Source: PSA
National’s hollow promise to ‘fix the basics, build the future’ was sharply exposed last night as its government’s cuts left New Zealand without its 24/7 geohazard monitoring centre for the first time since it opened.
Earth Sciences NZ confirmed last night that the National Geohazards Monitoring Centre was temporarily closed. It said ‘some of our usual products and services may be delayed or limited until the centre re-opens.’
The eight-hour closure from 2pm to 10pm because of staff shortages left the country less prepared for earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions and landslides.
“Monitoring for earthquakes and tsunami is as basic as it gets in a country like ours. If this government can’t keep the lights on at the geohazards centre, it isn’t fixing the basics. It’s breaking them,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“Geohazard monitoring is not a nice to have. The temporary closure of the monitoring centre is a scandal and a national tragedy waiting to happen. Irresponsible cuts by this government are to blame.
“We warned the Government last year these cuts would mean the centre might close at times. Now the chickens have come home to roost and Kiwis are less safe.
“New Zealand has significant geohazards that must be constantly monitored, and last night New Zealand was less prepared as a result of this closure.
“This is the first closure of the centre, but it will not be the last unless funding is urgently restored.”
The centre opened in 2018 so that analysts would watch the screens around the clock. The alternative was relying on scientists on call from home, which was criticised after the Kaikōura earthquake. Since then, the team monitoring live earthquake data has been cut from 20 to 15.
Scientists saw this coming. Former geohazard analyst Caleb Rapson Nuñez del Prado took redundancy after his team was cut by a quarter. In the Save Science Coalition’s report Underfunding our Future, he warned that New Zealand’s monitoring would at times “step backwards from a live monitoring system to an on-call system”. Last night, that warning came true.
This government, if re-elected, is embarking on yet another round of cuts. Once again there is no plan for the services New Zealanders rely on to stay safe, and no thought for the consequences. Last night’s closure shows exactly where that leads.
“The PSA has warned the Government all along that you can’t restructure the public service like it’s a consumer brand, treating each function as an isolated cost to be cut. Some redundancy is resilience. Pare back your marketing department to the bone in the private sector and you may risk a weaker campaign; cut the number of people monitoring natural hazards and you put the whole country at risk.
“This Government never listens.
“The Prime Minister should front up to New Zealanders, admit that these cuts should never have occurred, and take responsibility for the centre being closed last night.
“This government can’t even get the basics right – to keep Kiwis safe. The consequences of their cuts have gain been laid bare. This is another reason why we must change the Government. We can’t keep dismissing the workers who keep our country safe.”
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.