I relinquish my appointment as Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management on Friday 31 October 2014.

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is undertaking the selection process to find a replacement but an announcement is unlikely to be made before mid-November.  To cover the gap, the Chief Executive of the Department, Andrew Kibblewhite, has appointed Sarah Stuart-Black to be Acting Director with effect from 31 October.

Many have asked me why I am leaving MCDEM. I admit it was not an easy decision but my logic goes like this:

• I do not think I have a right to stay in the appointment ad infinitum;

• I know there are others who are more than capable of doing the job and who deserve the opportunity;

• I have had a very good run and someone else can have a go; and,

• I am conscious that it is best to leave before energy levels fade and you become a risk to yourself and the organisation!

The next question many ask is “what are you going to do?”  The short answer is very little initially but I intend to explore opportunities that might be available elsewhere in the public sector and in the commercial.  Having been so deeply engaged in CDEM for the last eight years, significant elements have rubbed off on me and I expect there to be some involvement in the community. 

So, while I retire from the front row and move to the sideline (rather than the bench!), I will be watching your progress with interest.  From time to time I will be yelling encouragement, and perhaps offering advice and abusing the ref when decisions don’t go my way!

I leave MCDEM with a real mixture of regret, satisfaction and joy.  Regret and sorrow because I will miss the friendships forged and the camaraderie that exists in CDEM, and if I am brutally honest, the buzz that comes from being able to work in a team that helps people in an emergency.  I know we did not always get it right and there are always things that can be done better.  But I leave with a feeling of joy from the knowledge that in my future the cellphone ringing is unlikely to mean impending calamity, and with the confidence and satisfaction that CDEM is on a sound footing and with an open attitude that it can always be improved some more.

I have always thought of MCDEM’s role as facilitating the development and delivery of CDEM into communities through those working at those levels.  I thank you for the work you have done to deliver CDEM in your communities, and I thank you for the support and comradeship you have given me in thick and thin. 

I wish you all every success in the future. 

John Hamilton

Following the 20 September national elections, the Prime Minister announced his Cabinet.  The Honourable Nikki Kaye has been allocated the Civil Defence portfolio again.  Her other ministerial responsibilities include Minister for the Accident Compensation Corporation, Minister for Youth and Associate Minister of Education.

If you haven’t seen it already, the Minister paid tribute to John Hamilton in the September issue of Impact, the Ministry’s quarterly magazine. The September issue of Impact can be viewed on the Civil Defence website at http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/resources/impact-newsletter/

It was fantastic to see so many councils, CDEM Groups, stakeholders, and the general public supporting Get Ready Week 2014. The theme for Get Ready Week 2014 was ‘What would you do?’ -which challenged people to consider how they would cope in different scenarios following a disaster.

The articles below provide a taste of some of the Get Ready Week activities held in different parts of the country. Thank you to everyone who submitted their Get Ready Week photos – there were so many we simply don’t have room to show them all here, but more are available to view on the Ministry’s website at http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/cdem-sector/public-education/get-ready-week/

Photo: Tim (back row) and Anthony (front row) from Wanganui District Council’s Emergency Management Office, and Stan, with Junior Neighbourhood Support award winners next to the new Civil Defence Centre sign at Wanganui East School. (Note: Stan ignored the ‘no dogs’ sign!)

Get Ready Week 2014 was lots of fun for the team at Wanganui CDEM.

“We committed 100% of our staff resources and a major chunk of our annual advertising budget to make Get Ready Week a really visible and high impact event in Wanganui,” said Emergency Manager Matt Smith. 

“We used multiple local media channels as well as plenty of physical presence to push the Get Ready, Get Thru message to as many people as we could in our community. Having Stan here to help was a real bonus.”

“MCDEM did a great job producing plenty of digital information for us to plagiarise during the week and we pushed the ‘What would you do?’ message as hard as we could.”

