do a couple of times. It's probably as
bad as good as I'm going to get.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Oh, Colleen, what are you going to miss the most?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I've been thinking about sometimes. You know, you look out
the window in your backyard. You know, I live on
acredge in it, and it looks fantastic this time of year,
and we're so lucky to have rain in November. I
don't know how many you know, I just hated it
when the country gets so parched, and of course it's
still really dry and it's hot, and the fires continue
(10:04):
now in the rural area, it's so green. What I'll
miss probably is is the people. Yeah, And then I think,
oh gosh, Now I'm going to be just a resident,
not someone leading a leading a division, or or providing
that sort of influence over how or direction for an agency. Now,
(10:26):
as I said to the Chief Minister at a recent event,
I'm going to become a keyboard worried and you're probably
a pest.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Bring us whenever you want to, I'll tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
What it's really like.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
You can text us or ring us. Colleen, When do
you finish? Do you finish well?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I'm going to finish today, so nothing more x than
an ex commissioner. The cyclone has changed a lot of
the meeting dates and stuff that we had, and of
course there's still recovery going on, you know, obviously the
still clean up and I'm looking eating the window and
there's still trees down and the rest of it. So
I'm going to finish up this afternoon, but I'll come
(11:07):
back and catch up with a crew for a party
next week.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But I don't need to be at work for that.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Sure got on you. I wish we had a bottle
of champagne for you, Colleen.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I know I say this still time.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Maybe someone can drop one off. Colleen Bremner, congratulations on
an incredible career. You're a wonderful Territorian and I really
appreciate all the time that you've given me over the
years on the show. So thank you so much for
speaking with this this.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Morning, and thank you Katie. It was my pleasure to
come in. Thank you
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