Emergency Management Bill (No 2)

I move, That the Emergency Management Bill (No 2) be now read a third time.

I’d like to thank my colleagues across the House for the constructive debate during committee of the whole House, ensuring that the emergency management system is fit for purpose. This should be apolitical, and I appreciate your willingness to take a cross-party approach to this critical piece of work. There’s always a danger of mentioning names, but I do want to mention some names for people across the House that have put a lot of effort into this bill, as I say, not just here in Parliament, but I often see those same people out on the ground when their own areas have been hit by a state of emergency. In no specific order: Cushla Tangaere-Manuel; Camilla Belich, whom Cushla took over from; Kieran McAnulty; Francisco Hernandez; Nicole McKee; Karen Chhour; Mark Patterson; Andrew Hoggard; Andy—I don’t know if he’s not in the House. Of course, I want to acknowledge Tim Costley, the chair of the committee, and the committee members; Melissa Lee; and, of course, my dear friend who is departing, the Hon Shane Reti. Can I thank all of you for the heavy lifting that you’ve done in the committee stage.

Of course, can I acknowledge the officials, Beth and Jeremy in particular, who have been in the House with us today. I mentioned this to the Hon Kieran McAnulty and recognised the fact that a lot of the work in this emergency management bill had been done by him and the previous Government, but, actually, there was still an enormous amount of heavy lifting to do to make sure that we’ve got a bill that provides us with the best possible platform to operate from in terms of keeping our country safe and, of course, taking into account a lot of the information that came through from the report from Sir Jerry Mateparae after the tragedy that we all faced and went through with Cyclone Gabrielle. I really want to make a special mention of the National Emergency Management Agency and the officials led by Beth and Jeremy, who have done an enormous amount of work. They’ve worked week in, week out, burning the midnight candle, with thorough consultation, going through every stakeholder, to make sure that we’ve got a bill in this House now that sets us up for the future.

The bill is fantastic. It provides us with a platform, but, ultimately, it all comes down to the people. I want to acknowledge all of the people that are involved around the country in emergency management, whatever your role may be. Some of you work behind the wire and are never seen and never visible to the public, but the job that you do removes a lot of anxiety and stress for people when they’re dealing with whatever emergency we might have to face as a country, right through to our first responders, who quite simply are world class, all of them, out there protecting and looking after our people.

I want to highlight the key amendment we debated, because it gets to the heart of a difficult balance I’ve observed in my role as Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery. The reality is that most emergencies are local and managed locally. This is why the bill takes a locally led approach, like the current Act. Local government is responsible for identifying, assessing, and managing the hazards and risks in their areas. This is because councils are better placed than central government to know which communities are most at risk from local hazards. The local governments also hold one of the tools to manage these hazards and risks, both under this bill and other legislation. But I have heard real concern that councils have sometimes been too slow to take precautionary action, especially when it comes to mitigating flood risk in the days leading up to severe weather events. That’s why we’re giving emergency management committees the power to carry out works when there is the imminent threat of an emergency. This change will avoid any doubt that precautionary works are a key part of emergency management.

The bill has also been amended to enable the Director-General of Emergency Management to step in during local emergencies, but only if it is necessary to preserve human life, prevent injury to people, or prevent serious damage to property. National intervention will be a last resort, but at a time when New Zealand faces increasing risk from severe weather and other emergencies, it’s right that central government should have the power to direct emergency management activities if local government hasn’t acted and lives or property are at risk.

The bill is a key part of the puzzle when it comes to delivering the system change recommended by inquiries and reviews, but operational improvements are equally important. The Government has committed to modernising the operational technology systems for the emergency management sector through investing in the Emergency Management Sector Operational Systems programme. This will deliver four key technology systems for the emergency management sector: a data platform that consolidates key national, regional, and local data sets; a data and visualisation tool, otherwise known as a common operating picture; operational tools for emergency management personnel to task, collaborate, and manage resources during response and recovery; and an upgrade to the national warning system for timely, accessible alerts to the public.

Right now, the operational systems used across the sector are fragmented and cannot support a joined-up response at the scale required to manage incidents of regional and national significance. By investing in modern technology, we will deliver improved real-time situational awareness to enable evidence-based decision making and interoperability across the emergency management sector during response and recovery. Live information and better coordination mean the right calls being made at the right time to protect infrastructure and minimise damage. Diverse communities, including Māori, Pacific peoples, ethnic communities, disabled persons, and rural populations will be better supported through accessible and multilingual communication tools.

This technology investment is an anchor project within the Strengthening Emergency Management road map, which implements the Government’s response to the inquiry into the North Island severe weather events. Work on other initiatives in the road map is already under way, including the new national emergency management facility, reviewing the national emergency management plan, and work to personalise the workforce. Modernising the legislative framework, investment in modern technology and facilities, and building system capacity and capability will address longstanding challenges and ensure New Zealand is better prepared to manage more frequent and complex emergencies now and into the future. Together with those operational improvements, the bill delivers the system change New Zealand needs.

