Christopher Luxon says he does not "personally believe" that government are very good at building IT systems. Photo: RNZ / Reece Baker
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the government should not be building IT systems, after he was quizzed about the lack of a proper disaster coordination system.
Eighteen months after Cyclone Gabrielle, government authorities have again started trying to set one up, after years of calls for a system.
Luxon told Newstalk ZB that he did not "personally believe" that government were very good at building IT systems, "that they are the right people to do that stuff".
There were too many attempts to build customised systems, instead of buying off the shelf, he added.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has taken over, after a failed Land Information NZ attempt to build a halfway-house disaster coordination system that it had no mandate or dedicated funding for, and which was dumped a few weeks ago.
NEMA had told RNZ its deficiencies included the lack of a 'common operating platform-or-picture' (COP), which has been called for in multiple reviews - including very strongly in 2018 - and it was now working on an early business case to address this.
RNZ asked the prime minister if this went against his view that government should not build IT systems, and if he would ask NEMA to stop.
Luxon referred the query to Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell.
Mitchell said he welcomed NEMA undertaking any work to strengthen the emergency response.
"I understand NEMA is working to increase situational awareness by enhancing their existing tools."
NEMA told RNZ it was trying to improve the 'EMI' system as a stopgap measure.
However, official documents clearly show that EMI failed during Gabrielle, was "suboptimal" and is on its last legs, having first been set up in 2010, then upgraded around 2017.
Mitchell said in a statement that NEMA's work on an early business case might include identifying solutions "to improve situational awareness, such as a Common Operating Picture".
"It is too early to speculate on how this work will progress," he said.
NEMA told a select committee early this year that it still lacked situational awareness in a disaster. It also said its geospatial capability was "very limited" during the 2023 storms . A COP depends on good geospatial data all joined-up between agencies and updated in real-time.
However Land Information Minister Chris Penk has expressed confidence in emergency authorities getting the geospatial data they need from LINZ in a disaster.