Plenty of pre-planning was put into advertising for the week including full-page colour advertisements in local newspapers; advertising banners on the Wanganui Chronicle website; posts and information on the Wanganui District Council website and Facebook page; customised staff email signatures; and pre-packing of 1,400 civil defence information packs.

‘Presence’ events started with focusing on Council staff and then went out to the community during the week. Some of the events were an emergency presentation to staff at Whanganui Hospital; Stan attending five Junior Neighbourhood Support end-of-term school assemblies to give out awards with CDEM staff;  the handing out of information packs and drink bottles to local residents and businesses; and the giving away of a four-person Grab and Go Kit as a draw prize.

“We have had plenty of really positive feedback from our community and quite a few invitations to go and talk with community groups about their emergency preparedness,” said Tim Crowe, the Council’s Senior Emergency Management Officer.

It was a busy week but very rewarding for the Wanganui team, and they are already planning for the next Get Ready Week!

Article submitted by Matt Smith
Emergency Manager, Wanganui District Council

Photo: (left to right) Victoria Randall, Kim Abbott, Shona Morgan, and Councillor Paul Dimery from Northland CDEM at Whangarei’s Cameron Street Mall during Get Ready Week

The Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group welcomed Get Ready Week 2014 as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of being prepared, especially following the high-profile July storms which hammered the region. The team got together and came up with a low-cost campaign plan requiring minimal resources but that was sure to get the word out.

We posted daily scenarios on the Civil Defence Northland Facebook page encouraging followers to think about what they would do in various disasters. Followers shared their ideas, generating good on-line discussion. We also asked people to share their best tip for coping with natural disaster, with an emergency survival kit as an incentive. During the campaign our posts reached about 4,500 - well above our current 3,000-strong follower base.

We also created a Get Ready Week display in our busy public reception area (featuring an emergency survival kit, posters, household emergency plans and disaster timelines) and on 24 September set up a stall in Whangarei’s Cameron Street Mall for people to meet team members.

The stall attracted a lot of public interest, especially about household and business continuity plans.  More than 300 free eco-bags were given away, each containing a variety of civil defence public education items as well as branded civil defence lollipops and balloons for the kids.

Wherever possible, we also used Get Ready Week events to promote the Northland Civil Defence Emergency Management Group’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/civildefencenorthland

Article submitted by Jalissa Karena-Lange
Community Relations Support Officer, Northland Regional Council

Photo: (clockwise from top left) Southland District Mayor Gary Tong and  EMS Advisor Craig Sinclair, Invercargill City Mayor, Tim Shadbolt and Cynthia Smith from Invercargill libraries, Southland District Mayor Gary Tong with the USB’s we used and Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks, and Libraries Manager Lorraine Weston-Webb.Get Ready Week 2014 saw Southlanders flocking to libraries to get their most important documents scanned to memory sticks.

Mayors Tim Shadbolt (Invercargill), Gary Tong (Southland) and Tracy Hicks (Gore) supported the campaign by visiting local libraries and, with the help of librarians, scanning their own passports to the memory sticks provided.

Emergency Management Advisor Craig Sinclair said the focus this year was on helping people to prepare their important personal documents in case they had to evacuate their homes quickly in an emergency.

During the week, emergency management advisors travelled to provincial libraries across Southland and talked to people about preparing for emergencies, encouraging them to scan their birth certificate, passport and marriage licence.

Craig said he was surprised by the number of Cantabrians in Southland who approached him during the campaign. “A lot of people from Canterbury would stop and say ‘I wish people would take more notice of this’, because they’ve been through it and knew exactly what was required.”

Although the campaign is now officially over, Emergency Management Southland still encourages people to catch up with scanning their documents.

Article submitted by Craig Sinclair
Emergency Management Advisor, Emergency Management Southland

Wellington Region’s Joint Committee have formally recognised the outstanding long service of three Wellington Region Emergency Management Office staff. 

Dave Jack and Adrian Glen, both Senior Emergency Management Advisors, and Rian van Schalkwyk, Manager, Business & Development, received the awards from John Hamilton, Director of the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management in August.

