Poor planning for emergencies could lead to fines under a proposed legal overhaul.
Councils, petrol, power and gas companies, ports and airports, rail and roading providers and even broadcasters would be liable as lifeline utilities, if a long list of possible changes goes through. There were also plans to add IT services such as cloud software providers, waste management and grocery retailers to the list of lifeline organisations.
The change was partly a response to the inquiry into Cyclone Gabrielle and Cyclone Hale.
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell told 1News he wanted the Emergency Management Bill to bring “world-class, world-leading legislation”.
The consultation document has 80 pages of options, including proposed financial penalties for business found to be sub-par with continuity planning.
The Government wanted to maximise the chances of essential goods and services still running when disaster struck, the minister said.
“When it comes to central government, regional government, local government, utility providers and supporters, there has to be standards — and there has to be accountability throughout the whole system,” Mitchell said.
It was still unclear how big those fines could be, but Professor Christine Kenney, Massey University disaster risk expert and kaiwhakahaere (director) of Te Toi Whakaruruhau o Aotearoa, said financial penalties might be considered by some as “a form of victim-blaming for the lifeline agencies who are doing the best that they can”.
BusinessNZ advocacy director Catherine Beard said: “Heavy regulation and fines and things like that, ultimately, just add to the cost of doing business and that, ultimately, flows through to the consumer.”
The proposals also included strengthening powers of iwi to respond, and take authority, in times of disaster.
Kenney said tangata whenua have been ignored in emergencies at times.
“Absolutely they have, and there’s quite a body of government reports and scientific literature that’s identified that, particularly in the events following the Canterbury earthquakes.”
Overall, she was supportive of updating the laws, but was concerned that health needs, and health authorities, were not widely catered for in the draft plans.
One simple change proposed would allow electronic signatures to declare a state of emergency.
Currently the official documents have to be signed in person — a stipulation described as “farcical and dangerous” by council staff in Cyclone Gabrielle, according to the consultation documents.
Heretaunga Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst was hugely supportive of such a change.
“I couldn’t get out of my driveway with all the trees that came down through the cyclone through the night, and the officers had to come out to my house and climb over with torches in heavy heavy streaming rain and big big winds, to get me to physically sign a state of emergency declaration.
“It was very stressful for everyone.”
Another key difference mooted, for the public, was adjusting the law so people acting in good faith to help others in emergencies weren’t liable for losses or damage.
Kenney said this wasn’t just about homes and vehicles: “In some instances, there’s been stock moved with the best of intentions. In fact, if they hadn’t been moved, stock would have died, but there were losses.”
Mitchell urged the public to give feedback on the bill.
“There’s only one country around the world that’s more likely to be hit with [severe] weather events and that’s Bangladesh.”
The discussion document and information on how to make a submission is available on theh National Emergency Management Agency website www.civildefence.govt.nz/emergency-management-bill. Consultation closes in mid-May.
