Photo: RNZ/ Kate Green
The country still has no standardised system to respond to catastrophic storms, the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery says.
But "we are in a far better place than what we were" and "we should be very proud as a country", Mark Mitchell says.
He told Morning Report on Friday, the second-year anniversary of Cyclone Gabrielle that killed 11 people, that a lot of work was going on and improvements had been made, including alot of councils around the country bolstering their alarm warning system.
But quizzed on why automatic flood warnings systems were not in place on key rivers in Hawke's Bay, Mitchell said: "You'd have to give me specific details, none of that has been brought forward to me, none of those concerns have been raised with me at all."
If they were, he would address them, he said.
On the ground, where Gabrielle did its worst, killing 11 people, families have expressed deep frustration this week at what they see as apparent inaction by local and central government.
At the same time as defending the work done to date, Mitchell said the government needed to invest more on emergency management systems.
"We haven't done that and it needs to happen. We have no standardised way in New Zealand to be able to deal with ... these national emergencies when they hit us. That's number one, we've got to get that sorted out."
Number two was an investment and implementation plan he would take to Cabinet.
Earlier, Mitchell denied there was any delay in that plan, which he said last October would be made public early in 2025.
Number three was an "enormous amount of work" being done on legislation that would come in "at the end of the year", to set out command-and-control and "who's accountable".
"All of this combined will set us up much better as a country."
Mitchell last year dumped the previous government's legislation that had wallowed around for years,.
This was in the face of inquiry after inquiry over at least 20 years that repeatedly called for urgent to fix the country's fragmented and underpowered Civil Defence systems, and mandate for building - or building back - more disaster-proof critical infrastructure, like roads, fibreoptic connections, substations and cellphone towers.
What has been done?
Mitchell said on air the government had already made "a massive commitment over $100 million for a world class emergency management centre in Wellington".
But this was wrong. Budget 2024 set aside only $10.5m for a centre.
When RNZ queried the $100m figure, Mitchell's office responded: "Apologies, it is 10.5 million, not 100 million."
One hundred million is equal to the entire combined resourcing of about 420 staff across NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency, CDEM (Civil Defence Emergency Management) groups and councils in 2023, the year of Cyclone Gabrielle, according to documents.
The Beehive bunker, as it is known, proved during Gabrielle to be far too small, with inadequate ventilation, toilets and even wifi.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell in Wairoa mid-2-24 following another flooding event. Photo: RNZ / Calvin Samuel
Flood triggers
The government said last October in response to the main North Island storm inquiry, that it would act on its 14 recommendations.
On flood triggers, Mitchell said the inquiries on the storms said central government had a lot to do on flood warnings - and the country was already "far better off".
Hawke's Bay authorities said it was involved in a national project to improve triggers that would take another 12-18 months.
An automatic flood warning system does not exist. NEMA said its Emergency Mobile Alerts (EMZ) for flood warnings were not automated, and that councils were responsible for issuing flood warnings.
Straight after Gabrielle, local communities expressed anger and bewilderment they were not warned, especially in known flash-flood risk spots like the Esk Valley.
On Friday, a family who lost their toddler repeated this frustration, to RNZ's Alexa Cook - "How many children, how many of New Zealand's children need to die?" they asked.
Mitchell said in Hawke's Bay, "the council continues to do mitigation work around that".
"Massive amount of work's going on around mitigation."
He had eight states of emergency last year, and the responses ran well, he said, singling out the Port Hills fire response.
Common operating platform
Asked where work had got to on a system that shares real-time disaster and response information quickly and accurately between hundreds or thousands of agencies and people, like Australia has, the minister did not directly respond.
Instead, Mitchell said the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and the MetService were being merged, and top officials were getting together more often as part of ODESC (Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination).
Gabrielle reinforced that without the proper technology - called a common operating platform, or COP - meetings often fly blind, resulting in requests and tasking that can add to confusion, various inquiries last year showed.
In mid 2024, the government said there had been no progress finding a single system for sharing information between agencies in a crisis.
This came at the same time that the wide-ranging cuts to the public sector put a halt to work on the system.
NEMA restarted that work late last year.
RNZ has reported on the series of a decade of start-stop attempts and tenders to build one. Critics have previously told RNZ it does not help that a geospatial strategy and who runs it has been neglected.
But Mitchell on Friday said, "We haven't waited to respond."
He also pointed to NEMA and CDEM groups becoming more professionalised, and councils becoming "far more aware" of their vulnerabilities.
Last year, a CDEM report said roles and responsibilities needed clarifying.
It also called for NEMA to be monitored by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - "someone" needed to "assure NEMA's level of compliance, too".
Cellphone tower power
Gabrielle smashed the power grid, taking out power to hundreds of cellphone towers in Northland, Hawke's Bay and Tai Rāwhiti for at least two days, the crucial immediate period for people scrambling to find out what to do, and for emergency services, too.
Mitchell said on Friday the government was looking at forcing phone companies to put bigger batteries on cell towers - though he did not make it sound likely.
"Yes, as part of the legislation we're looking at that," he said.
"That's part of the conversation that we're having, but to be honest with you, I've met with all of them and they are actually taking steps already to make sure they're building resilience into their systems."
The Telecommunications Forum said it had not had "any conversations about power and backup with government".
It had not pursued the matter of getting a direction or standards on bigger batteries because other power backup options were better, though it was part of efforts to amend consenting rules to allow bigger batteries, it told RNZ.
One NZ told RNZ it had put in some bigger batteries without government mandate or funding.
MBIE is involved in putting 24-hour batteries into about 100 towers in the most vulnerable spots.
Putting the power into local people's hands was also part of this: Hawke's Bay CDEM said it supported introducing systems that let people access telemetry data on flood levels, outside of the emergency management system, "allowing them to make informed decisions".
Regional councils owned this data, so would be responsible for implementing any improvements, it said.