These awards are presented to recognise at least 10 years of active service at the local or national level, where that contribution is over and above a standard consistent with their normal duties.

We thank them for their efforts over the years, and look forward to continuing to work them in the future.

Article submitted by Sarah Gauden-Ing
Wellington Region Emergency Management Office

Community Patrols of New Zealand (CPNZ) is a volunteer organisation that works closely with Police in crime prevention, deterrence and, at times, detection.

CPNZ has over 150 patrol groups and some 4,600 volunteers throughout New Zealand. While most patrols work at night, there is an increasing demand for daytime patrols as well.

CPNZ’s work is expanding rapidly with the advent of Police District Command Centres leading to more and more ‘tasking’ of patrols by Police.

Furthermore, in recent years, CPNZ has been expanding beyond simply working with Police to developing relationships with local authorities and other community organisations.  As part of its recently developed Strategic Plan, it also wants to focus on developing relationships with CDEM groups where it believes it can play a valuable role. Indeed, its primary focus for the next year is ‘helping to build community resilience’.

In 2010/11, CPNZ was ‘thrown into’ such a role by the Canterbury earthquakes and responded quickly and effectively. Their responses included: arranging food and water to be flown into Christchurch and distributing it; setting up food banks in less affected parts of Christchurch to help those in the more greatly affected parts of the city; and providing a courier service from pharmacies to medical staff in the field. This was in addition to their regular crime prevention patrolling – which assumed greater importance in suburban areas with Police being required to focus their efforts on the CBD.

CPNZ invites contact to discuss their involvement with your CDEM group by email to office@cpnz.org.nz

Article submitted by Murray Smith
Chief Executive, Community Patrols of New Zealand

Photo: New NZ-RT Steering Committee Chairman Darryn Irving (right) presenting the outgoing Chairman Brandon Guttery with a certificate of appreciation.

This year the New Zealand Response Teams (NZ-RTs) Team Leaders’ Forum was held in Christchurch at the City Council Chambers.

The forum is a chance for the Team Leaders and Managers of the nation’s 16 registered Civil Defence Response Teams to get together and discuss important issues facing the teams and of course a chance for the teams to network and discuss new ideas and rescue/response techniques.

The focus of this year’s forum was to discuss the requirements of the new national accreditation standards that will see all current and future response teams obtain USAR Light Rescue Team Status in-line with international best practice. Other hot topics of conversation centred on teams responding to more common natural disasters such as storm and flooding events and discussing strategies to improve inter-agency co-operation and training.

To the outgoing committee members: Team Managers and Team Leaders throughout the country express their heartfelt gratitude and thanks for your commitment and the hard work you have put in during your tenure.

Incoming NZ-RT Steering Committee:
Chairman:
Darryn Irving - Hutt City ERT
Members:
Anthony Rohan - RATS Christchurch
Geoff Fouhy - Upper Hutt Community Rescue
Justin Lewis - Christchurch ERTs

For more information about the response teams please go to www.civildefence.govt.nz/cdem-sector/nz-rts-new-zealand-response-teams/ or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NZResponseTeams

Nearly 1,100 emergency services representatives and researchers converged on Wellington, New Zealand, in early September for the annual Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) and Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre conference.

The conference is the leading knowledge sharing event for fire, land management and emergency services, with delegates attending from across Australia and New Zealand, as well as the US, Canada, UK, South Korea and many Pacific Islands.

This year’s event saw the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC partner with AFAC, taking over from its predecessor the Bushfire CRC. Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC CEO, Dr Richard Thornton, said the conference showed why research and innovation are more important now than ever. 

“The week was a great opportunity for all emergency management practitioners to learn what we are discovering about the biggest challenges in emergency management across Australasia, especially learning from New Zealand’s Canterbury earthquake experience, and finding ways to use this knowledge every day to make our communities safer,” Dr Thornton said.

Natural and man-made disasters strike all countries, but particularly in our region, said AFAC CEO Stuart Ellis.

