Civil Defence

Click here to return to the government summary.                     Click here to return to the policy homepage.

Not set out on their website.

Not set out on their website.

• Labour will use the Christchurch earthquake response as a case study to review the performance of civil defence and emergency services.  We will identify any gaps that emerged and address them.  
• Labour will instigate a nationwide Emergency Management Development Programme to train staff, and a partnership with tertiary training providers to ensure staff and volunteers have access to quality training and resources.
• Labour will work with Civil Defence to assess both the sustainability of the volunteer base and also the capacity within communities to undertake the response and recovery roles in a crisis. (more here)

   

   

Not set out on their website.

Not set out on their website.

Not set out on their website.

• Establish a Minister of Fire and Emergency Services to remove the present ambiguous relationship between Fire and Rescue Services and the Department of Internal Affairs
• Abolish the Fire Service Commission and the present Ministry of Civil Defence and replace them with a Fire and Emergency Services Authority. FESA will be directly responsible to the Minister of Fire and Emergency Services and completely separated from the control of the Department of Internal Affairs.
• Re-establish the Fire Service as a fully integrated Fire and Rescue Service composed of permanent and volunteer personnel.
• Establish a dedicated non-emergency phone line to deal with petty crime, operated at the local level.
• Ensure that public donations to national disaster relief are matched dollar for dollar by the government. (more here)