Emergency management roadmap due early next year, disaster response reform promised

A rescue on Links Rd on the morning Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawke's Bay. Photo / Paul Taylor

The Government will set out its emergency management roadmap early next year as it promises to improve disaster response capacity as reviews expose the country’s shortcomings.

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell says he will publish a “public-facing roadmap” early in 2025 as he seeks to improve New Zealand’s national response system that has been criticised in several reports after natural disasters.

The latest was the inquiry into the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, events that killed 15 people and left one missing.

Chaired by former Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae, it found the country’s emergency management system was not fit for purpose and lacked the ability to handle large-scale disaster events.

Mitchell has reiterated how the system is not fit for purpose.

“It does not have the capacity or capability to deal with significant, widespread events that impact multiple regions at once,” Mitchell said.

“[W]e need to shift into a state where the system is adaptive, simple, and builds backup capacity.”

He promised his roadmap would give “clear direction and timelines for the next phase of this work”.

New emergency management legislation will also be introduced this term.

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell says his roadmap will give clear direction. Photo / Marty Melville

However, Mitchell highlighted a “tight fiscal environment” and cautioned that “this will not be a quick fix”.

A National Emergency Management Agency report released today includes several focus areas including investing in an “ongoing national public readiness programme”, more investment in community resilience initiatives, improving community access to funding after emergencies, and expanding the number of agreements with groups to assist during emergencies.

Nema has also vowed to “increase its focus on the provision of resources that local authorities need” and set standards for the delivery of emergency management.

The threat natural disasters and other major events pose to New Zealand is laid out clearly in the report.

“In the past 15 years, we have contended with a series of major emergencies at a scale unmatched in our recent experience: the Canterbury earthquake sequence, the Kaikōura earthquake and tsunami, the Whakaari/White Island eruption, severe flooding on the West Coast and Tasman, along with other major emergencies such as the Covid‑19 pandemic and the Christchurch mosque attacks.

“It is increasingly clear large-scale weather events should be considered the ‘new normal’.”

The report points to research showing a high likelihood of an earthquake of magnitude 8 or higher occurring within the next 50 years.

The costs of such events is growing as well.

“The costs to Government of responding to and recovering from emergencies are growing faster than Government revenue and are projected to increase by over 50% per decade – from $0.7 billion in 2020 to $3.3b in 2050.”

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.