News and Events

Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management National Operations Team Leader Jo Guard recently attended the International Observer Programme for Cascadia Rising – a major earthquake and tsunami exercise held in the US and Canada over the period 7-10 June 2016.

Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye today announced that eight regions have been awarded funding grants from the 2016 Resilience Fund, an annual fund of $889,000 administered by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM).

CDEM Award winners were announced at the Ministerial Awards and Conference Dinner on Wednesday 1 June.

MCDEM has assessed the information about tonight's quake with the assistance of scientific advisors. Based on current information, the initial assessment is that the earthquake is unlikely to have caused a tsunami that will pose a threat to New Zealand.

The updated Tsunami Evacuation Zones: Directors’ Guideline for CDEM Groups [DGL 08/16] has been published.

The Ministry of Health has published advice for health practitioners, district health board emergency management staff and consumers on infant feeding in an emergency.

A new Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management report shows that civil defence organisations across the country are much better prepared to deliver for their communities today than they were three years ago.

The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management has published a new guideline on response planning. Response planning is the coordination of separate functions and support agencies into a cohesive, unified whole to achieve the Controller’s response objectives.

The Ministry has just released the new Guide to the National Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan 2015 (the Guide). The Guide sets out the arrangements, roles, and responsibilities of agencies for the national management, or support to local management, of emergencies. The Guide incorporates the wording of the new National CDEM Plan 2015, which states the principles, arrangements, and frameworks that apply to the management of emergencies. The Guide supports this wording with further detail, diagrams, and operational information.

A proposed law change to help communities recover from small to moderate scale emergencies has started to make its way through Parliament. The Civil Defence Emergency Management Amendment Bill has been introduced to Parliament.