April 04, 2023
Whanau Ora looks at complementary civil defence
The Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency is moving to set up a Māori civil defence first responder network.
Chief executive John Tamihere says the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle showed Maori with should not wait for somebody else to lead the response from their communities.
“We have existing infrastructure and we have outstanding people potential in regards to first responders across the country so we surface that, we identify that and we say to the pakeha civil defence group let’s work complementary on this rather than you thinking it’s just about you, it’s got to be about us,” he says.
Mr Tamihere says while services across the worst affected areas of Tamaki Makaurau have been restored relatively quickly, many provincial areas are still doing it tough.