Part 1: Introduction

1.1
As our largest city, and home to over a third of New Zealand's population, it is critical that Auckland is resilient and well prepared for major emergencies.

1.2
Auckland Council plays a central role in Auckland's emergency management and preparedness, working with regional stakeholders and communities.

1.3
Under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002, local authorities are required to establish regional Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) groups to oversee emergency management arrangements. Auckland's CDEM Committee exercises the statutory functions and powers of a CDEM group and provides strategic leadership and direction over emergency management in Auckland.

1.4
Auckland's CDEM Committee consists of Auckland Council's Mayor, Deputy Mayor, elected members, and representatives from Houkura, the Independent Māori Statutory Board.⁷

1.5
The Co-ordinating Executive Group, which is chaired by the Chief Executive of Auckland Council, consists of members from Auckland Council and emergency services. It is responsible for advising Auckland's CDEM Committee, implementing the Committee's decisions, and overseeing the activities under the Civil Defence Emergency Management group plan.

1.6
Auckland Emergency Management is the part of Auckland Council that is responsible for co-ordinating all planning activities related to hazard and emergency management in the Auckland region, including the implementation of the group plan across the wider Council (see Figure 1).⁸

Figure 1
Auckland Civil Defence Emergency Management groups

Source: Adapted from Auckland Council (2024), Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management Group Plan 2024 – 2029, page 83, at aucklandemergencymanagement.org.nz.

The 2023 Auckland floods

1.7
In early 2023, the Auckland region experienced two severe storm and flooding events.

1.8
The first was the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods. These January 2023 floods caused extensive damage and disruption to property, infrastructure, transport, and other essential services across the Auckland and Waikato regions. Four people lost their lives in the floods.

1.9
In February 2023 the Auckland region was heavily affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused widespread damage across the North Island and led to the death of 11 people, including two in Auckland.

There have been three recent reviews of Auckland Council's emergency management

1.10
Auckland Council commissioned two independent reviews into its response to the floods of January and February 2023.

1.11
In March 2023, Bush International Consulting completed a review into Auckland Council's response to the January floods (the Bush review). The Bush review found that Auckland Council's emergency management system was "not prepared" for an event of the "magnitude and speed" of the January floods.⁹

1.12
The Bush review made 17 recommendations aimed at improving Auckland Council's operating model and systems for responding to major emergencies.

1.13
In September 2023, Auckland Council released the findings of a further flood response review that it had commissioned from Toa Consulting (the Toa review).¹⁰ This review assessed Auckland Council's response to the January and February 2023 floods as well as to heavy rainfall that caused flooding in the Auckland region in May 2023.

1.14
The Toa review resulted in 28 recommendations that were aimed at improving Auckland Council's future responses to emergency events.¹¹

1.15
In June 2023, we published a report on Auckland Council's emergency preparedness. We did not examine the response to any specific events, but wanted to understand the Council's overall capability.¹² Our report made six recommendations aimed at improving Auckland Council's planning, governance, and co-ordination of emergency preparedness activities.

Why we did this work

1.16
The purpose of this follow-up work was to see what progress Auckland Council has made in addressing the findings of the three reviews into its flood response and emergency preparedness.

1.17
We stated in our 2023 report on Auckland's emergency preparedness that we would follow up on our work after 12 months. We also committed to assessing Auckland Council's progress in responding to the recommendations of the Bush review.

1.18
In June 2024, we agreed with Auckland Council that we would also include in our review an assessment of Auckland Council's progress towards addressing the recommendations of the Toa review.

1.19
Together, the Bush review, the Toa review, and our previous report (the three reviews) made 51 recommendations for Auckland Council. For a complete list of the recommendations from the three reviews, see Appendix 1.

What we looked at

1.20
We wanted to know the extent to which Auckland Council had addressed the recommendations made in the three reviews into Auckland Council's flood response and emergency preparedness.

1.21
We wanted to answer two questions:

• Does Auckland Council have clear, realistic, and measurable plans in place to respond to the recommendations of the three reviews?
• Is Auckland Council effectively implementing its plans to respond to the recommendations to the three reviews?

1.22
We spoke with staff and managers from Auckland Emergency Management and the wider Council. We also spoke to representatives of the Mayor's office, local boards, Auckland's CDEM Committee, the Co-ordinating Executive Group, and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

1.23
We reviewed many internal documents provided to us by Auckland Council, as well as publicly available material.

1.24
We also viewed the recorded meetings of the CDEM Committee for 2023 and 2024.

What we did not look at

1.25
This report focuses on Auckland Council's response to the 51 recommendations of the three reviews. We did not seek to re-assess the effectiveness of Auckland Council's emergency preparedness, planning, or response capabilities, or to provide an overall conclusion on Auckland Council's preparedness for the next emergency response.

1.26
We did not look at work by other organisations with roles in responding to emergencies, such as emergency services or NEMA.

1.27
During 2023 and 2024, the local and central government response to the North Island weather events was the subject of several reviews, including the Government Inquiry into the Response to the North Island Severe Weather Events.¹³ The findings and recommendations of these other reviews did not form part of our work.

7: The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are ex-officio members of the CDEM Committee.

8: In July 2024 Auckland Emergency Management became part of Auckland Council's new Resilience and Infrastructure Directorate, along with teams responsible for building consents and planning, healthy waters, and flood resilience. The office overseeing the 2023 flood recovery also became part of the new directorate.

9: Bush International Consulting (2023), Auckland Flood Response Review: Independent, External Review of Events, January 27-29, 2023, at ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

10: Toa Consulting (2023), Auckland Severe Weather Events 2023, in "Auckland Council Civil Defence and Emergency Management Committee: Open Attachments, 5 September 2023", at infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

11: Toa Consulting (2023), Auckland Severe Weather Events 2023, in "Auckland Council Civil Defence and Emergency Management Committee: Open Attachments, 5 September 2023", pages 10-11, at infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

12: Controller and Auditor-General (2023), Auckland Council: Preparedness for responding to an emergency, at oag.parliament.nz. We did this work under Section 104 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, which requires the Auditor-General to review the Council's service performance and that of its council-controlled organisations from time to time.

13: For a comprehensive list of previous inquiries and reviews, see New Zealand Government (2024), Report of the Government Inquiry into the Response to the North Island Severe Weather Events, page 9, at dia.govt.nz.