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, which was released today by Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell.

“Similar to the Independent Review into the Hawke’s Bay CDEM Group’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle, Sir Jerry Mateparae’s Government Inquiry has clearly identified a number of learnings and recommendations for improvements to ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system is fit for purpose and ready to respond,” the Joint Committee said.

“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.”

2 May 2024

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