Ensure that your voice is heard on how Aotearoa prepares for emergencies!

Make a submission today on the Emergency Management Bill (no. 2).

Short on time? Join our Green Party submission here - It takes 30 seconds. 

After signing the short submission, you can make your own unique submission using this quick guide.

Submissions close: Sunday 15th February 2026.

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Creating a submission is your opportunity to share your perspective with decision makers, and you can do this within minutes. Below we’ve created a quick explainer, with instructions on how to create your own unique submission on the Emergency Management Bill with recommendations on what you may want to include.

Why does this matter? 

When an emergency takes place in Aotearoa, our communities need to be resourced well to do what they do best. It’s volunteers, emergency responders, marae and local groups who provide critical services, make sure that we are cared for, and manage the immediate needs like the clean-up and communications.

Right now, our legislation must be improved to allow for better preparation, climate risk reduction, and so our emergency management systems are set-up for communities to handle the immediate response with the necessary resources.

That’s why we encourage you to join our Green Party submission here as well as making your own submission on the upcoming Emergency Management Bill (No 2).

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How to make your own submission

When you're ready, you can make your own unique submission here. 

1. Start with your recommendations. 

Tell the Select Committee what you want included in our Emergency Response. You can pull from our recommendations and add your own. 

Some examples could include:

1. Setting transparent principles in the Climate Adaptation Framework for how funding will be provided for risk reduction that recognises the responsibility of the Crown for this as a collective public good. 
   
   
2. Reinstate a climate emergency response fund, with ETS revenue put towards adaptation and mitigation, and provide a long-term stable funding stream for critical adaptation projects such as South Dunedin Future and the Tairāwhiti Transition Programme.
   
   
3. Increase, and make more accessible, the Civil Defence Payment, to a level adequate to support communities and households, and recognise the vulnerable position of marginalised people, such as the disabled in these severe weather events. Specifically with the current states of emergency, make the Civil Defence Payment available for impacted people. The lack of access to this payment during this crisis appears to be a serious oversight and demonstrates the lack of consistency with emergency response. 
   
   
4. Ensure new mandates for Civil Defence and Emergency Management groups do not go unfunded under this bill. The Regulatory Impact Statement shows that around $100 million of additional costs, not including costs to Fire and Emergency New Zealand, are expected as a result of these new mandates. We encourage you to fund these appropriately. 
   
   
5. Recognise and strengthen Te Tiriti partnership between Māori and the Crown more strongly, acknowledging and resourcing the vital role that marae and iwi play at the forefront of the emergency management response. 
   
   
6. Improve co-ordination of agencies tasked with response, and interoperability across the various levels of emergency management and across regions (e.g., FENZ into Emergency Management) and provide for explicit trigger points that capabilities must be stood up by.
   
   
7. Ensure that the voices of disabled, and other marginalised communities are explicitly included in contingency planning for emergencies. 

2. Then, explain why. 

In this section we strongly recommend drawing on your own experiences. There is no right or wrong way to structure your answer. The key thing is to make the submission uniquely yours. 

e.g. have you experienced poor emergency response after a climate disaster? have you had to support your own community following an emergency?

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Make sure to submit before Sunday 15th of February to ensure your voice is heard!