Wayne Brown announces independent review into flood response, but denies any wrong

Monday, 30 January 2023

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has accepted that some of the communications were not 'good enough' during the record-breaking storm.

Auckland’s mayor has announced an independent review into the response to the region’s devastating floods, but says he doesn’t feel he’s personally done anything wrong.

Wayne Brown held a brief media stand-up at the Sunnynook Community Centre on Monday to address the Friday floods.

He accepted that some of the communications put out during the flood, “including mine and my office”, were “not good enough” and he was commissioning a full review into the response.

“We want recommendations for improvement and we will act on them.”

* Auckland floods: Who's who in the disaster response

* The missing minutes in the Auckland flood response

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown held a press conference on Monday, saying his team wanted “recommendations for improvement”.

Brown has been criticised for a perceived delay in declaring a state of emergency on Friday evening as motorways flooded, the airport closed and a body was found in a culvert.

He eventually did so at 9.27pm, but it was not publicly announced until nearly an hour later.

A petition has since been set up calling for him to resign, which had gathered about 5000 signatures on Monday.

“I’m certainly not going to resign,” he told media.

“I was elected to fix Auckland and this is a giant fix-up.”

Brown also rejected allegations he had not been out and about in the community following the floods. He said he had spoken with the family of Dave Lennard, who died in a landslide in Remuera, and visited every emergency evacuation centre.

Parts of Auckland Zoo were covered in chest-high water during the floods.

He also spoke about the process involved in declaring a state of emergency, saying the decision lay with the duty controller.

It would be a “brave person” who overruled the duty controller, he said.

“I don't think I personally did any wrong, I actually followed the instructions closely.”

The review would look at whether those instructions were fit for purpose, he said.

“The inquiry will look into all aspects, all people, myself included, plus the professionals, plus even the government's involvement in the response … lessons must be learned.”

However, Auckland was not out of the woods yet, with more heavy rain expected.

With the ground already saturated and drains full, the rain could be even more dangerous than Friday’s, he said.

“Preventing more damage and keeping people safe is the priority, then the clean-up will be the priority, but in the long term we need to learn lessons from this.”

Brown said Aucklanders should stay home, or as close to home as possible, over the coming days.

They should stay away from floodwaters and follow the directions of emergency services, he said.