Session Highlights: Jessica Hare from WREMO (Wellington Region Emergency Management Office)
At our recent Emergency Management and Catastrophic Event Planning Conference, Jessica Hare, Business and Development Manager at the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO), delivered an in-depth presentation on transforming the sector from a basic, hazard-based model into a shared, consequence-driven stewardship approach.
Recent disasters like Cyclone Gabriel have made it painfully clear: New Zealand’s emergency management sector is resourced for minor events, but the public (rightfully) expects full, comprehensive response capabilities during a catastrophe. Operating at a “basic level” – similar to third-party car insurance – is no longer enough. The system must change.
Traditional emergency planning ignores the large-scale, prolonged disruptions sitting in the middle of minor and catastrophic events. To bridge this “planning gap”, The Wellington Region CDEM Group’s new 10-year strategy designs for a “most likely plus” scenario. If a system cannot sustain that pressure, it will collapse in a true catastrophe.
To operationalise this, the Wellington Region CDEM Group is shifting from a centralised (agency-centric), hazard-based approach to a shared, all-of-society stewardship model centred on 10 core consequences and 26 collaborative projects across 9 programmes of work.
The 6 Key System Challenges
- Increasing Risk: Disasters are occurring more frequently with larger regional impacts.
- Immature Management: Capability to manage risks strategically and operationally remains low.
- Māori Partnership Gaps: Traditional frameworks fail to reflect a true partnership with Māori.
- Resource Constraints: Persistent funding and capability gaps remain unaddressed across the sector.
- Unrealistic Expectations: Public and political expectations far outpace basic funding models.
- Low Preparedness: Community readiness is not matched to complex regional hazards.
Shifting Focus to 10 Core Consequences
Rather than tracking isolated hazards, future planning targets managing ten systemic realities:
- Prolonged loss of lifeline services (water, power, transit)
- Large-scale community displacement
- Community isolation and loss of physical access
- Breakdown of coordination and situational awareness
- Severe, unequal social impacts
- Long-term economic disruption and business failure
- Environmental degradation increasing future risks
- Damage to cultural sites and loss of cultural continuity
- Erosion of public confidence and trust
- Compounding and cascading systemic failures
9 Programmes of Work Driving Transformation
- Modernising Leadership: Shifting culture from remote oversight to active stewardship.
- Embedding Māori Partnership: Integrating Māori perspectives into all phases of emergency management.
- Networked Workforce: Creating a coordinated workforce that operates seamlessly across agency boundaries.
- Shared Risk Pictures: Utilising common data to guide regional investment and communication.
- Modernising Tools: Establishing real-time, shared situational awareness across agencies.
- Pre-Planning Recovery: Setting up leadership, escalation pathways, and funding before a crisis hits.
- Reframing Public Engagement: Building community resilience with the public, not for them.
- Connecting Local Capability: Formally integrating community networks, iwi, and NGOs into response layers.
- Measuring Impact: Moving from basic activity checkboxes to evidence-based performance loops.
“Would we meet the needs of our communities? Not just in the first 24 hours, but the sustained pressure that follows?… the honest answer was no.
So we’re going to try something new. We’re going to do everything we can collectively, to change the answer to that question.”
Jessica Hare, Wellington Office Emergency Office (WREMO)
Accountability and the “Dance Floor”
Transforming the system means opening up the emergency “dance floor.” By shifting from strict agency control to a stewardship model, formal agencies share the operational load with NGOs, iwi, and businesses.
The Wellington Region CDEM Group’s Coordinating Executive Group – spanning nine regional councils, emergency services, and lifelines – unanimously committed to this accelerated transformation, representing a 7 to 10% shift in resources. Crucially, ownership of the 26 strategic projects is dispersed across the collective. Moving forward, governance meetings will centre entirely on this implementation plan, holding leaders directly accountable for project progress and risk ownership.
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How can agencies and communities work together to meet public expectations and mitigate the impacts of increasingly complex emergencies? For the Wellington Region CDEM Group, the answer lies in a more connected, consequence-driven system where involvement and responsibility are shared across the whole community.
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Stay tuned as we continue unpacking critical insights and sharing key takeaways from our flagship Emergency Management conference. In the meantime, check out our upcoming Risk and Resilience Summit in July where we are addressing critical infrastructure, supply chain integrity, and cross-sector connectedness in New Zealand.
