30 March 2006

Carter has his head in the clouds, again

Civil Defence Minister Rick Barker called on National Party Spokesman for Civil Defence John Carter, to finally "do his homework".

Mr Barker was responding to Carter's attack on the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management's (MCDEM) development programme today and said "we now have:

- A new Civil Defence Emergency Management Act
- A new National Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan
- We are developing a new Guide to support the Plan
- We have published research on Tsunami that corrected the focus of New Zealanders on the potential for harm Tsunami can cause"

"Not only that, we have also created 18 new full-time jobs to help support all the work happening in the regions.

"Never before has Civil Defence in New Zealand had this kind of support and organisation, where once 86 local authorities acted independently, we now have 15 regional groups that are linked together and to MCDEM.

"Never before have the regions of New Zealand had a network of Civil Defence groups working with social agencies like Work and Income, Health, Housing and lifeline utilities, working together to cope with disasters.

"So ill-informed is Mr Carter that the Pandemic exercise from which all his accusations of ill-preparedness arise, never actually happened. I am more than happy to offer Mr Carter, new to his portfolio of Civil Defence, a seminar to help him learn of all the work underway and to help him with his homework.

"We don't need scaremongers like Chicken Little screaming the sky is falling when we know it isn't, we need informed comment.

"New Zealanders can be assured, MCDEM is ready and will continue to improve its readiness and preparedness. Individuals and families can help by being self-reliant for at least 3 days themselves, in the event of any emergency."

ENDS

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