Whakarauroa Tangata begins in July 2023

Planning for Exercise Whakarauora Tangata is progressing well. Our current focus is on consultation with key agencies across the SAR sector, including those who might be engaged in support roles to the SAR response, or may be engaged in the wider incident response.

Recent discussions and debriefs in relation to the response to the Interislander ferry Kaitaki near miss and the response to Cyclone Gabrielle have provided some valuable insights that we will look to incorporate. In particular, the importance of early engagement with key SAR partners, the establishment of sound collaboration processes and effective communications plans.

The agreed scenario that will be used throughout the exercise series is an incident involving a boutique cruise ship floundering on approach to New Zealand.

We are on track to conduct the first exercise in the series. This will be a desktop Incident Management Team (IMT) exercise held in July 2023 in the Bay of Plenty. Consultations have been conducted across a range of agencies who all expressed interest in participating. In several cases, agencies have indicated that they will use the exercise to validate their own internal plans and processes, including potentially establishing and exercising their own emergency operations centre (EOC). While Exercise Whakarauora Tangata will focus on the SAR element of the response, agencies will also be free to use the exercise material to either exercise or consider wider response measures associated with the overall incident, such as environmental impact and mass casualty planning.

For more information, visit www.nzsar.govt.nz/natsigsarex or contact Lead Planner John Dyer, j.dyer@nzsar.govt.nz

This article was first published in the June 2023 issue of Link magazine.