Mr Speaker, before I commend the bill, I want to finish where I sort of started and acknowledge you. Often, it’s forgotten, the work that you did in the role that I hold now. We’re custodians of the role and we do the best that we can, but I want to say that I took example from having watched the response to the Canterbury earthquakes. If we visit Canterbury now, and Christchurch now—and, no, I’m not going to bring up the Ranfurly Shield—you can see a region that is growing and thriving, and that took time, and they deserve it. But I want to acknowledge your role in that. I’m proud to commend the Emergency Management Bill (No 2) to the House.

SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. That’s a hard act to follow from the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery, Mr Speaker, but I will say that when my mother used to watch you on TV, she used to say, “I like that Brownlee guy.”

SPEAKER: OK, that’s enough. You really can’t do better than that.

CUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I said in the opening of our committee stage, Labour do support this bill, and I too want to acknowledge, once again, the Minister for the bipartisan way in which you have held the portfolio, encouraging good relations not just with the Labour Party but with all MPs across the House. I want to reinforce my acknowledgments also to your officials and your comms teams, who are always keeping us abreast of everything across Aotearoa as they unfold. I too want to acknowledge the Hon Kieran McAnulty and, of course, the mahi that Camilla Belich has done on our behalf on this important work.

My position as the Labour spokesperson for emergency management seems to have evolved from the fact that I’ve spent most of my term up to my knees in silt or mud or surrounded by landslides. Though that may be the case, it truly has been an honour to hold this portfolio, not only because we see the best will of each other across this House—we unite over the safety of our people—but also because you see the best of our communities and the capabilities that shine in all our individuals, our groups, our businesses throughout Aotearoa, at a time when people are going through some of the lowest experiences of their lives. It is my pleasure to stand here and endorse this bill on behalf of the Labour Party.

I just want to pick up on some of the key points that the Minister has made about why we’re here. Quite frankly, this is the boring part of very important work that goes on around Aotearoa, and that’s our job: to enable the professionals and the volunteers to carry out the very important work they do keeping our communities safe and navigating our tricky landscapes while doing that. While this might seem boring to the whānau at home, we do it to make sure that all our volunteers and our professionals can go about doing the mahi. We have started experiencing frequently, as the Minister shared with us earlier, a weather event every six days, so it’s very important that we allow our people and our communities to be upskilled and to ensure that we have appropriate voices at decision-making tables so that we can execute the important work, as I said, of keeping our communities safe.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Hear, hear.

CUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL: Thank you, Kieran. It’s been acknowledged that a lot of the mahi in this bill is not new. We are building on some work that has been done across the House by many kaitiaki of this role throughout. It’s time to let people get on with the business.

I want to acknowledge a lot of our whānau who are still recovering from some of the extreme weather events we’ve had across Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and Aotearoa. While we commend this bill to the House and people are still recovering, I look forward to ongoing discussions and investment across Parliament into resilience. We’ve talked about infrastructure in this bill and building resilience so that communities throughout the likes of Wairoa can have more investment, ongoing investment, in resilience so that the impacts of the weather events that have become our “new normal” are lessened. I’m sure we will learn from everything we’ve been through, and I hope we will continue to commit to that across the House in a bipartisan way.

I want to also pick up on the modernising of systems and say how important that was. One of my first experiences, like yours, Minister, which I suppose qualified me for this role, was being completely cut off during Cyclone Gabrielle. Our roads were cut off, our internet was cut off, our Wi-Fi connectivity was cut off, our phones were cut off—all we had was good old manpower, door knocking, and thank goodness for 585 AM Radio Ngati Porou. I absolutely support the investment in improving our resilience in that respect.

In conclusion, I want to acknowledge that, while we have debated at length—and I thank the Minister for his robust responses to all questions posed during committee stage. We did debate at length the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the mandated role, per se, of iwi and hapū, because we all have acknowledged broadly across this House the amazing work that iwi and hapū organisations do quickly, effectively, efficiently, and for all. We’ve also acknowledged widely the important role that marae facilities play in responses—not just weather events. No matter what the kaupapa is, our marae are ready and able to respond and cater to our communities.

I want to also acknowledge submitters such as Tātou Tātou; such as Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā; such as Mana Ahuriri; such as Te Runanganui o Ngāti Porou; such as Hineuru Iwi Trust, Hauora Taiwhenua, and Tūwharetoa Settlement Trust, who raised your concerns about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and raised your concerns about the mandate of having iwi and hapū voices at tables. We agree that was in the original bill, and so we agree that in the future this is a conversation we should still have and we must still have. That said, we also agree that this is an important piece of legislation. We want whānau, professionals, and volunteers out in our communities to be equipped, to have clear guidelines, and to get on with the business of keeping Aotearoa safe throughout emergencies, whatever they may bring.

That said, I want to also acknowledge a lot of our organisations out there who are supporting recovery without central funding. I’ve been to two events in the last three weeks—one up on the East Coast, one in the Wairarapa—where voluntary organisations have been helping resource the recovery of our farmers, who play a key part in our economy, which is also widely acknowledged in this House. Thank you to all the whānau and organisations out there who are helping keep Aotearoa on our feet, helping families keep food on their plates by helping them keep their livelihoods with the amazing support you do off your own backs to keep our whānau humming and Aotearoa ticking.

