Locals get stuck in p3 p21-24 Mayor calls for return to local emergency management

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has called for emergency management to be de-centralised after wild weather became a test for Auckland’s preparedness in an emergency.

Speaking exclusively to Local Matters after visiting flood ravaged Puhoi last week, Brown said communication during Friday’s floods had been dreadful and even he had struggled to find out what was going on.

“We’ve learned that a lot of the central management that I’ve inherited is not such a good idea,” he said. “Communication has been dreadful and I’ve been accused of being the worst possible person, because I couldn’t find out what was happening either. I think we have to get de-centralising.”

However, Brown praised local residents and businesses for how they had tackled the massive clean-up over Anniversary weekend.

“The community really got stuck in and they’ve been amazing,” he said.

Brown was critical of both Council and Auckland Transport for being urbanfocused.

“It takes a bit of reminding to them that we’re a council for rural areas,” he said. “I’m accused of being an angry person, well I’m an angry person because they’re not looking after people properly.”

The Mayor said more people doing practical things more regularly was what was needed, rather than lots of people writing reports.

“There’s too much money spent on management and not enough on doing things,” he said.

“I’m quite happy to upset those people and say ‘go and find something else to do’. I want stuff done, not reports written – people with practical experience doing things on the ground.”

However, he also said that residents needed to take a degree of responsibility for their own property and where it was situated.

“People do have to do some things themselves,” he said. “If someone rings and says the drain is blocked outside my house, I’d say get a shovel and go and do it if you can. We don’t pay rates for someone to be standing outside your house 24/7. And if you’ve chosen to live in a low-lying area, or live above cliffs, you’ve got to take even more of an interest.”

Albany Ward Cr John Watson says he and Cr Wayne Walker support the Mayor’s call for de-centralisation of civil defence operations.

Before Auckland Council formed, the former Rodney District Council had a civil defence operations centre based at Hilltop in Red Beach. Its operation was moved to the Council Service Centre in Centreway Road in 2009 and was disbanded after the councils amalgamated in 2010.

Councillor John Watson says the centre was very active and well-resourced, and included other groups spread across the rural areas and the Hibiscus Coast. He says the formation of a centralised model meant that local knowledge and expertise was largely lost.

“I have been on the council’s Civil Defence Committee in previous years and along with the chair Sharon Stewart consistently pushed for a far more local presence who can co-ordinate efforts on the ground when an emergency arises,” Cr Watson says. “Cr Wayne Walker has been of the same view as well. That was articulated very clearly in an investigation into the 2018 storm event in Auckland which, in our opinion,