Te aratohu whakatau kōwhiringa a te Tari Taumanu Recovery Office decision making guide

The Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office supports the recovery of Auckland’s communities as well as the natural and physical environment, on behalf of the Auckland Council group, the government, community partners and stakeholders.

The Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan guides the activities that support Auckland’s recovery and improve our region’s resilience and ability to recover from future events. It aligns with the annual budget, long-term plan, and local board plan processes.

Our recovery activities are in alignment with section 4 of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002.

To ensure effective decision-making and implementation of recovery efforts, our internal governance team consists of:

• Group recovery manager: Mace Ward is the group manager leading the Recovery Office. He reports to Barry Potter, director resilience and infrastructure.
• Governing Body: comprises of elected members representing Auckland. The Recovery Office provides a written report and verbal update about recovery in Governing Body monthly meetings.
• Storm Recovery Executive Steering Group: provides support and guidance on the integrated recovery programme and supervises the Storm Response Fund allocated in the 2023/2024 Annual Budget. This group is made up of key Executive Leadership Team members.
• Storm Recovery Political Advisory Group: provides political oversight on recovery schemes and policy. This group includes the mayor, deputy mayor, a representative of Houkura (formerly the Independent Māori Statutory Board), the chair of the Planning, Environment and Parks Committee and the chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee.
• Recovery Leadership Team: monitors operational delivery, funding agreements, budgets and identifies risk and opportunities within the recovery programme. This team reports to the group recovery manager.
• Storm Recovery Funding Oversight Group: ensures compliance with the joint funding agreement with central government and manages reporting and funding bids to Crown Infrastructure Partners. This group includes senior staff from Recovery Office, Finance, Healthy Waters and Auckland Transport.
• Council-controlled organisations: delivery partners for Auckland’s recovery. They report to their respective boards and also to the Governing Body through the Recovery Coordination Office.

The Tāmaki Makaurau Mana Whenua Forum provides a governance mechanism for recovery and strategic engagement.

Our Māori Partnerships and Participation action plan focuses on engagement with mana whenua and Māori communities. This also creates opportunities for them to partner in the recovery process.

Partnerships with iwi have helped to provide wellbeing support to affected communities through the Storm Recovery Navigation Service. The plan also creates economic opportunities for Māori businesses as part of the deconstruction programme.

More details are available in the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan.

The lead government minister for recovery is Mark Mitchell, the Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery.

The Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office also partners with various government agencies, NGOs and community organisations to achieve recovery outcomes outlined in the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Plan including:

• Cyclone Recovery Unit is hosted within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to support the recovery programme.
• Crown Infrastructure Partners manages the payment of the Crown's contribution for the co-funding agreement with Auckland Council.
• National Emergency Management Agency is the central government's lead for emergency management to build resilient communities before, during and after emergencies.
• Psychosocial (Mental Wellbeing) Working Group.
• Housing Subfunction Committee.
• Ministry for Pacific Peoples.
• Red Cross.
• NZ Claims Resolution Service.
• Kāinga Ora.
• Ministry of Social Development.
• Department of Internal Affairs.

Funding

The Future of Severely Affected Land process is a one-off agreement between Auckland Council and the government to fund recovery and resilience works. For details on what the deal includes see Category 3 property buy-out information.

The New Zealand Government has provided $1.6 million funding for health and wellbeing services for storm affected communities in Auckland. This will be administered by the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office. The funding includes:

• $700,000 Te Whatu Ora Mental Wellbeing Fund
• $899,000 Ministry of Social Development Mental Wellbeing Fund.

Storm Recovery Navigation Service provides information, services and support to individuals and whānau affected by 2023 storms. This model is best practice in recovery programmes and builds on the lessons learned in recent recoveries such as the Ōtautahi / Christchurch and Canterbury earthquakes and the 2017 flooding in Whakatāne.

The Ministry of Social Development has provided $2.9 million dollars to establish and deliver the storm recovery navigation service.

The New Zealand Red Cross Community Relief Fund has contributed $2 million to provide financial support to flood-affected families.

Auckland Council has allocated $2.89 million from the Storm Response Fund for community recovery and resilience activities.