To all our whānau, as I’ve said, who are still recovering, kia kaha koutou, but please be reassured that, when it comes to emergency management and it comes to Aotearoa recovery, we stand united as a Parliament, and that’s something to be proud of—especially when we’ve had some feisty debates in this House. I’m certainly proud that, when it comes to emergency management and recovery in Aotearoa, we unite as a Parliament and we debate with open minds and open hearts in the best interests of the people that we represent.

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I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I just want to speak on the Emergency Management Bill (No 2) and express the Green Party’s continued support for this legislation. I wanted to begin my speech by thanking the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery for his cross-party support in this work and my colleagues across the House as well for treating this as a serious cross-party issue that will survive changes of Government and changes of personnel across many different Governments and many different iterations of Parliament. It’s really rare to see that increasingly happening, and it’s good to see that we can still agree on some issues and that we can still find common ground on a number of issues.

I wanted to also thank local governments and the emergency management sector across Aotearoa New Zealand. I was once an emergency management volunteer with the Otago Regional Council, working with emergency management Otago—or EMO as it was called—and it was really enlightening to see, actually, the work that volunteers do up close. Thirdly, I wanted to thank the volunteers and the communities that are doing this largely for free—doing this largely without much in the way of funding or support. They are the people who are carrying the backbone of our emergency management system.

I wanted to acknowledge the changes that have been made in select committee. It was really good to see my colleague Mike Davidson in the Governance and Administration Committee, and other colleagues in that committee, get the changes that the Greens were pushing for, including greater inclusion of iwi Māori, including clearer references to the disproportionately affected communities, such as our disability community. Even though we do support the bill—and it was good to see some of the changes we put forward during the select committee stage advance—we did want the bill to go further on a number of areas, and I’ll elaborate on those now.

I was somewhat reassured to hear the Minister, during the committee of the whole House stage, acknowledge that there could be tighter integration between climate adaptation and the emergency management bill through secondary legislation. It was good to see that. Even though all of our amendments did get voted down, it’s good to see that that is actually an area that a future Government can address and make provisions for through the secondary legislation mechanism. We also wanted some clearer references and clearer, I guess, inclusion of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and iwi Māori, but obviously those were not voted for in the committee stage. Even though they weren’t voted for, there are still some references that were put in in select committee that do establish a bare minimum that can at least survive across different iterations of Government.

The third thing that we wanted to see—and we did have amendments on it—was the issue of resourcing. We do know that local government is facing some really tight constraints at the moment, so we put in some amendments to ensure that local government got the resourcing it needed through this bill. The amendments we put forward were to exempt emergency management services from the upcoming rates-capping legislation. The second was to give local government power to impose a civil defence levy or a targeted rate from local government for civil defence purposes. We did try and address the resourcing issue. We also tried to introduce direct mechanisms for direct reimbursement for community individuals rather than passing it through local government. Unfortunately, those amendments didn’t go through.

Last but not least, we did put forward numerous amendments around disability issues and making sure that they were more explicitly referred to in legislation. Most importantly, we also tried to put forward amendments around taking a broader view in this bill on not just protecting human life but also protecting ecosystems and wildlife—because it is really important that we don’t just take an anthropomorphic view of this wonderful planet we live on.

I’m not going to take a full call on this. I just wanted, again, to reiterate our thanks to the Minister and our thanks across the House. I acknowledge that emergency management is an area that will continue to see a lot of changes and improvements as debate goes on—just seeing the terrible things that are happening in Nepal, we see how important it is for communities to be prepared for situations and to be resilient and adapting to things like that. Obviously, there is a limit on how much we can actually adapt to, but the more we do and the more we work together, the more we can actually survive the challenges ahead. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, it gives me real pleasure to rise on behalf of ACT and take a short call on the Emergency Management Bill (No 2). I want to thank the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery for his kind acknowledgment of my ACT colleagues. Again, this bill is supported across the House, and as the Minister outlined, it actually builds on work over a number of successive Governments, and it’s had great input, both from members across this House and also those involved in the sector.

It is providing a new, modern framework. It’s going to ensure that we have the right level of community involvement and, also, that the lines of demarcation for responsibilities, etc., are clear and that actually we have an effective way for dealing with emergency management situations in New Zealand. I’m not going to traverse all the ground that the Minister and other speakers have covered again, but I just say ACT does commend this bill to the House. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr Speaker. I’m delighted to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take also a brief call in support of this bill. First of all, I just wanted to say that we all recognise that emergencies are a major issue across this country. Whether it’s earthquakes, firestorms, whatever—we treat it seriously here, and I think that is a good thing, and it’s great to see that bipartisan support across the House for this.

Minister, in introducing it—and thank you for the work that you do—you mentioned being proactive about some of these things, and two of the things—and you did encourage me to mention these, so I will briefly. Being proactive is not just responding to emergencies, it’s being proactive about emergencies. One of the things local government particularly asked for is to say, “Look, can we link together better emergency management and, particularly, land-use planning?”, and we’ve done that. I was pleased to be able to persuade colleagues that clause 43A should be in there so that, when you’ve got your planning hat on—and you’ve got to think about it with your emergency management hat on as well—that hopefully will stop us building dumb things in dumb places quite as often as we do.

