70 Stafford Street 
Private bag 1954 
 
Dunedin, 9054 
New Zealand 
 
Mr John Homer 
By Email - [FYI request #11417 email] 
 
15 October 2019 
 
Ref: Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – Transferred Request - OIA-2019/20-0204 
 
Dear   Mr Homer, 
 
I am in receipt of the Official Information Request you made to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 
8 October 2019.   The Manager of Ministerial Services has forwarded your request to me for response. 
 
The Otago Civil Defence & Emergency Management Group does not currently have any New Zealand Response 
Teams (NZRTs) in place simply because this had not previously been identified as a priority under the structure 
that existed until 2017 when Emergency Management Otago was constituted.  Since 2017 our focus has been 
on developing shared service delivery of emergency management across our Region.    
 
Considering the cooperative partnerships we have with both Fire & Emergency New Zealand (as managers of 
National Urban Search & Rescue capability), and with the NZ Red Cross Disaster Response Team based in 
Dunedin, we have no current plan for the establishment of an Otago based NZRT. 
 
I hope this provides the information you were seeking. 
 
Regards, 
 
Chris Hawker 
Director & Group Controller 
Emergency Management Otago 
 
CC:  Sarah Gardner, Otago CEG Chair 
         

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