“The conference was designed to bring together and share the combined wisdom of experience, research and analysis from across the sector to enable a deeper understanding of the approaches needed to secure the region’s future and prosperity,” Mr Ellis said.

Day one of the conference featured a dedicated Research Forum, showing why research and innovation are vital precursors for safer communities and better environmental management. Days two and three mixed industry presentations with more research, with a number of professional development programmes and field study tours concluding the conference week.

Hazards science researchers, industry workers and community groups can access all conferences proceedings, and selected audio and video presentations, through www.bnhcrc.com.au and www.afac.com.au

Article submitted by Nathan Maddock
Communications Officer, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC

Members of the Whakatāne Emergency Response Team (NZRT-17) and Rotorua (NZRT-15) volunteers took to the river as the first swiftwater rescue course in New Zealand involving actual vehicle rescue tactics was launched in Whakatāne. The Rescue 3 International Rescue from Vehicles in Water (RVW) course was delivered by Instructors Steve Glassey and Geoff Bray.

The one-and-a-half day course involved theory with a full-day in the river practising numerous vehicle rescue scenarios. Students also opted in to being rescued, replacing the rescue manikin and gaining an appreciation of what it is really like to be “stranded” in a semi-submerged car. 

“WERT has been a national leader in swiftwater rescue, being the only team internationally qualified across swiftwater rescue technician, swiftwater body recovery (SRS) and swiftwater vehicle rescue (RVW), their extensive range of equipment including a Rapid Deployment Craft, provides the region and beyond a highly capable team for flood and swiftwater rescue operations” said Mr Glassey.

WERT manager Tony Gillard said that a lot work went into preparing for the course. Consent was gained from the regional council for the specially prepared vehicle which was stripped and cleaned of all contaminants, Alan Keeber (NZRT-17) engineered the electric windows so they could be operated from the shore with commercial divers, and a paramedic provided extra safety. 

“I’m proud of my team,” said Mr Gillard. “We get our fair share of callouts for flood and rope rescue work and members have not only taken up the challenge of being trained and resourced to a high standard but also and more importantly maintaining competency.”

Article submitted by Tony Gillard
Rescue Manager, Whakātane District Council

GNS Science has recently completed a project assessing the state of natural hazards planning in New Zealand.  Primarily a desktop project, the objective of the project was to answer one key question: what is the state of planning for natural hazards in New Zealand? 

To assist in answering this question, a four-part project was undertaken:

1. An analysis of operative plans representing 94 authorities (11 regional councils, 67 territorial authorities (i.e., unitary, city and district), and 16 Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups.  This is the first study that examines every operative regional policy statement, territorial authority plan and CDEM Group plan in the New Zealand, with a total of 99 plans being assessed against 127 questions on their hazard provisions.

2. Case studies of the top ranked resource management plans and two proposed plans.

3. A capability and capacity survey of planning staff in councils.

4. A final report that integrates the findings of the first three parts into a concise summary of the state of planning for natural hazards.

Of interest to the CDEM sector will be the findings on CDEM linkages to resource management plans and vice versa.  This includes how the 4R’s are incorporated into plans.

The reports are available on request – please contact Wendy Saunders, GNS Science, (04) 570 4802, email w.saunders@gns.cri.nz

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has kick-started the planning process for New Zealand ShakeOut 2015 – a national earthquake preparedness campaign, which will culminate in a nationwide Drop, Cover and Hold drill in September or October 2015.

New Zealand ShakeOut 2015 will follow a similar model to the highly successful 2012 campaign in which more than 1.3 million people participated.

ShakeOut is an opportunity to connect with communities throughout New Zealand and to encourage them to take actions to prepare themselves for a large earthquake.

It is important that people understand the right actions to take during an earthquake (Drop, Cover and Hold). The campaign is also an excellent opportunity for businesses and organisations to develop, review or test their emergency plans.

New Zealand ShakeOut is based on the Great California ShakeOut, which started in 2008 and is now a global event involving many states across the US and other countries including Puerto Rico, Canada, Southern Italy and Japan. In 2013, more than 24.9 million people participated in ShakeOut drills across the world.

