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Speaker 1: An insight into how we handle emergency management better now.

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Speaker 1: For years in this country, every time it's asked to strike,

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Speaker 1: so the artworkings tend to indicate that a lot of

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Speaker 1: people didn't do their job, or communication could have been better,

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah. Anyway, a new plan today. The Emergency

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Speaker 1: Management Minister is, of course Mark Mitchell, who was with

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Speaker 1: us good morning, Good morning, Mike. The broad claim and

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Speaker 1: we've seen this for years that when something happens in

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Speaker 1: an emergency status, we clean it up and then we

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Speaker 1: find out we didn't do a very good job. What

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Speaker 1: changes now?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so that is true, and it hasn't always been

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Speaker 2: a lot of movement in terms of the recommendations have

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Speaker 2: come through. Although that's not entirely for you. There has

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Speaker 2: been some change, but you know, we are fully committed.

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Speaker 2: We realize and recognize that we're a country that's going

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Speaker 2: to be continued to be hit with these weather events.

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Speaker 2: We carry the risk of a tsunami or an earthquake.

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Speaker 2: We've seen three of those the last couple of weeks,

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Speaker 2: and so we've motivated to make sure that we strengthen

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Speaker 2: our resilience and our ability to be able to respond.

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Speaker 1: To those So what does this mean? More money, more resource,

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Speaker 1: better people, what.

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Speaker 2: All of those things? More training, more professionalism and the sector.

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Speaker 2: But I have to say that it always feels a

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Speaker 2: bit unfear when I sort of say that, because having

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Speaker 2: been around the country and having had six local states

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Speaker 2: emergency and a couple of them across regions, we've already

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Speaker 2: got outstanding people doing a job. We just got to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we better support them with proper legislation

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Speaker 2: that recognizes everyone's role throughout society in terms of how

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Speaker 2: we respond to these emergencies. More training and investment into systems.

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Speaker 1: See I wonder, and you'll argue back about this, but

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Speaker 1: you're a nice guy. You go into the regions and

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Speaker 1: you meet fellow nice people, and they're all nice people.

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Speaker 1: But it's all Dad's army. And then that is the problem.

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Speaker 1: Is that fair or unfair?

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Speaker 2: No, that's not fair. That's very outstanding. And the results

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Speaker 2: speak to themselves, is that there's been outstanding results. I mean,

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Speaker 2: in all fairness, after the lessons Leart, after Gabriel last year,

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Speaker 2: before we came into government, it was already responding, the

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Speaker 2: sector was already responding. And no, I just see extremely

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Speaker 2: professional people first responders, volunteers that always stand up, that's

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Speaker 2: well coordinated. That there's definitely they've taken lessons learned already.

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Speaker 2: The Port Hills fires was a clessic example when you

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Speaker 2: had a suboptimal response at twenty seventeen and then you

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Speaker 2: fast forward to the Port Fills fires that we had

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Speaker 2: this year. The fire ground, the management deal was outstanding.

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Speaker 2: The police are doing their job, the cedium controllers for

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Speaker 2: the communication with the communities that they that they serve.

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Speaker 1: It was chalk and cheese, all right, So what about

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Speaker 1: the what I think it's why right? Correct me if

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Speaker 1: I'm wrong. The river Mouth situation where a lot of

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Speaker 1: the locals were very angry, they said, look, we know this,

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Speaker 1: We've told you, no one did anything about it. How

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Speaker 1: much of that is there?

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Speaker 2: So that was down to the fact that the regional council,

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Speaker 2: I should have done some more wage around how that

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Speaker 2: was dealt with. The Rivermouth was dealt with the district,

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Speaker 2: the wire district council themselves. We needed a controller there.

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Speaker 2: All of their team outstanding response, just like when they

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Speaker 2: got with Gabriel. They've got good leadership there, a very

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Speaker 2: good team there. All the first responders are out. You

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Speaker 2: know when I founed wire straight after Gabriel, they were

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Speaker 2: running things out of the local Maria in North Flyde.

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Speaker 2: So the communities will respond of course. With WIRA, we

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Speaker 2: put a we put a Crown Manager and every quipment.

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Speaker 2: We've got Lawrence Yule and they're making sure that he

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Speaker 2: works between the WIRA Council, District Council and the regional

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Speaker 2: Council to facilitate and speed up the recovery and the

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Speaker 2: mitigation work that needs to be done.

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Speaker 1: But you go in here now with what a high

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Speaker 1: level of confidence that we're not going to have the

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Speaker 1: sort of response we've had previously or not.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do have a high level of confidence in

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Speaker 2: our people at the moment around the country, without a doubt.

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Speaker 2: All the means of sharing leadership, the ces, our controllers,

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Speaker 2: all of our CDM teams, first responders, community groups, you know.

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Speaker 2: But what we have to do is we have to

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Speaker 2: be ready for a really big event across region to

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Speaker 2: make sure that we can respond to that as well.

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Speaker 1: All right, good on you, Mark Mitchell, the Emergency Management Minister.

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Speaker 1: I reckon it's a top down thing. I think people

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Speaker 1: have just been looking for a little bit of leadership

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Speaker 1: marks their man and that's why you've seen the improvement

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Speaker 1: you have of like. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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