The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA;
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
: ''Te Rākau Whakamarumaru'') is the public service department of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
responsible for providing leadership and support around national, local and regional emergencies. It is an autonomous departmental agency hosted by the
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. It replaced the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management in December 2019.
The Minister for Emergency Management is currently
Kieran McAnulty
Kieran Michael McAnulty (born 31 January 1985) is a New Zealand Labour Party politician. First elected to parliament in 2017, he is a minister outside Cabinet and the Member of Parliament for the Wairarapa electorate. Formerly the Chief Governm ...
.
History
No formal civil defence or emergency management structure existed in New Zealand until the 1930s, when the increasing threat of war prompted the formation of the Emergency Precautions Scheme, which was controlled by the
Department of Internal Affairs.
In addition to war, earthquake risk was another concern of the Scheme, prompted in part by the
1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Si ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the name of the EPS was changed to Civil Defence. While EPS/Civil Defence did not need to respond to any invasion attempts, it was twice called upon to assist with earthquake recovery efforts in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
and the
Wairarapa region in 1942.
Following the war, responsibility for civil defence was assumed by the Department of Internal Affairs. A ''Review of Defence''
white paper
A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
, issued by the
Second Labour Government
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...
amid the fear of nuclear war, proposed the establishment of a separate Ministry of Civil Defence. The first Director of Civil Defence was J.V. Meech (also the Secretary of Internal Affairs), though in practice much of the work was delegated to Andrew Sharp; the first Minister of Civil Defence in the post-war period was
Bill Anderton
William Theophilus Anderton (16 March 1891 – 20 January 1966) was a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand Labour Party, Labour Party. He served as Minister of Internal Affairs (New Zealand), Minister of Internal Affairs in the Second Labo ...
(also the Minister of Internal Affairs). The Civil Defence Act 1962 set out in legislation the responsibilities and duties of the Ministry. In 1964, the first full-time Director of Civil Defence was appointed: Brigadier R.C. Queree.
A new Ministry for Emergency Management was established under the
National/New Zealand First Coalition Government by Civil Defence Minister
Jack Elder on 1 July 1999, following the Review of Emergency Services. This replaced the existing Ministry of Civil Defence. Later, the department name changed again to become the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.
The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management remained a business unit of the Department of Internal Affairs until 1 April 2014, when it was transferred to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. This was intended to reflect DMPC's role as the government's lead agency in national security planning.
Beginning 1 December 2019, the Ministry's name was changed to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Its structure was also changed, with it becoming a departmental agency and the appointment of NEMA's first interim chief executive (rather than reporting through to the chief executive of DPMC). A departmental agency is an operationally autonomous agency with its own chief executive, hosted by a department of the New Zealand public service.
Activities
The Agency administers the
Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 and:
* provides advice to government on civil defence emergency management matters
* identifies hazards and risks
* develops, maintains and evaluates the effectiveness of the civil defence emergency management strategic framework
* ensures coordination at local, regional, and national levels
* promotes civil defence emergency management and deliver public awareness about how to prepare for, and what to do in, an emergency
* supports civil defence emergency management sector capability development, planning and operations, including developing guidelines and standards
* monitors and evaluates the performance of the 16 regional Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups
* maintains and operates the National Crisis Management Centre, including the maintenance of a duty team to staff the Centre, and issue warnings and public information
* manages the central government response to, and recovery from, large scale emergencies resulting from geological (earthquakes, volcanic unrest, landslides, tsunami), meteorological (coastal hazards, floods, severe winds, snow) and infrastructure failure.
Since 2017, Civil Defence has utilised
Emergency Mobile Alert
Emergency Mobile Alerts (EMA) is an alerting network in New Zealand designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices. Emergency Mobile Alerts are messages about emergencies sent by New Zealand authorised emergency agencies to capable mobi ...
technologies to deliver essential emergency information to mobile phones in New Zealand. They test it every year to make sure the system is working correctly. During the 2017 Mobile Alert test,
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
accidentally sent the test alert message at 1 AM.
List of Ministers of Civil Defence
;Key
See also
*
Lifeline utility
In New Zealand, a lifeline utility is a service defined under one of the Schedules of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002'.
The duties of lifeline utilities are defined in Section 60 of the Act. In short, a lifeline utility is legally ...
References
External links
Official websiteGet Ready Get Thru, the Ministry's multilingual public education campaign
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (New Zealand)
Emergency management in New Zealand
Civil defense
New Zealand public service departmental agencies