New Civil Defence recovery law

Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye today announced that Cabinet has approved changes to the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act that will improve the way communities recover from emergencies.

Ms Kaye made the announcement this morning at the New Zealand Symposium on Disaster Risk Reduction.

“During an emergency, the right laws need to be in place to enable those involved to carry out vital tasks, such as closing roads and public places, entering buildings to do assessments, and removing or securing dangerous structures and materials.

“Sometimes, some of these powers may be needed after the initial response to an emergency has finished.

“Recent experience, especially the Christchurch earthquakes, highlighted that the existing legislative framework did not provide sufficient powers to support a seamless and timely transition from response to recovery.

“The changes I’ve announced today will provide those responsible with the ability to do this important work if required.

“Under the new law, a transition notice (similar to the declaration made during a state of emergency) will be published, to provide greater public visibility of local and central government agencies’ activities to clean up and restore communities.

“The new law focuses on recovery from the most frequent emergencies experienced in New Zealand, which are those of a small to moderate scale. There have been numerous examples of these in recent years, such as floods and severe weather events.

“This is about ensuring local government is equipped to recover from emergencies in a quicker and more efficient, coordinated way.

“A second stage of legislative review will focus on large-scale emergencies.

“This second stage will be closely aligned with the review of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011, to enable a consistent approach to supporting recovery from emergencies, as well as the ongoing recovery in Canterbury.

“I’d like to thank everyone who was consulted on the issues and helped develop options.

“This is an important step towards our goal of more resilient communities, which are well prepared to get through emergencies and come back stronger.

“There are real costs to communities from the disruption that an emergency can bring. This law change represents an important legal and philosophical shift, towards a more comprehensive framework that will see communities get back on their feet faster.

“A challenge in drafting recovery law is there is no template, as emergency and disaster management systems differ across the world.

“While the new law is unique to New Zealand, the principles and solution will likely have international interest because of small and large scale disasters that have occurred recently in a number of countries.”

The new legislation is expected to be introduced into Parliament within the next few months, and is outlined in the Cabinet paper available at: www.civildefence.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/20150615ROLFCabinetPaper.pdf

Notes:

Key changes to the CDEM Act

• establish the role of National Recovery Manager (similar to that of National Controller) and provide that the Director CDEM can delegate certain functions and powers to a National Recovery Manager
• provide for the National Recovery Manager to provide national and additional support to a CDEM Group, if the recovery is beyond the capability and capacity of the Group to manage and coordinate
• require each CDEM Group to appoint a Group Recovery Manager and alternate positions for the role, and establish powers of delegation for Group Recovery Managers
• enable a CDEM Group to appoint a Local Recovery Manager or Managers (ie, at the territorial authority level) at their discretion
• disestablish the role of Recovery Coordinator provided for in the Act (a National Recovery Manager would assume a similar role when required)
• require CDEM Groups to prepare strategic recovery plans to complement currently required CDEM Group Plans.

Proposed recovery powers
The suite of proposed powers is adapted from those used to respond to an emergency for the protection of life and property (those provided for by the Act during a state of emergency).

Given the different demands of response and recovery, the proposed recovery powers aren’t as extensive as existing response powers.

Proposed recovery powers provide the ability to:

• carry out works, clear roads and other public places, and remove, dispose of, secure or make safe dangerous structures and materials
• provide for the conservation and supply of food, fuel and other essential supplies such as water
• disseminate information and advice to the public
• evacuate premises and places, and exclude people and vehicles
• enter onto premises, eg to perform an assessment
• close roads and public places
• give directions to stop and activity or to take any action, to limit the consequences of the emergency and potentially for the purposes of coordinating recovery efforts
• require information for the recovery, eg from lifeline utilities.

About the NZ Symposium on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
The symposium was organised to explore how to reduce disaster risk and achieve the vision of a resilient New Zealand, using the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2013 (this challenges countries to better understand their disaster risk, and strengthen arrangements to manage it).