The other one, which you also mentioned, Minister, was, when there’s an actual event going on, the ability to be able to say, “Look, something’s going to go wrong here; can we get in there early and clean it up before it happens?” I think of the Wairau River bar, I think of Lake Forsyth, and I think of Lake Ellesmere, where flooding has occurred because we got in too late. Dealing with those things and giving people protection against liability in that situation is, I think, a really good step forward, and it was great to be able, again, to persuade the committee about clause 202 to do that, and you strengthened that further. That’s something the contractors in particular asked for.

Finally, I just wanted to say that it was also great to get in there the recognition that mayors asked for as well. We had those big storms in October of last year. We were in that period just after the election; they weren’t sworn in yet, but they’d have liked to actually take responsibility of their own communities and declare those emergencies. We’ve given that power there, as well.

I just want to finish off by saying thanks to all the officials—I know you’ve mentioned Beth and Jeremy, but all the officials there, Minister, and also the submitters, the committee that did a great job, I think, all the people who do all that great work, paid and unpaid. I also just wanted to pay tribute to you, too, for the way in which you engaged with the committee—you engaged with the committee all the time, not just in this bill, but also in Estimates, etc.,—and the great work that you do around the country in responding with skill, empathy, and knowledge to communities when they’re facing stress. With delight, I commend this bill to the House.

E te Pīka, tēnā koe. I rise on behalf of Te Pāti Māori, firstly to acknowledge the Minister for all the effort and all the mahi that he’s put in to ensure that we have the right set of policy settings here in this bill that we’ve just debated in the Chamber, and now we speak to the third reading. I also want to give rise to the voice of my colleague Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, who has been actively involved in the redesign, but also in consulting directly with the Minister on behalf of Te Pāti Māori, and the people of Hauraki-Waikato, who have experienced, just this year alone, a series of different emergency call-outs, but also being in a state of emergency. There are the experiences of my colleague, and actually every member of Te Pāti Māori. I’m thinking about our co-leaders, who have also, over the last three years, had to deal with, at face value and on the ground, the realities of climate change—but I’m also thinking of emergency responses with little to no resources. That is Te Tairāwhiti, Te Tai Hauāuru, even Te Tai Tonga.

I reflect on a moment when I was still reporting as a journalist the Kaikōura earthquakes, and being called out to that, being a part of that. I actually went down seven days after the earthquake, and on that seventh day I noticed one thing. There was no one around. The cameras had all left, the reporters had all left, the support had left, but the money was still going through. Who was left on the ground? It was the aunties and uncles, the 1 percent of ahi kā that remained on the ground connected to the marae, that opened their doors—without waiting for warning or without waiting for anybody to ask.

We know, and it’s been said time and time again in this House, marae are the first responders on the ground when there is a state of emergency. They never close their doors, ever—and that is the key point, and the reason why we could not support the bill today in its current state, because it does not extend far enough. That is the direct consultation and kōrero that has come to Te Pāti Māori from each of our electorates. It is great that there is a bipartisan approach to this. It is amazing that we can, as politicians, as the elected members of Parliament for each of our parties, but also our rohe, where we can come together and actually take it seriously, the solutions and the kōrero that needs to be had to reach a place where we can agree without regret.

Today, it was really hard to support everything, knowing that our whānau are still behind the middle line. We have asked, time and time again: do not lock Māori out of decision-making processes. I know there are parts in this bill that reflect Māori will be there. However, the real stories we’re hearing on the ground, Minister, and Mr Speaker, is that it doesn’t actually eventuate. It’s written in black and white, but it’s not actually practised. There are no practices that are prioritising Māori when it comes to communications, when it comes to not just making decisions, but having a wānanga—consulting on what’s best for the people in those rohe. For instance, Waipā. The Waipā River was inundated, it was flooded. For quite an extended period of time, the people on the ground—the aunties, the uncles—had no idea who to talk to. It always led back to marae. The councils weren’t talking. The communications had failed miserably on the ground for an extended period of time. Our reasons for opposing parts of these bills, and the bill in its entirety, is because we believe that Māori are still behind the eight ball, are not funded or resourced properly, and there’s discussion that Māori should be reimbursed after the fact when we don’t have money to afford to look after everybody, but we know how to pull out and come together. It is always in a state of emergency where you see kotahitanga, and Māori do that brilliantly. We want all of Aotearoa to do that brilliantly, but we cannot do that if we’re not all equally considered and valued.

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We oppose this bill, but we thank the Minister for his mahi.

I rise in support of this bill on behalf of the Green Party. I must say that this is a really good bill. It’s not perfect, but it’s important not to let perfect get in the way of good. I just want to talk to a few points that have been raised along this process.

Firstly, I want to talk around the disability sector. This is to the amendment that I did put forward to the committee of the whole House, which was ensuring that, as a right, someone from the disability community sector was a member of the emergency management coordinating group; one of their roles is to oversee the implementation, development, maintenance, monitoring, and evaluation of the regional management plan. While there’s the ability for other people to be co-opted on to the group, it was our belief that, actually, the disability community should have someone there as a right. It reminds me of their tagline: “Nothing about us without us”. While we know that people with disabilities are more vulnerable and are at the heart of a lot of this bill, the fact that they don’t sit on some of these coordinating groups—management groups—is actually quite a shame. I think they need to be involved when decisions are being made that affect them, because they have the most expertise in that area.