Governance and Planning Structure
New Zealand ShakeOut will be led by an inter-agency governance and planning structure, comprised of a Governance Group, a Steering Group, and a Planning Group.

Invitations have been sent seeking representatives from key agencies and organisations to sit on the three groups. As part of process, we are seeking one CDEM Group representative to sit on the Steering Group, and two CDEM Group representatives to sit on the Planning Group. Applications are being coordinated by Rana Solomon from the Chatham Islands Council and close on Friday 17 October 2014.

For more information, please email shakeout@dpmc.govt.nz

Twenty participants of the inaugural cohort (14/1) of the CDEM Controllers Development Programme have recently embarked on their 18 month journey to become accredited CDEM Controllers. 

The programme, delivered by Massey University, in conjunction with AUT and MCDEM, is targeted at Controllers at all levels, local to national, and caters for all experience levels. The CDEM Controllers Development Programme includes an element of initial online ‘enabling- learning’, a residential course to offer a face-face learning and assessment, and individualised post-course continued development. After successful completion of the programme, participants will be accredited as CDEM Controllers.

The first of its kind in New Zealand, the CDEM Controllers Development Programme emphasises the application of grounded research and teaching to this crucial aspect of Emergency Management practice - linking to the broad range of capabilities, knowledge and experience that Massey University, and the pool of international experts, bring to the programme. 

In order to provide the best possible learning and development opportunity for Controllers, the pilot programme’s structure, systems, content and delivery will be comprehensively reviewed early next year, in preparation for the second cohort (15/1) coming together in April 2015. Nominations to participate in 15/1 will be called for later this year via respective MCDEM Regional Emergency Management Advisors.

If you have any questions regarding the CDEM Controllers Development Programme, please contact:

Grant Morris
MCDEM Team Leader Capability
(04) 817 8581
grant.morris@dpmc.govt.nz

In July, representatives from several central government agencies with emergency management responsibilities got together to discuss induction training for staff new to operating in a National Co-ordination Centre (NCC).

From that initial meeting, the Ministry took the lead to design a generic training course which incorporated a variety of content and resources drawn from CIMS, the Integrated Training Framework, MCDEM’s own NCMC induction programme and an existing Ministry of Health course. The result is the NCC Induction Course, a common framework for learning how a national-level Co-ordination Centre operates, while at the same time being flexible enough for each agency to adapt it to best fit their particularly environment.

Following final consultation later this month, the Course and its associated resources will be made available on the MCDEM website for agencies to use.

For more information, please contact:
Aimee Flanagan
MCDEM Capability Development Advisor
(04) 817 8583
aimee.flanagan@dpmc.govt.nz

The University of Canterbury’s Centre for Risk, Resilience & Renewal (UCR3) is proposing to offer a new Masters in Public Safety with majors available in either “Strategic Emergency Management” or “Search and Rescue”.

A draft outline for each qualification is now available for the sector to comment on as part of the consultation process. The draft outlines are available from http://www.ucr3.canterbury.ac.nz/qualifications/MPS.shtml and all feedback is required to be lodged using the provided online survey by Wednesday 19 November 2014. The current format proposes a 180 point Masters degree offered by distance which can be taken part-time over two years, or one year full-time.

The proposed Masters will follow on from the new Graduate Certificate in Public Safety (Search & Rescue or Emergency Management) which is now open to enrolments at http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/enrol/ and complements the University’s existing Master of Hazard & Disaster Management.

For further information contact info@publicsafety.ac.nz

Dates have been set for the Public Information Managers (PIM) workshop and the Exercise Writing course for 2015 and April 2016, see below. Nominations will open in February 2015 for the April workshop and course. Keep these dates free in your calendar if you would like to attend any of these workshops or the course.

