This week's flooding was the latest in a series of weather events this year. Photo: RNZ / Eveline Harvey
Recovery and rebuilt efforts in communities hit by weather disasters could be managed a lot more quickly and effectively by an established permanent natural disaster recovery unit, a Chapman Tripp brief counsel says.
The brief counsel by the law firm said as weather events become more frequent and severe under climate change, with two devastating weather events in the North Island already this year, plus this week's deluge in Auckland, the case for a specialised, ready-to-go disaster response agency with statutory powers should be considered.
Chapman Tripp Partner Leigh Kissick said as shown in Australia, where dedicated taskforces have been established after significant weather events, a group could be on the ground quickly to support affected communities.
"I think one of the key issues at the moment is that we don't have that dedicated entity," she said.
"One of the benefits from having a dedicated entity is that is has that institutional knowledge and specialized people that would have had to react to and engage on previous natural disasters and the ability to react faster to any further natural disasters that played out."
Kissick said were a taskforce set up, it should be mandated to assist locally led community recovery in the medium to long term.
"When we look to Australia, some of the powers and decisions that these statutory groups undertake is considering really important things for the communities, such as buyback options for people's residential land, or agricultural pastoral lands and whether it's more actually appropriate in the circumstances to lift or repair a house, or do some sort of retrofit to the house, rather than actually buying back that land.
"They do have powers to make very important decisions for the community, which would offer, I think, more certainty for those people affected in local communities."