Another point I wanted to talk about, and was just mentioned before, is around marae. We do know that marae open their doors every time there is a disaster. We saw through the select committee phase in the submissions, the numerous submissions that we saw, around direct reimbursement for marae. It was a shame that I put an amendment through select committee and through committee of the whole House—which was voted down both times—to ensure that it would be in legislation that marae would be reimbursed from the Government, from the Crown. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and it relies on a policy setting. I find that’s a shame, and a risk, and it should have been put into the legislation.

The other thing I just want to talk about briefly is around local government, and the role of local government, and, more importantly, the role of risk reduction. I know we focus a lot on being ready and responding, but obviously one of the most important things we can do is look at risk reduction. Earlier this year, the Climate Change Commission pointed out that 97 percent of the Government spend on natural hazards since 2010 is on responding to and recovering from disasters, and only 3 percent has gone into reducing the risk.

The cost is obviously in the billions. If we really want to look to the future, and look to reduce costs, we need to ensure that we do risk reduction. Throughout the bill, it is framed as cost-effective risk reduction, and we know a lot of that work will fall on to local government. At the same time, that local government is going through significant reform, with the potential of rates capping. Capping rates will impact communities into the future when risk reduction is not done properly. I urge, as we move forward, to ensure that local government has the ability to work in partnership with central government to ensure important risk reduction is carried out, so communities into the future don’t have to suffer what other communities have been suffering with improper risk reduction.

I’d like to just quickly mention a wee note from one of the submissions, from former Mayor of Ōtautahi, the Hon Lianne Dalziel. She said that although it’s accepted that managing the risk from hazards to an acceptable level requires actions across the four Rs—risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery—the focus constantly remains on readiness and response. This means there’s no clarity around the roles and responsibility when it comes to risk reduction and recovery. While I’ve just touched previously on risk reduction, I think it’s also important to look past recovery, and to ensure the lessons that are learnt don’t just sit on shelves—that they’re implemented across the country, so that when an event happens at the bottom of the South Island, what is learnt from that event helps someone at the top of the North Island. I hope that happens through this bill.

Thank you, sir. It’s a great bill. I’d like to make just two short points. Firstly, clause 39, on co-ordinating executive groups: much has been made of the mandatory inclusion of iwi Māori—a good thing—but can I also just acknowledge the mandatory inclusion of our rural communities, who are, actually, really important in these crises, and also ambulance officers. I think many Kiwis would be surprised to know that ambulance officers weren’t included. I’d like to just acknowledge the great work that the Wellington Free Ambulance and St John Ambulance and all our ambulance staff and paramedics do.

Finally, the Minister acknowledged all the staff and officials who have worked on it. Can I just give a shout-out to Mr Bailey Pellow, who’s in the gallery and has done great work on this bill, particularly helping coordinate across the House to get agreement from almost every party on this. I commend the bill to the House.

SPEAKER: That’s a little unusual—particularly the bit about him working so hard!

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I’m really pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this bill at the third reading. So often—and I’m sure it’s the case for everyone—when we travel around the country and people come and talk to us about politics, on a regular basis, people say, “We just want to see Parliament working together.” Well, actually, it happens quite a lot. Most of the time, it doesn’t generate a headline, but it does happen quite regularly.

This is a perfect example of that because not only is it an example of this Parliament working together; this is the culmination of years of work. It’s not because there hasn’t been a genuine attempt to get it across the line; frankly, it’s because severe events kept occurring. Every time there is a severe event, there are lessons to be learnt. I think that, actually, the real positive to come out of this is that there is a real culture of reviewing decisions that have been made and a real openness to learn from those and incorporate those lessons into the way in which National Emergency Management Agency and civil defence operate in this country. In actual fact, the genesis of this bill was the Christchurch earthquakes. There are lessons in this bill that are derived from the recovery of that. Of course, that’s not in a short period of time; that has happened over a number of years. If we all just take a moment to think about the events that have occurred in this country since then, there’s been some severe events, and each of them has born lessons that have been incorporated into this bill.

I want to, as many other speakers have, acknowledge those that have played a part in this, and I appreciate the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery for his kind acknowledgments for the contribution that the Labour Party have made. Now, Mr Speaker, you know that I am a keen follower of the rules of Parliament and like to see them adhered to, but on this occasion, I’m going to, with your indulgence, breach those rules, because I want to acknowledge the role that you have played, sir.

SPEAKER: It’s OK in that case.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: Yes, I anticipated you’d be comfortable with this. Actually, you were one of the first people to contact me when it became evident that Cyclone Gabrielle was going to be a significant event. You were the Opposition spokesperson for emergency management, and as a relatively new Minister, I appreciated the advice and guidance that you provided at that time that was born out of your own experiences, not just in Christchurch but through the emergency management portfolio.

Actually, as a Minister, responding to a significant event is not easy, because at the end of the day, emergency management primarily is a local government responsibility. It is local government and those local areas, be it at a district level or a regional level, that are the first to make decisions around a response, and it is the Government’s job, through the National Emergency Management Agency, to support that.

