The end may be in sight for the exclusion of civil contractors from emergency management committees writes Hugh de Lacy.
A hint that the government is at least considering adding civil contractor representatives to the first responders on disaster management teams has come from Emergency Management and Recovery Minister, Mark Mitchell.
The Minister, who is also Minister of Police, Ethnic Communities and Sport and Recreation, told Contractor that he was “seriously considering” the Emergency Management Bill submission by Civil Contractors NZ (CCNZ).
“I’ve got a very open mind on the Bill,” Mitchell says, adding that he regards civil contractors as “the unsung heroes” of the emergency response regime, which the National-led Government is seeking to upgrade in response to the series of natural and environmental disasters that have hit our country over the past half-decade in particular.
The second reading of the Bill followed the closure of submissions on February 15, and CCNZ Chief Executive Alan Pollard says the association’s updated position will continue to seek contractors’ routine representation on disaster response committees.
“The Bill talks about emergency management committees and pulling in resources from the community, but it still doesn’t expressly mention the civil construction sector,” says Alan.
“Our view is that we should be integrated as part of that committee.
“We’re first responders in these things – that’s not just talk – and our guys are out there. If they’re not digging people out of their homes, they’re shoring up unstable infrastructure to protect property and people, so it’s entirely appropriate that we should be part of the overall management group.”
Minister Mitchell, a former Air Force officer who became a police dog handler and was stabbed along with his dog in an incident in Rotorua in 2002, stopped short of saying the revised Bill will admit contractors to emergency management teams, but agreed it was “completely logical” that they should be.
“Our contractors deserve recognition for the way they respond to emergency events because they’re absolutely critical to that, but they’d have to get their response organised in such a way that they can appoint the right people.
“We don’t want the emergency management group clogged up with representatives from all the sections of the community that are involved in the response, but we can talk about that,” Mitchell says.
Alan Pollard sees that recognition of civil contractors being part of the response management team – which will be stressed once again in the association’s submissions to the second reading of the Bill – will be “recognition of their critically important role” in the recovery.
The government should also “take more cognizance” of the lessons learned from the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes, he says, when contractors were brought into the decision-making process early, and the recovery from both disasters came in well under time and budget.
“Christchurch and Kaikoura were really good examples of how an integrated process can work,” says Alan, adding that as a resident of Hawke’s Bay he saw first-hand the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, and its aftermath.
“These are examples that we need to keep following and recognising the learnings from them, particularly on funding and payment arrangements.”
The role of contractors was underscored by their response to the Mount Maunganui landslide in January that tragically killed six people, and also by a report produced by the Gisborne City Council following Cyclone Gabrielle.
Money is a key problem, says Alan.
“One of the things that disappointed me about the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery was that there was a substantial amount of money set aside for resilience, for re-locating roads and aiding communities, but that was redirected away and the focus just went on recovery, which was effectively rebuilding the same stuff in the same place.
“There needs to be a substantial investment in resilience, and I thought the Gisborne City Council plan was a really good one.”
Gisborne City drew in all sections of the community affected by Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 and produced an 85-page report to the government that pointed out that 97 per cent of government expenditure on the disaster went into recovering from it, and only three per cent was spent on risk reduction and resilience.
The report suggested a transition programme to a resilience fund fort. Gisborne could be established with a basic $600 million, of which $360m would come from the government and the rest from the community.
It quoted international research that showed every dollar invested in risk reduction saves at least $4 in response and recovery. It suggested that 100,000 hectares, or 12 per cent of the region’s land, should be transitioned to permanent vegetation cover, either by farming or forestry.
The government rejected the report outright and persisted with its Emergency Management Bill, though Alan says he thought the plan was “really good”.
“It basically says, ‘We’re going to have these things repeating time after time, so let’s try and do something about it that creates a long-term solution.’”
The Gisborne report helped highlight that money continues to be a problem for first-responder contractors.
Alan cites the case of contractors working in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle who worked for six or seven weeks after the disaster without being paid, despite being impacted themselves, and others who were threatened with prosecution over the work they did.
“We had one contractor immediately after the storm who went in and started shoring up a retaining wall to protect a number of properties from sea-surge, and he was threatened with prosecution because the residents didn’t get the 10-day notice that they had consent to do it.”
In another case, a contractor was threatened with prosecution for depositing silt from a landslide onto the side of the road because it was an ‘unauthorised’ zone.
“None of this makes sense, because in an emergency you’ve got to do what’s right to protect lives and property,” says Alan, adding that the association was looking at protection being provided for contractors working under the direction of the response organisation.
“Contractors should be protected from liability from over-zealous officials.”
CCNZ reservations over the draft Emergency Management Bill have been supported by the Christchurch City Council which says that, as it stands, the Bill will impose significant extra costs on local authorities, create uncertainty over emergency roles and put unrealistic expectations on local government while assuming workforce capacity that it says doesn’t exist.
In its submissions on the Bill, the council added that it fails to recognise essential services like waste removal, food distribution, and everything from financial systems to river management and aviation and maritime navigation.
Meantime, one thing is certain: this country has had, and will continue to have, more than its fair share of disasters –including seismic, weather, volcanic and human related events – and everyone agrees emergency management legislation should look beyond recovering from their immediate impact.
A question of cost
Though generally supportive of the draft Emergency Management Bill, the NZ Mines Rescue Service (NZMRS) endorses the CCNZ’s view that civil contractors should have a seat on emergency management committees.
Trevor Watts, the Chief Executive of NZMRS, told Contractor that that the philosophy behind the Bill that emergency management involves consideration of all the hazards and the involvement of the whole community is “really good news”.
“It’s a philosophy that’s been around for a while now: to help build resilience across the country, right down to the lowest levels – to the households, the businesses – but that’s going to take some time,” he says.
“But at least these types of thing are being reinforced through the Bill, and it’s certainly strengthening the role of communities and iwi in emergency management.”
He said CCNZ had “a very good point” around the need for contractors to be part of the response management committee because of their vital role in natural hazard events throughout the country.
Mining incidents were unique in that the incident controller for an underground event didn’t come from the police who are usually in charge of response teams, but from a technical expert on the management team who has mining or tunnelling experience.
A parallel role should be made for a contractors’ representative, he said.
Watts’ other main concern with the draft legislation was the impact it would have on ratepayers.
“While it’s good having this led from Wellington around changes to the overall legislation, the recovery costs should be coming out of central government, as opposed to local government, at a time when all areas of New Zealand are facing increasing rates at the same time as the government is talking about capping them.
“These two factors don’t go hand in hand when you’re trying to improve your over-arching emergency management and capabilities, and when you’re not going to get any more money from your rates to do it.
“From the ratepayers’ point of view, it’s a big burden to be picking this up when perhaps it should be coming from central government.”
Watts played a key role in the inquiry into the 2010 Pike River mine disaster that killed 29 men, including pointing out the need for on-site decision-making after the rescue service was forbidden by Wellington from sealing the mine immediately after the explosions.
Ramping up advocacy in an election year