Hawke’s Bay leaders welcome Government Inquiry findings, commit to continuing to work closely with central Government
Hawke’s Bay’s leaders and members of the region’s Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Group Joint Committee have welcomed the findings of the Government Inquiry into the Response to the North Island Severe Weather Events.
The findings of the Inquiry, headed by former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mataparae, was released today by Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell.
The Inquiry looked into the response to North Island weather events last year, including Cyclone Hale, the Auckland Anniversary heavy rainfall, and Cyclone Gabrielle.
The Joint Committee, which includes the region’s Mayors and the chair of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, said that similar to the Independent Review into the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle, this Inquiry had clearly a number of learnings and recommendations for improvements. These would ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system was fit for purpose and ready to respond.
“Given how severely impacted our region was following last year’s North Island Weather Events, it is not surprising that many of the Inquiry’s findings and recommendations relate to Hawke’s Bay.”
“It is also not surprising that many of those findings are consistent with those in the CDEM Review released late last month, and it remains clear the current emergency management system is simply not fit for purpose and instead sets good people up to fail.”
The Government Inquiry is one of a number of reviews either recently completed or still underway that will inform how the Hawke’s Bay region prepares for, and responds to, future events, the Joint Committee said.
“With the Inquiry only publicly released this morning, as a region, we will need to take the time to work through the Inquiry and its findings in detail.”
“What remains clear is that significant central Government support and investment is going to be critical to ensuring we can deliver the complete overhaul our emergency management system so desperately needs.”
“As the region’s leaders, we remain fully committed to working not only with central Government but also with our local Hawke’s Bay communities, Iwi, and business leaders to ensure meaningful change occurs based on all relevant review recommendations, and that identified learnings are used wherever possible to strengthen readiness and response capabilities for the future.”
In an interview with Hawke’s Bay App today, Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she was pleased that Minister Mitchell was looking into a national emergency system that was fit for purpose for the future.
“There's many parts of the report and the government inquiry that enables us to have a far better system than we have currently across New Zealand.”
“It's heartening to see that supporting around funding for local government and regions to be able to set up readiness and preparedness for our communities.”
“This is something that we've never had before and that is really heartening to see. But there are really, really good review recommendations and we are already underway with our programme of work. We've got 75 recommendations from the Mike Bush consulting report.”
Hazlehurst said the “right people” were being employed to help initiate and implement those recommendations.
“And so, we can reassure our community that we are going to have a better regional system.”
“Our systems were overwhelmed and with the 111 number people couldn't get through, people couldn't get support. Communications were down. There's a lot to do, but this has got to be a priority for our region.”
The Inquiry also highlighted the role that iwi Māori played in the response to Cyclone Gabrielle.
Hazlehurst said: They shined out as our champions through Cyclone Gabrielle in terms of their readiness and preparedness and their response and recovery.”
“And so, at the moment, under the legislation, they don't have voting rights, which is absolutely absurd. And while we have our chairman of Ngāti Kahungunu [Bayden Barber] at our table, and influencing decision-making, that's not enough. The legislation has to go one step further and make sure that we have our iwi representatives at the table as part of the Civil Defence Emergency Management system.”
Bayden Barber agrees with her.
“The Inquiry has been consistent with the Mike Bush one, the messages around more engagement and involvement of iwi Māori and civil defense is needed.”
“That's something that we've been talking about for some time. And just generally the system is needing an overhaul, which is something that we support as well. But getting Māori into the legislation for civil defence is the first step.”
“We actually have to be part of the conversation at the moment.”
Barber says this is important because the “next disaster's just around the corner”.
“If we don't implement recommendations, we'll be the laughing stock of the world. We have all these reviews, they cost an arm and a leg, and we didn't put anything into practice. So, yeah, I would think any responsible government would want to take on board the findings of the report and actually put them into place.”
“At the end of the day, communities want to see accountability, and you take learnings from that. When no one is held to account, I don't think you get the fullness of the learnings that need to be had. And so accountability's really important.“
In releasing the Inquiry’s report, Minister Mitchell said: “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address.
“This is not about individuals – who do an incredible job in emergency events – but the system as a whole.”
“Weather events and other emergencies have a huge impact on local communities and regions. Any response requires involvement from communities, local and central government, authorities and organisations and emergency services.”
“We need to ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system is appropriate for responding to future emergency events because lives and livelihoods are at stake.”
