Auckland Flood Response Report Requires Urgent Action – Green Party

Auckland Central Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick welcomes the findings of the Auckland Flood Response Review and urges Council to not delay implementing the 17 recommendations.

“In the climate-change-charged weather events at the beginning of this year, communities and whānau lost loved ones. People lost their homes, livelihoods and businesses. These were tragedies,” Chlöe Swarbrick says.

“We saw what matters. Neighbours helped neighbours. These are the systems that worked: the community. These community services need more resourcing and support from Council, not less as presently proposed in the current slash-and-burn Annual Budget proposals.

“In a crisis, we need to have faith in our official systems and city-wide leadership. On Friday 27th January 2023, anecdotally and according to this report, many Aucklanders did not feel either.

“In that vacuum, as Auckland Central’s MP, I sought information from the Mayor’s Office, Auckland Council, Auckland Emergency Management and FENZ. None was forthcoming. It was only through direct communications with frontline emergency workers that I came to understand the scale and severity of these events, after which we began trying to provide clear information and liaise with grassroots organisations across the city. This is an approach our team continued in the following days and weeks as Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

“We must be aware that many parts of Tāmaki Makaurau continue to be on high alert for slips given the deluge at the beginning of this year. As I strongly believe should have happened throughout this crisis, in response and preparation ongoing, we must hear what is needed directly from the front-line – not the layers of bureaucracy that Bush’s Report shows delayed Auckland’s emergency response.

“We cannot turn back the clock. We can take accountability, responsibility and leadership. This Report puts all in charge on notice: Aucklanders must never be let down by their systems and leadership like this ever again.”