John Armstrong: Mistake? No, it's just the minister following orders

If it has seemed in recent weeks as if Civil Defence is auditioning for some modern-day version of Dad's Army, there is now a simple explanation - the ministry's officials may merely be following the orders of their minister.

Pulling out the old adage about "history repeating itself", Rick Barker caused huge amusement in Parliament yesterday by offering his own twist to it, saying those who ignored the lessons of history were not only bound to repeat them, they were "duty bound" to repeat them.

Mr Barker bears no physical resemblance to the fictional Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army, but he has a similar enthusiasm for his portfolio's role in defending the homeland from disaster which can lead to him going over the top when he does not mean to do so.

In the process, Mr Barker nearly created a civil defence emergency of his own - bringing the House down - as he valiantly tried to defend his officials handling of recent alerts, while at the same time admitting there had been mistakes.

The ministry has been ridiculed and lambasted, first for its handling of the May 4 tsunami that wasn't and now for being too slow to respond to last week's big snow in the South Island.

Mr Barker said Civil Defence staff had done a great job in hard-hit South Canterbury, but he wanted weaknesses in the infrastructure identified so that everybody was better prepared for the next time.

He gave MPs mind-boggling technical detail of what needed to be done to water pumps so they could take an auxiliary supply when the mains supply was turned off, saying "those are good things to learn".

Then came his reminder that when it came to Civil Defence emergencies, those who ignored the lessons of history were "duty bound" to repeat them.

He did not seem to realise quite what he had said.

But there was no stopping him. His next own-goal came from lining up Labour colleague Ross Robertson to ask him what he could do to help New Zealanders prepare themselves for getting through a disaster.

Before he could respond, the Opposition benches answered the question for him - "resign".

National's civil defence spokesman John Carter then asked why Mr Barker had delayed for five days before being prodded into action. Was it, he wondered, because the minister was waiting for the BBC to report on the South Canterbury snow - a reference to Mr Barker's lame attempt to blame the British broadcaster for causing mass panic with its coverage of May's tsunami alert.

Mr Carter then contrasted the Prime Minister's statement that she was happy with Civil Defence's response with Mr Barker's insistence that things could have been done better. Who was right - Mr Barker or the Prime Minister?

A tricky question, even in Helen Clark's absence from Parliament yesterday. But there was only one answer, even though it meant contradicting everything he had said about learning from mistakes.

"When it comes to an issue between me and the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister is always right."