Events in Christchurch and Japan have certainly shaken New Zealanders out of their complacency.

It is a timely reminder of the importance of council’s core services, the services we take for granted – namely water supply, sewage disposal and roading.

And it also highlights the importance of strong leadership and effective communications.

The leaders who have a responsibility to guide us through these challenging times are those we elected at the local body elections, and that brings me to my constant catch-cry, half those eligible to vote, don’t bother to do so.

Leadership is relatively easy in times when a community is prosperous, and there are no natural disasters to test our ‘preparedness’.

Bob Parker, as Mayor of Christchurch, and Tony Kokshoorn as Mayor of the Grey District have set an exceptionally high standard of leadership that has inspired not only the citizens in their own communities but people throughout our country.

In my own district, the Horowhenua, I am hearing from people who are very concerned about our own civil defence arrangements. Foxton’s CBD, for instance, was rebuilt following a spate of fires which razed the wooden shops in the 1920’s. Hence it became ‘the brick zone’, constructed a decade before the Napier earthquake tightened building standards. Foxton Beach, with a predominantly elderly population sits alongside the Manawatu River which became a raging torrent in 2004.

No doubt, there are plenty of other cities and towns who are evaluating their risks, as part of their obligations under CDEM, the Civil Defence and Emergency Act which came into effect in 2002.

Risk management is obviously vitally important for councils, as local authorities must be able to function to the fullest extent possible during a civil defence emergency.

To achieve this, the onus is on councils to establish civil defence emergency management groups. Their role is to both identify and manage risks in their area, taking all steps necessary to provide suitably-trained and competent personnel for effective civil defence management. The ‘civil defence emergency management plan’ must be regularly reviewed.

Local authorities who have taken this responsibility seriously will obviously be better equipped to deal with any situation which jolts a community out of its routine lifestyle.

The update of the Building Act during 2004 gave Parliament an opportunity to address one important safety issue, buildings which may collapse during an earthquake. All councils were required to adopt a policy on ‘earthquake-prone’ buildings by May 2006, recording council’s approach to this matter and how this policy will apply to heritage buildings.

Design standards to deal with earthquakes were first introduced in 1935, four years after the Napier earthquake, and due to engineering advances, these standards were raised in both 1965 and 1976.

But until 2004, there was no policy to deal with buildings erected before these standards came into force.

Under this new regime, councils are obliged to set in place a procedure to evaluate public buildings, and if the council remained satisfied a building presented a risk, to issue a written notice to bring that building up to standard. For those buildings given a priority rating, the Building Act gives councils the authority to evict the occupiers, cordon off the building and issue an injunction requiring the work to be done. Failure to comply can attract a fine of up to $200,000.

At the time, these compliance measures may have sounded harsh.

But, as recent events have affirmed, a city’s ability to withstand a natural disaster is dependent on the principle of ‘preparedness’ – measures discussed around a council table at an ordinary meeting on an ordinary day by the ordinary people elected onto the council.

However, policies are nothing but words on a piece of paper, unless the resources are available to implement them. I wonder, as we go through our annual plan consultation process, whether anybody will question our council’s allocation this year of $222,000 towards emergency management.

I doubt it.