Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick. Photo / Dean Purcell
Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick. Photo / Dean Purcell
New Zealand’s frontline firefighters warned early on Friday afternoon that they were facing a crisis unlike anything they had seen before - and yet, it was hours before the bureaucratic machine at Auckland Council broke free of its inertia to declare a state of emergency.
“It took several more hours … for those people who held the pen to really understand and grapple with it,” Auckland Central PM Chloë Swarbrick tells The Front Page podcast.
“I can’t begin to fathom what was going through their heads, but I’ve definitely seen over the past few years that we have continued to build out our bureaucracies at every single level of Government to effectively be super risk-averse.
“And being super risk-averse when we are facing the greatest kind of flooding and crises that any of us have in our lifetimes here in Tāmaki Makaurau at this scale didn’t benefit anyone.”
Swarbrick has been among the community leaders, councillors and volunteers working around the clock to ensure that struggling Aucklanders are given the support they need.
“My approach over the past few days has been to try and focus on the immediate needs of the community. I think there will be an appropriate time and place to reflect on and really unpack what has occurred here … It’s very clear that we weren’t adequately prepared for this and that the decisions were not made fast enough.”
The flooding has openly exposed the infection of political inertia simmering under the surface, but the notion of not acting fast enough has been present for some time.
During the term of Government stretching between 2017 and 2020, Swarbrick sat on the Environment Select Committee, which worked through the emissions trading scheme and the infrastructure of the Zero Carbon Act.
Among the thousands of submissions received were statements from those working in the insurance industry, outlining their plans for the future.
“They were making it very, very clear that these are the risks that were in front of us and that they were going to soon start to lay out and work through properties that would actually be uninsurable in low-lying areas, for example.
“For political leaders to not pay heed to that and to not wake up to that financial reality for communities across this country is a complete abdication of their responsibility as political leaders.”
The point here is that the individuals who are in the business of calculating risk warned politicians that there was flooding risk on the horizon amid the growing prominence of intense weather events – and very little was done. That theme of inaction runs even deeper than this when you look at the information that has long been available to key decision-makers.
“Available on Auckland Council’s website is a map, effectively, of floodplains across the city,” says Swarbrick.
“When you track that or overlay it on the floods we’ve experienced over the past few days, it’s a clear match. We knew that this was quite a substantial potential risk, especially in a warming climate, and there has not been the requisite investment, which is preventative, to ensure that people’s lives and properties are protected.”
The added problem in this is that it will end up having a disproportionate effect on the poorest members of New Zealand’s society. Auckland Councillor for the Maungakiekie-Tamaki ward Josephine Bartley isn’t one to mince her words when it comes to issues that affect her community.
Auckland councillor Josephine Bartley has worked around the clock helping her community. Photo / Supplied
She tells The Front Page that she and most members of her community already can’t afford the high costs of insuring their property.
“We can’t claim contents to get another bed or a couch,” Bartley says.
“Auckland is a city of the haves and the have-nots. That was emphasised through the Covid lockdowns, where you had those in low-income, low-skilled jobs still going out to work. We saw the inequity then. And nothing has changed. [The flood] has highlighted that again now …
“Low-income families can’t get sandbags because they can’t afford them or they’re all sold out. So where do they get sandbags from? Their houses just get flooded.”
Bartley says that the communities in these lower-income areas band together because of necessity because they don’t expect anyone else to come to help them.
“You should listen to the conversations at the evacuation centre out south. They’re just like: ‘What agencies? What Government? What Civil Defence?’ They just say: ‘Look at what we do on our own.’”
But Bartley says that the risk in this is that if community groups always pick up the slack, then there’ll never be the requisite Government support to help those in need.
“It’s not fair because there are so many millions going into agencies that should be doing this [work]. And it falls on community organisations that are surviving on the smell of an oily rag.”
Asked what changes she would like to see as Auckland works through the recovery in preparation for the next big weather event, Bartley doesn’t hesitate: “Leadership,” she says.
“That’s what I’d like to see. [We need leaders] who can see their city is struggling and in need. That’s what people need. They need leadership. They need direction. The need information. Get it out there. Don’t worry about ticking boxes.”
