Former police commissioner Mike Bush’s recently released report on Cyclone Gabrielle in Ikaroa-Rāwhiti is as dry as old toast, but it should be essential reading for anyone interested in community safety and resilience.

Bush slammed much of the civil defence response and found the severity, speed and scale of the disaster of February 14, 2023, overwhelmed officials.

My interest was especially pricked by the report’s scrutiny on how prepared Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence officials were before Gabrielle, and in the emergency response.

I recall, in an RNZ report immediately after the floods, a Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence official describing how certain areas had been devastated where they simply hadn’t anticipated the risk. The explanation was that previous (recent) flooding didn’t indicate a particular risk.

Oh, the rain seems to have fallen in a different place, this time. What a surprise!

To take a wider perspective on these issues, New Zealand is particularly prone to natural hazard disasters and, given the Christchurch massacre, we’re not immune from unnatural emergencies as well.

These events put people’s lives at risk and account for massive economic and financial impact. In other words, it’s a significant
issue.

But the lessons seem difficult to learn. Each disaster is routinely accompanied by another disaster – an inability to be properly prepared and to provide a coherent emergency response. This cycle of Disaster; Disaster response; and Disaster report is now as enshrined as night following day. In fact, the Bush report will now be followed by yet another report by the National Emergency Management Agency.

In the wake of the Bush inquiry findings, Stuff reported West Coast Civil Defence Emergency Management group controller Te Arohanui Cook as saying: “We don’t need more reports: we need action.”

Well yes, but what action?

Let me declare an interest in all this. In my job as the owner of a web platform business I recognise, like most people, that the internet is a key to better preparedness and emergency communications. But the solutions require a fresh approach and a willingness for people in positions of power to work collaboratively on finding solutions. That, in my mind is more of a barrier than any technical considerations  (see footnote[1]).

However, if there’s an area the Bush report shines the torch on a better future, it’s highlighted when he noted this:

“Any engagement with iwi Māori or Māori communities was because of ad hoc relationships rather than systematic and formalised effort.

“Māori agencies and marae felt their proven ability to deliver welfare services at scale were either ignored or hampered by bureaucratic decision making.”

In other words, while multi-million-dollar infrastructure and officials in offices were falling over themselves to fail, Māori and people in communities were getting on and saving the day, by working together on the ground – let’s call that “cultural infrastructure” – something that seems to have been continually ignored in official thinking.

Then, on March 29, 2024, Te Ao Māori News ran a story headlined: “Marae and hapū want to be more involved in Hawke’s Bay disaster response.”

Let’s just watch that space, because I doubt if there can be any meaningful improvement in emergency management while the processes are mired in closed thinking. Not only should we understand how marae and communities provide robust responses, we also need to appreciate the real depth and scope of local and environmental knowledge that rests most easily with people of the whenua.

That applies to Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and anywhere else in the world where emergency management is also an unresolved issue.

If you’d like to read the review, go to hbemergency.govt.nz 

FOOTNOTE: Flightdec has developed a unique capability, using hyperconnected websites, to help address the perennial problems associated with emergency preparedness and responses. READ MORE.