General policy statement

The Emergency Management Bill (No 2) replaces the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 (the CDEM Act). It retains New Zealand’s existing philosophy for emergency management, which is based on—

• consideration of all hazards (things that could cause, or substantially contribute to the cause of, an emergency)—including those caused by natural processes, human activity, or a combination of both:

• taking an end-to-end risk management approach—managing the risk from hazards to an acceptable level requires action across the 4 Rs of risk reduction, readiness, response, and recovery:

• all parts of society playing a role—risks should be managed by those who are best placed to manage them, at the lowest appropriate level.

This Bill builds on the legislative framework established by the CDEM Act. Its changes seek to—

• strengthen the role of communities and iwi Māori in emergency management; and

• provide for clear responsibilities at the national, regional, and local levels; and

• enable a higher minimum standard of emergency management; and

• minimise disruption to essential services; and

• ensure that agencies have the tools to do their jobs effectively when an emergency happens.

The Minister for Emergency Management established a Government Inquiry into the Response to the North Island Severe Weather Events (the Inquiry) in 2023. The Inquiry found that New Zealand’s emergency management system was not fit-for-purpose as it lacks the capacity or capability to deal with significant emergencies that affect multiple regions at once.

The Inquiry and past reviews have also highlighted that New Zealand has not achieved the whole-of-society approach to emergency management that Parliament envisaged when the CDEM Act was passed in 2002.

The Inquiry’s report is available at https://www.dia.govt.nz/Government-Inquiry-into-the-Response-to-the-North-Island-Severe-Weather-Events

The Government considered the Inquiry’s recommendations and released its vision to strengthen disaster resilience and emergency management in October 2024. The Government’s response to the Inquiry is available at https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/strengthening-disaster-resilience-and-emergency-management

The Bill implements the parts of the Government’s response that require legislation and addresses a range of other issues identified with the CDEM Act.

Emergencies disproportionately affect some population groups because they have existing vulnerabilities or specific needs, or live in places that are more exposed to hazards. These populations may include rural communities, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, seniors, disabled people, children, and those experiencing socio-economic deprivation or isolation.

The Bill requires the Director-General of Emergency Management and Emergency Management Committees to identify communities that may be disproportionately affected by emergencies and engage with representatives of those communities during the development of emergency management plans.

Iwi and other groups that represent Māori have unique knowledge, skills, and resources to contribute across the 4 Rs. For example, iwi Māori have an understanding of hazards and risks that is grounded in centuries of local knowledge, and use their capacity, networks, and resources to care for displaced people. The Bill formally recognises the roles iwi Māori play in emergency management by—

• requiring Emergency Management Committees to appoint 1 or more Co-ordinating Executive Group members with knowledge of the interests and values of local Māori communities:

• requiring Emergency Management Committees to engage with and involve representatives of iwi and Māori in the development of regional emergency management plans:

• requiring the Director-General to engage with and seek advice from representatives of iwi and Māori in the development of the national emergency management plan.

Many people and community groups wish to contribute their skills, information, and other resources during and after an emergency. Of note, rural communities have strong local networks, people, and equipment to support relief efforts. The Bill seeks to ensure that these contributions are accommodated by requiring Emergency Management Committees to—

• appoint 1 or more Co-ordinating Executive Group members with knowledge, experience, or expertise in the interests and needs of rural communities in the Group’s area:

• consider appointing 1 or more Co-ordinating Executive Group members who have connections with communities relevant to emergency management:

• use their regional emergency management plans to address how offers of assistance from people and communities will be managed in an emergency.

The Bill makes the following changes to national level roles:

• The chief executive of the administering department becomes the Director-General of Emergency Management. This change reflects the establishment of the National Emergency Management Agency as an autonomous departmental agency with its own chief executive. The Director-General will continue to delegate their emergency management response and recovery functions and powers to the National Controller and National Recovery Manager as appropriate.

• To provide for greater situational awareness, the Director-General is given a new role to advise and inform the Minister about situations that have the potential to become an emergency (as defined in this Bill).

• The Bill formalises and clarifies the concept of lead agencies, being central government agencies responsible for planning and co-ordinating the response to emergencies arising from specific hazards. This change seeks to reduce ambiguity about who is ultimately in charge during an emergency.

