The emergency management minister says a new emergency monitoring centre will make a big difference to how quickly the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) can respond to rapidly escalating events.
National Emergency Management Agency Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Kieran McAnulty officially launched the Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting (MAR) Centre today.
The centre is a response to recommendations made in a 2018 ministerial review following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake and 2017 Port Hills fires.
The review highlighted vulnerabilities in the system.
The MAR centre will work 24/7 so alerts can be provided and distributed more quickly.
McAnulty said the round-the-clock centre would remove the delays inherent in an on-call duty system.
"If people are in bed and they get a notification, there's a delay, because they need to get ready, they need to get their gear together, they need to send out a notification, they need to get down to the centre. That delay has now been removed by having this centre."
File photo: Kieran McAnulty opens the NEMA's 24/7 monitoring centre Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
New Zealand was prone to natural disasters, which would only get worse and more frequent due to climate change, McAnulty said.
"We might be talking a difference of, let's say, worst-case scenario of fifteen minutes. But if it's a localised tsunami, fifteen minutes could be all the difference. By getting this up and running now, that could well prove in the future to make all the difference in a localised tsunami event."
McAnulty, who has only just taken on the portfolio, paid tribute to the recently-retired Kris Faafoi, who initiated the changes when he was minister.
"He recognised this was something we could do to improve what was already a pretty robust system. He made that commitment."
NEMA 24/7 monitoring centre plaque Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Civil Defence director Gary Knowles said the MAR Centre would provide timely and geographically accurate warnings, particularly where there was a tsunami threat.
"Our watch teams will monitor threats, alert the public when it's needed and report to Government on unfolding situations. It will also help regional Civil Defence groups and first responders respond to emergencies in their communities, and provide advice to local and central government."
The centre's launch forms part of the government's plan to strengthen the emergency management system, which was allocated $46.6m over four years in the 2021 Budget.