Now, in my relatively short period of time as Minister, we had the Nelson-Marlborough floods, we had the Auckland floods, and we had Cyclone Gabrielle. Each of those events was severe. The Nelson-Marlborough floods occurred basically 18 months after an equally severe event. They were still recovering. They still hadn’t had the opportunity to fix some of the roads due to the nature of the soil and the impact of the ongoing rain. The Auckland floods—and this is the point that’s actually not often known—the level of rainfall that occurred in the Auckland floods was 50 percent higher than the previous record. Now, that is just beyond comprehension. If you think about it in a practical sense, at a local government level, if somebody stood for election as the Mayor of Auckland or as a councillor and said, “We want to invest in a stormwater system that will account for a level of rainfall that is 50 percent higher than the previous record.”, no one would take them seriously. But it happened.

Cyclone Gabrielle is the largest weather event that has ever occurred in this country’s history, and it’s the only time that a national state of emergency has been declared—only the third time that a national state of emergency has been declared in this country’s history. I will never forget that. I’ll never forget the anxiety that existed amongst those who responded to that event—at a local level and in the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA—because there were areas of the country that were completely cut off. I don’t mean just physically; I think of places like Wairoa, where we couldn’t even contact them. The only thing that was working was a satellite phone, and that wasn’t working. For basically two days, we didn’t know what we were going to get into when we finally made contact to Wairoa. The air force couldn’t even get in.

There was that anxiety that is fresh in my mind, but it is also what was happening when we finally did get there. We didn’t know what to expect. We knew it was bad. We didn’t know how bad, but when we finally landed, there was a community that was looking after their own as best they could without help up to that point. Now, that is a small example of areas right around the country at this severe event. The lessons that are derived from that have been incorporated into the bill, and it did make practical sense to look to use this opportunity to incorporate that. Thank God there hasn’t been an event of the similar severity, so we’ll finally be able to pass this. New Zealand will be better off because of this bill.

When you think of the way that we do civil defence and emergency management in this country, it is that, if one region gets hit, the regions that surround it, not just immediately, but, say, if there’s an event in the North Island, people come up from the South, they drop tools, they leave their families, and they run in to help. Gabrielle in particular was of such size, when you can think about it—Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty; you’ve got the Thames-Coromandel; you’ve got the East Cape, the Tairāwhiti area, Hawke’s Bay, the Tararua district, and Wairarapa as well, and Manawatū. That’s a massive area. In other events, when those people would have tried to help their neighbours, they had to try and get help themselves. It was huge, and, again, the lessons from that have been incorporated into this bill.

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those that work in civil defence and emergency management. They are deeply committed, highly competent, of exceptional skill and character, and some extremely special people. They are responding in situations and witnessing things that some of us never will, and they have to carry that. I’ve got to acknowledge those people that lost their lives in Cyclone Gabrielle in particular but also the Auckland floods and other severe events—it’s not just weather events; it’s other severe events and emergencies that occurred. At the end of the day, there but for the grace of God go I, and our natural instinct at times like that is to look after those we love, but the people in this country that work in civil defence and emergency management leave those that they love to go and help other people, alongside first responders like firefighters and police and ambulance services and also just members of the public who want to go and help their neighbours. You truly see the best of New Zealand when an event like this happens and people don’t think about themselves; they think about others.

I remember the fire chief that I was speaking to in the border of Marlborough and Nelson, who, alongside his brigade, had been responding for a couple of days to help out their neighbours. Just quietly afterwards, I asked how he and his family was getting on; he mentioned that his place had been absolutely totalled. He hadn’t been there. He left his own property that had been absolutely smashed to go and help other people. That is the quality of those that are involved in emergency management in this country. It is them who have fed into this process and who have informed our decisions as a Parliament. It is their lessons and their feedback that has been incorporated into this bill.

Not only does this reflect the best of New Zealand at our hardest times; I actually think this bill reflects the best of Parliament, and I am honoured to have been able to contribute to this and commend it to the House.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to rise to support this bill. I won’t take as long as that former Minister, but I just want to actually say that all of us have experienced emergency situations, whether it’s the Christchurch earthquake, the Kaikōura earthquake—and on the Christchurch earthquake, I’d like to acknowledge you, Mr Speaker, because I remember just how hard you actually worked during that time. All of us are better for the hard work that you’ve delivered—not just for Christchurch; for everyone.

I just want to acknowledge all of the advisers who supported us during the select committee process, and I want to thank all of the members who are actually supporting this bill—bar a few who are not.

Do you know, as a former journalist, a good story is when it actually tells you who, what, where, when, how—that’s a good story. Because, sometimes, some stories you actually figure out “who” is there, but “what” is not there and “how” is not there. So this bill is about who, what, where, when, how; about the process of emergency management, and it is actually delivering for the people. When an emergency happens, we need to know who, what, where, when, how, and how we actually going to be delivering for the people who are actually in dire situation.

On that note, I’d like to acknowledge the current Minister Mark Mitchell. Do you know, his nickname is “Storm Chaser” among our caucus. The reason why we say that is because whenever there is an emergency in New Zealand, he’s nowhere to be seen in Parliament—he’s out there. He’s shot out there to make sure that he’s there for the people and for his staff, ministerial staff, and all of the people—he’s worried about every single one of them. I don’t think he can help everyone, but he is there, and we love him to bits. I just want to say congratulations on your hard work. This is finally coming through, and I commend the bill to the House

This legislation is long overdue. The law governing much of our emergency management system was passed in 2002, and, as Kieran McAnulty mentioned, we’ve learned a lot a lot of lessons since then, particularly since the Christchurch quakes. And I’d just like to touch on some of my own experience back then.

