Councils spending more on emergency management despite ‘tight’ fiscals

Council spending on emergency management has increased year on year, with surges corresponding with major flooding events.
The increased budgets have mostly been matched in pace by an increase in total dedicated staff, meaning higher spending is not due simply to rising costs; tangible, on-site changes are being made as severe events become more common.
Several councils have blown their budgets responding to these disasters. But officials warn New Zealand must prepare for a budget blowout of a national scale in the event of a major seismic disaster.
On Thursday, Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell travelled to Gisborne to participate in the national ShakeOut earthquake drill. With 27 percent of the population involved, Gisborne had the highest rates of participation in the country.
Emergency management was still fresh in the minds of locals, as the effects of severe flooding in Tairāwhiti linger.
The local council, like the vast majority nationwide, has increased spending on emergency management. Since the 2021/2022 year, virtually every council in the country has increased spending, and a third have increased dedicated staff.
But, unlike the majority of councils, Gisborne’s spending did not increase steadily.
It was one of a few councils whose budgets were blown out by the need to respond to a severe weather event. Hawke’s Bay Regional and Marlborough District Councils saw increases the same year. Queenstown Lakes District Council saw a near-quadrupling of their spending the year after, when a local state of emergency was declared during a severe storm.
The impact of 2023’s North Island severe weather events, including Cyclone Gabrielle, can be seen in national expenditure as well. Subtracting the roughly $10 million added to local council expenditures sees the national track smoothed out to a more steady increase. As more severe events occur, the national line will see more of these jumps.
Mitchell said he was “very mindful of the tight fiscal environment we’re in, and the impact the high cost of living is having on our communities. But this work is important – and the financial and human cost of emergencies on our communities is massive.”
He said preparedness was not just a council job, that “we all have a role to play, from individuals, households, communities, businesses, councils, through to central government”.
As far as central government was concerned, Mitchell recently announced a new national approach to crises – an Emergency Management Bill is set to be introduced before the end of the term. And while broad support from stakeholders, including councils, was encouraging, the impact of Dunedin’s flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle showed there was still “a lot to do”.
In Mitchell’s opening letter for the new national strategy, he admitted the national emergency response system “does not have the capacity or capability to deal with significant, widespread events that impact multiple regions at once”, such as the cyclone.
But the cyclone, according to the National Emergency Management Agency, was only of a moderate scale, compared to what New Zealand could experience.
The agency’s 2023 Briefing to the Incoming Minister listed a range of national-level disasters and associated damages. An event like Cyclone Gabrielle was given a 50-year likelihood of 80 percent, with estimated building and infrastructure damages at $9 billion. In reality, they totalled over $14b.
An Alpine Fault rupture, with a 75 percent chance in 50 years, was estimated to produce $10b of infrastructure losses. But an earthquake on the Hikurangi subduction zone, and the resulting tsunami, were projected to produce up to $144b in damages in the worst-case scenario. At 1 percent in 50 years, it was one of the least likely on their list.
But no matter the size or nature of the emergency, it will first be felt on a personal level. In both a localised flood and a nationwide earthquake, those directly affected will be dealing with their own, personal situation.
Dave Gawn, the agency’s chief executive, told Newsroom the vast majority of emergencies were managed at the local level. He said local councils had a primary responsibility in these situations, and needed to plan for and resource emergency management efforts.
While Gawn saw the emergency management system as “fundamentally cooperative”, he pointed to local first responders as a critical part of the system.
“Marae, community organisations, volunteers, and the local community also all play a key role. The more that every part of the system steps up, the stronger our emergency management system becomes.”
Well-prepared communities could react to an emergency independently, leaving councils and first responders able to triage the situation before them, he said.