Civil Defence to update system

A new online emergency information programme will be set up as Civil Defence faces fresh fire over its botched response to the September tsunami alert.

The director of the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Ministry, John Hamilton, faced scrutiny from MPs yesterday during a select committee hearing. Government administration committee chairman David Parker told Mr Hamilton that information broadcast during the tsunami alert on September 30 was quite inadequate.

"I couldn't make sense of what people were being told because the information was unclear," Mr Parker said.

"I think there is a pretty widely held view that you didn't cover yourselves in glory on that occasion."

Mr Hamilton said the response to the alert had been the subject of an internal and an external review.

At the request of Internal Affairs Minister John Carter, a further review by former foreign affairs and trade secretary Simon Murdoch was done. As a result, 25 of the 71 items identified by Mr Murdoch for action had been carried out. A further 38 were under way.

Civil Defence was now in the final stages of negotiating a contract to set up an online Emergency Management Information System.

The system would connect from the National Crisis Management Centre to territorial authorities and could be accessed by other groups wanting help or information.

It would allow the centre to track how each local centre was responding.

The public needed to know how fast, how soon and where they should go when told to evacuate, Mr Hamilton said.

"One element of the corrective action plan is to introduce some changes which allow us to create ourselves as the authoritative and credible source of information on public emergencies," Mr Hamilton said.

"And that means activating the media ... to transmit an unambiguous message to the public. That did not take place on the 30th of September and that has now been rectified."

Improved processes had been in place and worked for another tsunami alert which followed a week later.

The new scheme should be in place by the end of June, Mr Hamilton said.

- © Fairfax NZ News