Estimates Debate — Vote Emergency Management

This is an absolute pleasure. It is actually the first time I have spoken in this Chamber as the new Minister of Civil Defence, so I thought I had better get that in. Let me first acknowledge my predecessor, the Hon John Carter, for the work he did in this portfolio during what I think all members in the Committee would appreciate were very testing, trying, and tragic times in our history. I also need to thank Mr John Hamilton, of course, and the wider civil defence emergency management sector at all levels of Government—central, local, regional, and group—for their efforts over the past year, particularly around 22 February in the Christchurch earthquake.

Our national approach, as I am sure members are aware, is to achieve resilience through the initiatives of the four Rs: risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery. The responses to the earthquakes show that we actually do have the right approach to civil defence emergency management. I am sure there are lessons to be learnt, and, as I will note later on, reviews are under way and will be happening. But what we had in place already served us very, very well. Those four Rs cover all aspects of emergency management, helping to ensure we do not ignore critical areas, from central government down to those in local government plans. The value of the four Rs was seen during the earthquake, from risk reduction measures such as building codes to aspects of the recovery framework that is now being used by the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority, or CERA. Although there are lessons to be learnt in all areas, as I noted earlier, those four Rs—our preparedness—have served us well.

Our priorities for 2010-11 are to continue to look at and strengthen the statutory framework for recovery after a major event, to review and look at the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act to see whether there are changes to be made in that legislation, and to review the National Civil Defence and Emergency Management Plan. Of course, when that plan and the Act were written, no one contemplated something as large as this, or that an organisation such as the Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority would need to be created to help in the recovery of an emergency. We will be enhancing the capabilities for the national management of civil defence events. The emergency management information system is under trial right now and is very close to being turned on. That will assist all of Government to be aware of all information across the country in the event of some emergency. We will continue to develop community resilience through the public education programme, the Get Ready Get Thru programme, by taking advantage of post-Christchurch heightened awareness. We released findings today from a survey of New Zealand’s preparedness, and awareness of the need to be organised and prepared in the case of an emergency.

I also take this moment to note the work of a former civil defence Minister, the Hon Rick Barker, and I compliment him. At a recent event, the Australian guests at the event were talking about What’s the Plan Stan?. Their words were “You Kiwis are absolutely streets ahead of us and we enjoy ongoing contact, and can we learn more from that?”, so that is a credit to that former Minister, the Hon Rick Barker.

We are supporting the development of the capability across the sector. There are issues, and inevitably issues will arise from the various reviews. I can see there will be some interesting discussions on those. I will make just a couple of points. The 22 February earthquake in Christchurch was a unique event, both in New Zealand’s history and in the response to it. It is the first time a state of national emergency has been declared in New Zealand. Of course, I cannot use my time here without acknowledging the 181 tragic deaths and the various injuries across people of many nations, and without acknowledging not only New Zealand’s disasters and tragedies but the disasters and tragedies across the Pacific and around the globe.

We will continue to promote the public education awareness campaigns of Get Ready Get Thru and What’s the Plan Stan?, as I have previously alluded to. One point I will make is that some people are trying to use the benefit of hindsight, I guess, to ask why we did not do more to predict the earthquake in Christchurch. But we did not even know there was a fault line such as that under Christchurch. Research is crucial, but the existing modelling and knowledge was all about the alpine fault, which we presumed would be an issue, not about the fault that we have now discovered under Christchurch.

Vote agreed to.

Vote Racing agreed to.

Vote Senior Citizens agreed to.

Vote Local Government agreed to.

Vote Māori Affairs