Mitchell Mark: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Mark: Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8794. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): It is a real pleasure to stand and take a call on the Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill. I just want to acknowledge the Minister of Civil Defence the Hon Nikki Kaye.We may not think it but this is a really important bill. I just want to hark back to 2007-08 when in another role in another time I was involved with an initiative that was born out of a World Economic Forum decision to form with some of the big logistics companies around the world what were called “LET” teams—logistics emergency teams. The purpose of those teams was to be able to deploy into areas that had been hit by humanitarian disaster and were in need of first responders to get supply chain solutions and logistics and medical supplies and food to the people who had been cut off from that type of support.I was very lucky that I was involved in logistics emergency teams deploying to places like Lebanon Indonesia Pakistan when they had the earthquakes there and Haiti. One thing that I really noticed one thing that became glaringly obvious is that especially in these remote areas Governments of course should be taking the lead in terms of coordinating humanitarian groups and logistics companies in the private sector. The private sector is very efficient. It can get things done but of course it relies very heavily on Government support to be able to reduce compliance issues and access and transit through airports and ports and things like that to be able to coordinate and allow teams to actually get on the ground and deliver the aid.One thing that I really noticed and that became quite apparent is Governments sometimes are not really that good at doing that. It highlighted the fact that for them to be able to provide support and respond properly in a civil defence incident there has to be a lot of planning. There has to be genuine strategic planning around how they are actually going to go from a contingency type of environment where you are dealing with a situation that may be a week to 3 weeks old and then transitioning into more of a sustainment type operation where the support may be required for 6 months 12 months or anything up to 18 months.So I just want to highlight the fact that the work that Minister Nikki Kaye has done and the ministry has done around this is actually really important. New Zealand of course—we are really lucky. We are not necessarily facing the same challenges that you might have in an environment like Lebanon or Pakistan or Haiti but the fact of the matter is that it is really important that the Government is able to make sure that we have got a very good policy setting in legislation that will allow for that coordination and allow for that transition from a contingency type environment into sustainment and sustainability.Unfortunately we are subjected to our own issues when it comes to—we saw obviously what happened the tragedy that we faced in Christchurch with the earthquakes. We have adverse weather events all around the country. I have had them in my own electorate of Rodney and I have also had a couple of tsunami warnings that we have had to deal with. When you have got a peninsula with 30000 people on it it is actually pretty important to make sure that we have got really robust civil defence action plans in place.So what the bill actually does is it “amends the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to enable better recovery from New Zealand’s most frequent emergencies—those of small to moderate scale.” The Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill will amend the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act to establish a legislative framework for recovery management by providing the mandate for recovery managers and by requiring high-level preparatory recovery planning. This is really important so that there is a standardised set of policies and guidelines that recovery managers are able to refer to and work to so that we have a standardised programme right throughout New Zealand.It supports a seamless transition from response and into the initial recovery phase by establishing a transition notice mechanism that will make some emergency powers available for a specified period of time. I will talk about those transition notices a little bit later in my speech but they are actually very important and a very important part of the overall work that has been done on this. It is to establish a permanent legislative authority and of course that is going to allow some proper focus in terms of appropriation.The bill is actually the first stage of a wider review into the legislative framework for recovery. The second stage will address the legislative framework required for recovery from large-scale emergencies and I gave an example earlier of the tragedy in the earthquake that we faced in Canterbury.Historically most attention has been given to preparing for and responding to an event. However as we have seen in the Manawatū-Whanganui region following the severe storm in June the clean-up and recovery phase can involve a huge amount of work at the front end and then of course there is the continued clean-up. The new law will give clarity to those leading this work and will help ensure it can be carried out as swiftly and as effectively as possible. It will do this by providing appropriate authority for those directing coordinating and managing the recovery. That is actually really important because there is nothing more frustrating for emergency services and a civil defence team than trying to make things happen and not being clear or sure around the authority that they have under the Act.I said I would speak about the transition notices so I will just touch on them very quickly. The transition notices will enable civil defence emergency management officials to carry out works clear roads and other public spaces and remove dispose of secure or make safe dangerous structures and materials. Again Christchurch and Christchurch City highlighted the importance of being able to do this quickly. They can enter into premises for example to save a life to prevent an injury or to rescue and remove injured or endangered persons. These powers will ensure that what was achieved during the response is not destabilised when moving into that contingency and sustainability phase putting life and property back at risk and/or derailing an effective and timely recovery.It is proposed that these powers could be used only during a defined transition phase. Their use must be proportionate reflecting the consequences and scale of the emergency and they must only be exercised to the extent reasonably necessary for the public interest. A declaration of a state of emergency is not necessary for the issuing of a transition notice. That is actually quite important to highlight because some emergencies will generate impacts of sufficient severity that the recovery may be very challenging initially but the safety of the public and property is not in immediate danger meaning that maybe a state of emergency was not declared but it is still quite important to be able to issue a transition notice. I am very happy to stand in support of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill. Thank you.