Local marae and hapū should have a seat at the table in our Civil Defence response that is ingrained in legislation, according to an independent review into Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle.
It comes as Hawke’s Bay locals called on the Government to deliver on election promises.
Report author Mike Bush said the review recommended a law change that would see Māori formally included in disaster planning and recovery.
“They must be included. They have the capability, they have the resource, but unless we co-ordinate our response appropriately with all of that capability, we won’t get the right outcome,” he said.
The review said: “While it is well canvassed that iwi Māori and other Māori organisations have a critical role in both local and national emergency management, their roles are not mandated in legislation and there is now a clear and pressing requirement for these groups to be more formally involved in regional group plans.”
Meihana Watson at Omāhu Marae said by the third day after the floods, they had taken in 800 displaced people.
“We saw no one from any Civil Defence, council for about seven days, so we had to stand up as a community and that’s what we did.
“We’re still here today supporting people.”
Legislation was required because “we’ve shown we can do it for our own communities”, he said.
“If we just had that resource commitment from the Crown, ‘go away communities, you can go and look after yourselves’, I think that would make us a lot more happier than having to think ‘are they coming or not?'”
Ngāti Kahungunu chairperson Bayden Barber said the report talks about leveraging iwi and that we need to do that better.
“We can’t do that if we’re not part of the legislation in which the system is set up, so we need to get that sorted out.”
A “substantive” bill would be required but that takes time, Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell said.
“We have to do some real work to make sure that we improve and enhance that local, regional, and national response.”
Mitchell also commented on the walking back of a promise to fund a new cyclone recovery office during the election campaign.
“We have made sure that we’ve funded a dedicated resource within the current office, to make sure that those people are going to deal with directly anything related to the cyclone, and we think that is more than adequate and that is going to meet those needs.”
Cyclone recovery advocate Louise Parsons said it was “not a fast recovery” and that there were a “lot of flaws in the process”.
“I don’t think that the Government are aware of any of them.”
She was disappointed by the speed of change, saying that people in the middle of a buyout are “not happy”.
“They have nowhere to go, except to the councils who are in charge of this whole flawed process.”