I remember when those quakes hit. My son was about six days old at the time, and I was a young soldier. We got the call to go out to Burnham Military Camp to get trucks ready, and we were given a pretty simple order. It was: the police station was closed, everything’s closed, we don’t know who’s in charge, so we’ve got to go in there and do something about it; we don’t actually know what we need to do. I remember we assembled on the 2nd/1st Battalion parade ground. We got the trucks ready, we loaded up water, we loaded up ration packs, we loaded up just anything that we could grab out of our low cost hangers, and we went in there and set up cordons and found a police officer. We asked, “Where do you want us?” They said, “Look, just wherever.” We ended up just helping people where we could, helping the police quell any disorder. There was a lot of shock in the city. But we slowly got there; we slowly helped the other emergency services get through that. It was a difficult time, but it was also a very memorable time, and you saw the community pull together. As has already been traversed through this House, you see the best of New Zealand. That was differently something that I always look back on.

I remember several years later when there was the Kaikōura quakes, and a similar thing—I got the call from the boss, he told me to get a platoon of soldiers together. We loaded up some trucks, and at the time we couldn’t take the direct route intoKaikōura, so we had to go in through what is now famously called the inland route, and we set up shop at the Kaikōura Racecourse. There was no water, none of that, so we brought all of that in, and we set up a combat service support team down on the racecourse. The emergency operations centre (EOC) was set up in the council buildings there. One thing I remember at the time was just the fantastic service that the marae provided there. I sent electricians up there to connect the power, we had a reefer container, we brought up some Kärcher kitchens, and they were able to feed about 500 people in the community—three meals a day. We were also able to resupply the supermarket there as well. Again, that was another example where we saw that community pull together, and just help in any way we can.

But there was also a lot of luck in a lot of these responses. So if we remember the Canterbury quake, we had HMNZSCanterbury docked at Littleton Harbour, that was a lifesaver. We were able to draw on those supplies and get them into Christchurch city, and all the Defence Force personnel that were there were able to support, too. With the Kaikōura quake, for those that may not remember, there was the navy 75th anniversary, so we had our Five Eyes partners up at that anniversary, and they brought down their ships and we used their rotary wing support; they delivered supplies. We actually got them to help us move campervans out of the city and move tourists back down to Littleton Harbour. Again, that was a fantastic example of not just our community but our Five Eyes partners getting involved in helping us wherever we can. We see that now, particularly with Taskforce Kiwi, and they deploy people overseas to help out with natural disasters as well. I think they deserve a special acknowledgment for the work, and the routine that they’ve actually established when we do set up these EOCs, and their ability to send liaison officers—and we get those former Defence Force people, or former people in the emergency management space, to actually provide that assistance to us. So that deserves a special mention, there.

The last thing I’ll just touch on is what’s next. We have the alpine fault, and according to appendix V, we have a 75 percent chance of that happening, so we need to be ready, and this bill will set us up for that. So I commend this bill to the House.

Mr Speaker, I’m very, very proud to be able to speak on the final reading of this bill as it gets passed today. I’m going to keep it really brief, because I know I’m going to get emotional—here we go already.

Cyclone Gabrielle was massive for Hawke’s Bay, and we went through so much as a community. There was so much pain, people lost their lives and their livelihoods. The silver lining of the conversations that we had in the community afterwards was that something was going to change, and I’m so proud of what has changed as a result. I want to say thank you to the people of Hawke’s Bay for sharing those hard, hard-learnt lessons so that we could get this right. I want to say thank you across the House for working together to make sure that we didn’t make this political, because it’s so important that when something like this happens again, we give the community the power to be involved, and that we give people the power and protection to do what they need to do in advance of an event, so that we can protect as many lives as we possibly can.

I know I’ll be able to talk to the community a lot about this in the days and weeks to come. I just want to say thank you, Minister, and thank you to everybody that’s been part of it, because this is really important. I commend the bill to the house.

SPEAKER: Sosene—

Thank you Mr Speaker. Lemauga—all good.

SPEAKER: Sorry—my apologies.

LEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and thank you, Katie. I was trying to get through with no tears, but thank you so much for your humane response.

This is what this Emergency Management Bill (No 2) does. It’s really important, I want to acknowledge all of the leadership, starting with yourself, Mr Speaker; the current Minister Mitchell; also my colleague the Hon Kieran McAnulty, because you are the very people that have showed up when it’s been really, really important—and a number of our speakers across the House. I want to acknowledge all of our members who work hard in their communities, but, of course, it’s the leadership that has been provided over a number of years.

This bill is really important, not just to modernise but, also, to bring everything to the core in terms of the debates that we’ve had across the House. I want to acknowledge the officials, because they’ve played an important part in terms of legislation. We had the opportunity, on the select committee, to hear from 74 submitters, who took the time to provide those submissions, which were really important, because, as we’ve heard with all the speakers on this bill, it hasn’t just happened in one location; it’s happened across Aotearoa, when many New Zealanders have least expected it.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be able to rise and talk about our emergency management system and be able to acknowledge all of the first responders, civil defence, the National Emergency Management Agency—very important roles that they do. I acknowledge, too, my colleagues in local government, because when the Auckland anniversary floods happened on that Friday night, a number of us were in the van travelling back from Titewhai Harawira’s tangi, and we got stuck on the motorway and the water was rising and it was pretty scary. In that particular instance, there was panic and chaos, but then everyone had to take a deep breath in terms of just thinking things through in not much time.

