The much-anticipated review of Auckland Council's flood response was delayed for over a month.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown announced the review after receiving widespread criticism for the time it took his office to declare a state of emergency.

Some of his fellow councillors, including Manukau's Alf Filipaina, echoed concerns over the slow response which had many Auckland residents distressed and confused in the flood's early hours.

The independent review, led by former police commissioner Mike Bush, found Auckland Council's emergency management system was not prepared for an event like the 27 January floods.

The report said many of the problems were known in advance but nothing was done.

"From 2016 onwards, the council's Auckland CDEM Group Plan recognised the issues that Auckland faced as a result of infrequent testing and lack of understanding of its emergency response frameworks," it read.

"The plan raised the concern that Auckland's capability to respond to a large-scale or widespread events - such as occurred on 27-29 January 2023 - had not been tested, and that operational emergency management plans were not sufficient."

It said key leaders, including Mayor Wayne Brown and the chair of the Civil Defence and Emergency Management Committee, did not understand the importance of leadership and public communication, leaving people confused and distressed.

Bush's report found senior leaders underestimated the importance of their roles, impacting communication with Aucklanders and losing public confidence.

"The council's emergency management team appeared to lack the command, crisis leadership skills and operational experience to deal with an event of this complexity, particularly in driving mission clarity and taskings during the initial response," the report read.

The report said the crises exposed weaknesses in the council's emergency management systems, tools, and community relationships which led to inadequate early intelligence to support, public safety information, and decision-making.

"They clearly also struggled with the multiple websites and social media channels that had to be utilised and aligned, not all of which were under their direct control or ability to remediate," it read.

"The Auckland Emergency Management twitter account, for example, failed at a critical point in early public communications."

Lessons learned

The report findings said the issues of leadership exposed by bad management of the 27 January floods must be addressed.

"Within Auckland Council, there was an opportunity for better advice and support to the mayor's office - both before and during the event - by the chief executive and his officials about how to provide leadership, information and assurance to the public during emergencies."

It said during the weather emergency, Brown and his team should also have been more active in demanding information and asking questions of the chief executive and the emergency management team.

In a long list of recommendations, the report said the council needed to finalise urgently the current review of the Auckland Civil Defence and Emergency Management (ACDEM) Group Plan, with specific procedures around high priority hazards and events.

It said the council should do frequent staff training in emergency management exercises, including complex scenarios.

In regards to the communication with the public, the report recommended the council establish and actively manage strong connections with mana whenua, Pasifika, community groups, infrastructure providers, and lifeline utilities.

"For the future, we suggest [the council] to work on pre-planned and approved emergency messages and alerts so that, with the insertion of relevant details, messages can be quickly despatched on a regular cadence," the panel's report stated.

"This would have provided Aucklanders with the facts about what to do and where to go for help."

We will do better - Wayne Brown

Brown said he accepted the recommendations of the independent review of the response to the Auckland Anniversary floods and would work to ensure the panel's recommendations were implemented.

"The tragic events of January 27 have affected us all deeply. Four people lost their lives, and hundreds have lost their homes. I have acknowledged that I dropped the ball that night - the communications weren't fast enough, and I was too slow to be seen. I stand by my previous apology to Aucklanders," he said.

Brown said he accepted the findings and that he should have been more assertive in demanding information "so that I could provide Aucklanders with public safety advice, practical support, and reassurance. I assumed that the systems were better than they were."

The Auckland mayor said the preparation was not good enough.

"That's clear from the fact that some of the planned Civil Defence Centres flooded on the night which contributed to delays in establishing the sites. That just shouldn't happen, and we need to make sure we can set up those sites faster in future."

Brown said the recommendations of the review should be implemented immediately.

"I want Aucklanders to know that I am focused on making sure that we all do better," he said.

Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback said that he, the council's executive leadership, and emergency management staff would consider the report's findings, and recommendations, and report back on an implementation plan.

"We cannot ignore the fact that this event was unprecedented. The size and scale of the event, its unexpected intensity, and the complexity of gathering a clear picture of what was unfolding, especially in the first 12 hours, made this event, unlike anything we have experienced before. We were not as well prepared for it as we could have been."

He said recommendations which could and should be easily or immediately implemented, would be.