Exercise Writing course
• 21, 22 April 2015 (Auckland)

For more information, please contact:
Anita Walker
MCDEM Emergency Management Advisor
(04) 817 8587
anita.walker@dpmc.govt.nz

PIM workshop
• 21,22 April 2015 (Auckland)
• 17, 18 November 2015 (Wellington)
• 12, 13 April 2016 (Christchurch)

For more information, please contact:
Aimee Flanagan
MCDEM Capability Development Advisor
(04) 817 8583
aimee.flanagan@dpmc.govt.nz
 

The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management recently welcomed two new communications staff members to its team – both of whom will be liaising closely with Groups and other stakeholders on various projects over the coming months.

Bridget Cheesman joined the Ministry as the Public Education Advisor this month. She has over 15 years’ experience in marketing and communications, both here and in the UK. Her most recent role was at NIWA where she was responsible for delivering a new intranet and developing internal communications. She has worked on public awareness campaigns for a number of organisations, including the Environmental Protection Authority, the Ministry of Health and the MTA. When she’s not working, you’ll probably find Bridget playing dress ups (usually with her four year old daughter), lifting weights or relaxing with friends and family. 

Jamie Shaw joined the Ministry in September in the position of Communications Advisor (Online and Publications).  Among other tasks, Jamie will be managing the recently re-launched www.civildefence.govt.nz website, as well as compiling the monthly e-Bulletin and quarterly Impact magazine. He is looking forward to working with the Groups and other stakeholders to help share their stories with the wider sector.  Jamie comes to the Ministry from the deep south, having spent the past seven and a half years as the Communications Coordinator and Civil Defence Public Information Manager for the Clutha District Council. Prior to this, he spent two years as a newspaper reporter and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and National Diploma in Journalism.  Away from the office, children Olivia (11), Jackson (9) and Thomas (2) keep him and wife Katrina busy, while Jamie also enjoys a range of sports, particularly cricket, rugby and soccer.

MCDEM Communications Team contact details:

Vince Cholewa
Communications Account Manager
(04) 817 8560
vince.cholewa@dpmc.govt.nz

Jamie Shaw
Communications Advisor (Online and Publications)
(04) 817 8561
jamie.shaw@dpmc.govt.nz

Bridget Cheesman
Public Education Advisor
(04) 817 8562
bridget.cheesman@dpmc.govt.nz

24/7 media phone
(04) 494 6951
pim@ncmc.govt.nz
When the National Crisis Management Centre is not activated, calls made to the media phone after business hours are received by the Duty Public Information Manager on their mobile phone.

New Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) products were introduced on 1 October 2014. 

The new products look different, including changes to some of the terminology used.  While the new PTWC products will support the Ministry’s threat assessment process, they will not be as refined and accurate as the forecasts produced by New Zealand’s scientific advisors. Regardless of the new PTWC products, the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) national advisory and warning messages will still be the official assessment for New Zealand.

The implementation of the new PTWC products does not change the current arrangements we have, and CDEM Groups will experience no difference in our process and products. 

To acknowledge the PTWC changes, the Ministry has had to make some minor changes to the National Tsunami Warning and Advisory Plan.  A copy of the revised National Tsunami Warning and Advisory Plan is available on the Ministry’s website.  The Plan has been revised to include the revised thresholds table, National Warning System (NWS) templates, as well as a revised threat source section based on the 2013 GNS updated tsunami hazard report.  The order of the content was also revised. 

If you have any further questions, please contact your MCDEM Regional Emergency Management Advisor (REMA) or the MCDEM National Operations team at opsteam@dpmc.govt.nz

The Response Management Director’s Guideline for CDEM Group and Local Controllers [DGL06/08] was updated to V1.1 in October 2014 to recognise the New Zealand Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) 2nd edition that was published earlier in 2014 (replacing the first version of CIMS that was referenced in V1).

The updated version also reflects Director’s Guidelines that had been updated or issued since V1 was published. The general doctrine in the Guideline remains unchanged. The updated V1.1 will not be distributed in hard copy format; it can however be printed in A5 format to replace the content of the original hard copy folder.

The updated version is available from the Civil Defence website here