The purpose of this bill is to strengthen a number of systems that we have not just in legislation but, also, in terms of policies, and then relate that to the people on the ground who actually do the work. It is really important, too, that I acknowledge all of the community members, and I want to play a special tribute to iwi Māori and hapū, who, as I said in an earlier contribution, just get on with the job.

I want to acknowledge all of the community representatives, because people just showed up. What happened in Māngere was that, firstly, the base was in another part of Auckland and then we had to move it, and Mayor Len Brown had been in the job for two days. What was important at that time was to try and calm the panic but, also, the communication. As many members across the House will know, that comes in diverse forms, so it is important, when you’ve got one message—to be safe and to save people’s lives—that you work together in a humane response.

I do want to acknowledge the submitters who provided the real local stories, and it was helpful for the membership on the committee to be able to raise questions and be able to debate to get the best possible outcome that we could give. So, Minister Mitchell, I want to thank you, because you provided other advice and, also, you were able to take some of our contributions and then relay it to officials and then provide the answers.

What is important for members of Parliament when we go back to our communities is to be able to talk to our communities about emergency response. As my colleague the Hon Kieran McAnulty had outlined, it’s about how we respond and how we respond together. One of the things that I talked about in an earlier contribution was that we automatically, as human beings, look at human beings, but then in the situation we had in South Auckland, some of the kōrero that went on was about animals. We had kaumātuas, we had community members who refused to leave their flooded homes because they needed to take their animals with them. They were members of their family that sometimes, in these debates, we do forget about in those types of scenarios. It was helpful that officials on the ground were able to give advice and were able to give care for the four-legged animals.

I want to acknowledge all of our communities in terms of their humane response, in terms of reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. Sometimes, in those situations, we have to make trade-offs. We have to leave behind some of those physical things to help families to move on to the next step. What is important about this legislation, when it happens to communities that we come from, is that it’s important to understand the lines of accountability and, especially, the decision making. When you’re dealing with diverse communities, you have to speak those love languages. You have to speak the languages that those communities understand, because they come from different backgrounds, from different religions, and the like.

I want to acknowledge that being part of the select committee is a huge privilege, to be able to move forward, to receive the advice from officials and the leadership, and the competency. I do want to acknowledge all of those things, because when we go back to our communities, it’s the stress, it’s the fear about what’s next. One of the things that affected many of our tamariki in South Auckland, every time it rained after the Auckland anniversary, was just the fear of what’s next. And so, the preparedness that the legislation provides is the readiness. It is important that, even though the words are in English, the behaviour that many of the members of Parliament provide for their local communities is the assurance and the empowerment that you are able to do things with as a representative of Parliament. So I’m very, very proud to be a part of this—to strengthen and modernise this legislation.

I specifically wanted to just point out the clarity that the legislation provides. I know I’ve heard from different colleagues across the House, even in this debate, that there were things we wanted to go further and we just couldn’t get to that point. However, as a bipartisan approach, I do want to acknowledge all of that leadership.

Just as I make some concluding comments, I do appreciate that the legislation does provide transformational change; that it is a good direction of travel; that, as Parliament prepares the legislation, we are able to go back to our communities, we are able to inform and support and provide hope moving forward. That takes, sometimes, a lot of guts and, sometimes, when you’re in a situation and it’s an emergency response, you actually do provide the humane leadership. I really appreciate everyone working together in the communities right across Aotearoa. It’s important, too, to achieve that transformational change that there are significant improvements, and this legislation has provided that, so I really do appreciate that. On that note, I commend the bill to the House.

SPEAKER: Can I thank Lemauga Lydia Sosene for that contribution, and I apologise for my muddled introduction of her earlier in the piece. Tom Rutherford.

You’ll get this one right, Mr Speaker—

SPEAKER: Oh, Thomas Rutherford.

TOM RUTHERFORD: Oh, boy! As the last speaker on the Emergency Management Bill (No 2), there’s been a lot of acknowledgements from my colleagues on this side and on the other side of the House around many people who have worked incredibly diligently on it. But there’s three people who haven’t yet been mentioned, and that’s the formidable representatives from Hawke’s Bay and East Coast: Katie Nimon, Catherine Wedd, and Dana Kirkpatrick, who were made parliamentary private secretaries to the Minister for cyclone recovery after they were first elected—three new MPs who did a superb job supporting Minister Mitchell. And so, I just wanted to pay credit to them.

It’s been a really well done and well-traversed debate this afternoon, and I’m really proud of the incredible work that has been done across the House to get this legislation to this point. I’m not going to hold it up any further, but I want to just say thank you to Minister Mitchell for his steadfast leadership on this work. And so, I commend it to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Social Security (Jobseeker Support and Accommodation Supplement) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Debate resumed from 19 August.

SPEAKER: I call Celia Wade-Brown.