I wish all my readers the very best for Christmas and the New Year.  For those working or volunteering with the emergency services over this period, I hope that it is a quiet time and you get to spend time with your families, not only on Christmas Day but also during the entire holiday period.  For myself and on behalf of my family and the broader community I thank all the members of the emergency service – whether volunteer or paid – for your service throughout the year and especially now.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the blog this year – those that have sent stories to me, those that have asked questions, those who have contributed through comments on the various posts and those that have shared the blog with friends and colleagues.  Thanks also to the Commissioners, Chief Officers and other senior executives who refer to the blog and share it among their service members.  This blog – via the WordPress site, FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn – regularly reaches over 3000 people and some posts have reached over 20 000 readers.  I hope the blog makes a valuable contribution by helping to explore and explain the law that applies to the work of the emergency services.

From January to June 2017 Australian Emergency Law will be coming to you from the Disaster and Development Network, a research centre at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, UK where I’ll be spending a semester as a visiting academic.   Even though I’ll be on the other side of the world, I’ll keep my eye on legal developments in Australia and I look forward to continuing the conversation with my many ‘correspondents’.

So again, to all my readers, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.