Responsive natural disaster management
Lessons from Kaikōura, New Zealand
by Jack Bell
The 1st March, technically, signalled the end of another Australian summer. With the storm, flood and cyclone season also nearing an end Queensland has seemingly dodged its annual compendium of natural disasters.
However, luck is not a sound long-term policy option.
Queensland should be encouraged to look to New Zealand — the recent Kaikōura earthquakes in particular — as part of its ongoing assessment of disaster response. New Zealand government’s timely and effective response to these events serves as an example of efficient current thinking around management policy.
There are three primary lessons to be drawn on from the New Zealand response:
- A streamlined process addressing insurance claims that facilitated a faster financial recovery for residents.
- The removal of legislative barriers and red tape for a quicker recovery process.
- A sustainable waste management strategy to help reduce longer term impacts of disaster.
New Zealand’s Public Insurance & Claims Process
The Earthquake Commission (EQC) is central to all earthquake recovery efforts in New Zealand. Its key functions are to manage the disaster fund, educate on disaster preparedness, improve methods in earthquake detection and settle claims for disaster damage.
Claims to the EQC and private insurers have historically been lodged separately. This was criticised in the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) review of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Agency (CERA) as slowing the claim process.
In 2016 the EQC initiated changes to facilitate a quicker process. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2016 between the EQC and the NZ Insurance Council attempted to address these criticisms. The MOU stipulated that in the event of a natural disaster, the EQC would assume a supportive role and would now assist private insurers by providing resources and facilitating assessments, instead of acting independently. Private insurers would then settle the claim on behalf of the EQC before being reimbursed.
This shift permitted a quicker response due to private insurance companies using data previously collected during assessments to expedite payment, largely by reducing double handling of claims.
The benefits of an agency similar to the EQC are straightforward. In the event of a natural disaster, the public receives a settlement soon after the event to assist with the initial cost of rebuilding. The Government’s relief of $100,000 to cover initial repairs, helps minimise the impact to the insurance market and have a stabilising effect. The injection of immediate financial aid into the local economy facilitates a faster recovery, which reasserts community confidence in the local economy and limits a potential exodus from affected areas.
Reducing Legislative Barriers
Reducing any legislative impediments was crucial to securing Kaikōura’s recovery. The Kaikōura Emergency Response Bill (2016) provides the Governor General with the power to exempt, modify or extend provisions upon recommendation from the relevant minister to exempt, modify or extend provisions of specified enactments, should the action be deemed necessary.
One of the most impacted pieces of infrastructure was the Coastal Highway that was buried under multiple landslides . The New Zealand Transport Agency utilised the Kaikōura Emergency Response Bill allowing the prioritisation of the recovery of vital transport infrastructure.
The Hurunui/Kaikōura Earthquakes Recovery (Coastal Route and Other Matters) Order (2016), modified provisions outlined in the Conservation Act (1987) as well as provisions in nine other acts. These modifications permitted the clearing of the landslide into the neighbouring ocean and accelerated the recovery.
Transportation minister, Simon Bridges stated “ … the simplest and most efficient way of getting work done in a major event like this is to remove legislative barriers”. The act allowed Bridges to, “… get stuck in, and really attack the slips and the problems to get that road back up as fast as we can.”. As a direct result , the highway was reopened on the 21st December 2016, just one month after the earthquake.
The prioritisation of economic stabilisation in the wake of the Kaikōura earthquakes continues beyond that of repairing the damaged Coastal Highway. Damage to transportation infrastructure resulted in the isolation of many dairy farms in the area — dairy products uncollected and farms dumping hundreds of thousands of litres of milk per day.
The Hurunui/Kaikōura Earthquakes Recovery (Emergency Relief) Bill 2016, facilitated special permissions to farmers to repair infrastructure by means which otherwise would have been prohibited under conservation laws. This expedited the recovery and prevented the ‘drying up’ of dairy cattle on damaged properties.
Sustainable Waste Management
Waste management is integral to the success of a natural disaster recovery plan. Disaster Waste quantity can sometimes be 5–15 times the usual annual waste production of an affected area and requires a considered approach.
Improper waste management can have direct economic, environmental and social impacts post-disaster. This was the experience in L’Aquila, Italy after 2009 earthquakes where the solution to addressing waste was to use it as landfill and then cover with a botanic garden. This then required extensive, ongoing and expensive land remediation.
In order to avoid these outcomes, New Zealand waste management planners have constructed a response that involves as much recycling and reusing of waste as possible, thereby reducing the amount of waste requiring management. The waste minimisation plan applied lessons learned from the Canterbury recovery which prioritised implementing a recycling process incorporating the reuse of whatever materials or structures where possible.
The group at the centre of this plan — Innovative Waste Kaikōura —outlined that they plan to lead a team of local people to undertake deconstruction and salvage operations alongside demolition contractors who will assess and manage risks ensuring safety requirements are not compromised. A plan such as this could be invaluable to natural disaster recovery that extends beyond just earthquake damage. The strategy could be applied to damage which is done by storms, floods, tsunamis and bushfires.
The Kaikōura earthquake sequence has challenged the New Zealand emergency management response plan. By breaking down legislative barriers and providing financial assistance through the Earthquake Commission, the New Zealand Government has put forward a recovery plan similar to their response to the Canterbury earthquake sequence (2010).
The EQC has so far been successful in their new claim process. To add to this the Hurunui/Kaikōura Emergency Response Bill (2016) and the legislative powers it grants have proved valuable in the recovery process. However, if current performance is a sufficient indicator, it seems the outcome of the response is promising, and there are some aspects of the response that are worth considering in Queensland.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JACK BELL
Jack is an Intern in the Policy Innovation Hub at Griffith University, Brisbane where he is studying Government and International Relations.
Jack’s areas of interest are disaster management, disaster recovery and social cohesion.
