Former Auckland mayor Christine Fletcher is calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the underlying infrastructure issues revealed by the floods.<\/p>\n
Deputy mayor Desley Simpson said she thought there would be a government inquiry, as well as the already announced review into the emergency response that was due to report back next month.<\/p>\n
Fletcher, who is also a former MP, said the city and country needed to pause and take stock.<\/p>\n
She wanted an infrastructure audit and then a public inquiry.<\/p>\n
The impact of the floods would probably be larger than that of the Christchurch earthquakes, she said.<\/p>\n
Auckland’s housing and infrastructure capacity and its flood risks would need to be assessed for the sake of future generations.<\/p>\n
People who contacted her were afraid of what was coming next, including more rain in the coming week, she said.<\/p>\n
Councillor Daniel Newman said the emergency response must be addressed – and agreed there were broader issues to look at.<\/p>\n
Schools were now back and damaged roads and detours have added to the usual congestion.<\/p>\n
Franklin councillor Andy Baker used to be a civil defence officer. He said he was keeping his views on the response to himself until the flooding review took place.<\/p>\n
But he also wanted an in-depth look at how Auckland became so vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Auckland council said it was door-knocking in the worst affected areas, and carrying out aerial surveys to help assessments.<\/p>\n
Residents who cannot take waste to transfer stations can call the council helpline on 0800 22 22 00.<\/p>\n
People who want to volunteer or need help can also make contact through volunteeringauckland.org.nz<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SOURCE RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Auckland mayor Christine Fletcher is calling for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the underlying infrastructure issues revealed by the floods. Deputy mayor Desley Simpson said she thought there would be a government inquiry, as well as the already announced review into the emergency response that was due to report back next month. Fletcher, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2852,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2850\/revisions\/2852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}