Local authorities play key roles in the emergency management system, both as individual organisations and as Emergency Management Committees (formed by the local authorities in each region). The Bill places more emphasis on local authorities’ roles within their own geographic and functional areas of responsibility by—

• creating distinct roles for Emergency Management Committees and their local authority members, with specific arrangements applying to offshore islands (where the Minister of Local Government is the territorial authority):

• making mayors primarily responsible for declaring states of local emergency and transition periods within their own districts:

• creating a line of accountability between territorial authority chief executives and District and Local Controllers and District and Local Recovery Managers, and giving these chief executives an explicit mandate (which can then be delegated) to co-ordinate resources made available for the purposes of the Act.

The national emergency management plan and regional emergency management plans set out key responsibilities. To enable these responsibilities to be kept up to date more easily, the Bill provides for targeted amendments to be made without a full review process.

The Bill provides for a greater level of national direction by empowering the Minister to make rules prescribing technical, operational, procedural, or operational matters. Rules are intended to create a more flexible regulatory framework and replace some matters that can currently be prescribed through regulations made by Order in Council.

Regional emergency management plans are key instruments for implementing Emergency Management Committees’ responsibilities and driving action across the 4 Rs at the local government level. The Bill seeks to improve the quality of these plans by empowering the Minister to—

• create standards that set mandatory requirements for the structure, format, or content of regional emergency management plans:

• direct an Emergency Management Committee to commence a full or partial review of its plan:

• require amendments to a proposed regional emergency management plan if, in the Minister’s view, the plan would otherwise fail to meet the requirements of the Act or the national emergency management plan.

The Bill also introduces a new requirement for regional emergency management plans to set out how animals will be managed during an emergency.

The Bill empowers the Director-General of Emergency Management to issue compliance orders to address the contravention of requirements under the Bill (when enacted). Compliance orders are intended to provide an escalating framework for intervention when statutory responsibilities are not being met.

The Bill also increases the maximum penalties for prosecutable offences (which are carried forward from the CDEM Act) to align with the penalties for similar types of offending in other comparable legislation.

Essential infrastructure providers (referred to as lifeline utilities in the CDEM Act) are entities whose infrastructure provides services that support basic human needs and underpin the normal functioning of society. The Bill introduces a principles-based approach to recognising new essential infrastructure providers and creates new requirements to—

• address any matters prescribed through regulations in their plans for functioning during and after an emergency:

• contribute to the development of sector response plans initiated by the Director-General of Emergency Management.

The Bill also clarifies that technical advice required from an essential infrastructure provider cannot be used for enforcement purposes.

To ensure that local authorities have appropriate access to powers in a concurrent emergency, the Bill enables states of national and local emergency or transition periods to be in force over the same geographic area at the same time, where necessary to deal with different emergency events.

The Bill modernises the process to declare a state of emergency or transition period by enabling statutory forms to be completed with electronic signatures.

The CDEM Act’s state of emergency and transition period powers have been carried over to the Bill, with several changes as follows:

• The Bill creates a new power to enter premises where necessary to take urgent measures to mitigate unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal.

• Regional Controllers are given direct access to certain state of emergency powers, consistent with those that may be exercised by Regional Recovery Managers during a transition period. These powers currently sit with Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups but are normally delegated to Controllers in practice.

• The Bill clarifies that when a road or public place is closed during a state of emergency or transition period, access may still be granted to any class or group of persons.

Early warnings can save lives and reduce the risk to property in an emergency. To address existing barriers to issuing timely warnings, the Bill introduces a new protection from civil liability for loss or damage that is due (directly or indirectly) to the issue of, or failure to issue, a warning.

The Bill also makes it more explicit that protection from civil liability covers any person acting under the direction of a person performing functions, duties, or powers under the Act (where the loss or damage is due directly or indirectly to a state of emergency or transition period).

The powers available during a state of emergency or transition period may limit normal freedoms where this is justified to deal with the significant consequences of an emergency. The Bill increases oversight of the use of these powers by requiring Controllers to provide a written report to the Director-General of Emergency Management following the termination of a state of emergency. A similar reporting requirement already exists for transition periods.

If the report relates to a state of national emergency, the Director-General must provide a copy of the report to the Minister, and the Minister must present it to the House of Representatives as soon as practicable.