Annual reviews of public agencies are underway in Parliament’s Select Committees, and this morning it was the turn of the National Emergency Management Agency (or NEMA) to appear before the Governance and Administration Committee.
While annual reviews at the committee level normally look back at the organisation's performance during the past year, this hearing was naturally focussed on what has happened in recent weeks: major climate disaster in the forms of Cyclone Gabrielle and the major flooding in the Auckland region soon before it.
As NEMA's Chief Executive Dave Gawn told the committee, the agency has been "fairly busy" lately, and is currently supporting active recoveries in regions including Marlborough, Nelson, Tairāwhiti, Buller, Thames, Coromandel and Auckland. MPs asked Gawn and his NEMA colleagues about resilience, adaptation and information sharing during times of disaster.
A slip caused by Cyclone Gabrielle on SH5 between Te Pohue and Glengarry. Photo: Supplied: Waka Kotahi
