Inside the plan to run the government from a seaside suburb in Auckland
Thursday, 11 May 2017
It's a quaint, seaside suburb of million-dollar homes and a single, strangled road in and out to the rest of Auckland.
And though few in Devonport realise, it is quietly biding its time as Wellington's heir in waiting. Yes, Devonport, the future capital of New Zealand - should disaster strike that is.
If a large-magnitude earthquake devastates Wellington, our country's leaders will be evacuated from the precincts of parliament, 634 kilometres north to Auckland's Devonport Naval Base.
It is part of the government's worst-case contingency plan, and it involves moving all MPs and certain 'key officials' - a total of 170 evacuated to Devonport.
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On the plan's unveiling in June 2014, then-Civil Defence Minister Nikki Kaye said trying to keep the government going in a quake-ravaged Wellington would be impossible.
And a new report shows repairing Wellington could cost more than $26 billion, but the city might never fully recover anyway.
The thrillingly titled 'Contingency Plan Emergency Relocation of Executive Government and Parliament following a Major Wellington Earthquake' report is set for its next 'workshopped' multi-agency review this month, a Parliamentary Services spokesman said.
No government official was on hand to explain how the workshops are conducted.
If a 'worst case' natural disaster like a severe earthquake struck, ministers, MPs and Parliamentary staff could be helicoptered, flown or ferried out of Wellington within hours, 2014 Cabinet papers showed.
Bunkered underneath the Beehive, Civil Defence's national headquarters would co-ordinate the Wellington evacuation, prioritising who is removed first.
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) with its 21-helicopter fleet would co-ordinate the transfer of the officials to the naval base.
The plan calls for Devonport Naval Base to be used for up to two weeks before a suitable longer-term temporary capital was found.
After a state of emergency declaration, Parliament, which is the legislative branch of government, must sit within seven days of the making of the declaration.
There is no minimum number of MPs required for Parliament to meet and pass laws - Parliament need only consist of the Speaker, a minister and a clerk.
However, a Parliamentary Services spokesman said the intent would be for a 'more representative group' involving as many MPs as possible.
COURTING DISASTER
Unlike the executive (Cabinet) and legislative (Parliament) branches of government, the judiciary (courts) - including the Wellington-based Supreme Court and Court of Appeal - need not relocate to Devonport to function. Courts can be convened anywhere.
Ministry of Justice health, safety and security general manager Melissa Gill said courts were 'well positioned to respond to a local disaster that may result in the closure of a courthouse'.
Following the Kaikoura Earthquake, the Wellington High Court worked out of the nearby Wellington District Court for about eight weeks, while damage to the High Court building was repaired. Only one High Court case had to be rescheduled, Gill said.
After the 2011 Canterbury Earthquake, the High Court sat at various locations around Christchurch including the Nga Hau e Wha and the Wigram Air Force Museum.
As the contingency plan stands, it doesn't address where the 170 people would live when not working at the naval base, the Parliamentary Services spokesman said.
Nor has there been a costing done on the move, he said.
Luckily, each MP gets a $15,697 a year expense allowance to spend on things like food and accommodation that could tide them over, Tracy Watkins said.
DEVONPORT NAVAL BASE'S SUITABILITY
In the unlikely event a natural disaster also struck in Auckland, when the base was being used as a capital, the base did have one key weakness.
It largely relies on Auckland's electric grid for power - the base's backup generators cannot power the entire base, the NZDF revealed in 2014.
The NZDF said backup generators could be brought in if needed.
That year a winter storm knocked out power to the sprawling, 45 hectare-plus base and surrounding suburbs.
Devonport Naval Base's location near the tip of a densely populated isthmus could exacerbate traffic problems along the main access road, Lake Rd.
Questions put to Parliamentary Services about the suitability of the naval base versus using nearby runway-equipped Whenuapai Air Force Base, which is close to a motorway, have been referred to the The New Zealand Defence Force.
Since the 2014 plan was established the Parliamentary Service and navy have conducted annual visits at the naval base to go through the plan, the Parliamentary Services spokesman said.
WHAT DO THE LOCALS THINK?
So what do the good residents of Devonport feel about being inundated with the good and the great?
Andrew Osborne, manager of Devonport's Corelli's Cafe, said as long as the politicians are spending it would be 'all good' having them at the base.
'We have Maggie Barry (North Shore MP and Cabinet minister) quite regularly, we're used to politicians.'
Osborne, who spent the late 1980s working in Wellington's Rogernomics-fuelled restaurant scene, is used to serving political high-fliers.
'That's when there used to be flambes at the table, the days before GST, when expense accounts were blown out of the water,' Osborne said.
Osborne thinks hungry MPs will like Corelli's Buddha Bowl or Bang Bang Chicken.
Wellington-based Stuff political editor Tracy Watkins said the likes of Winston Peters may sorely miss one Wellington institution, The Green Parrot restaurant.
Genteel Devonport doesn't boast anything close to the Holyoake-era 'throwback to the 1960s' Green Parrot, where a plate of white bread is plonked on your table before your steak and chips arrive, Watkins said.
'Get used to a lot more suits,' Watkins warns Devonport residents.
Devonport waterfront institution, The Esplanade Hotel, would actually make a better place to put Parliament than the navy base, said manager Grant Gillon.
But Gillon, a former MP and current Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chairman, said the Victorian-era hotel that could be a surrogate for Wellington's Backbenchers pub, would probably have to be extended to fit politicians' egos.
'I don't think I could cope with 120 odd politicians turning-up, it would be too much like the old days,' the former Alliance Party MP said.
'And there's only 16 rooms to fit MPs, we would have to put in bunk beds, you'd have to have four MPs to a room, two on top, two below.
'I can imagine the fights for who gets the top bunk!'