Defence Force offers help not ‘friction’ in emergency response

Opinion: The wonderful part of writing a regular column is the people I get to meet as a result.
One such contact shares my abiding resentment at the failure to learn lessons from our experiences. He reminded me of the Review of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Response to the 22 February Christchurch Earthquake which came out in June 2012. I read it at the time but admit I had long forgotten about the details of the 108 recommendations that had been made. I had also made the assumption that when these recommendations were adopted they would be implemented. What a mistake, as my new friend told me.