A new review of New Zealand's response to crisis is blunt about the inaction of the past, and sceptical that much will change in the future

The climate may be changing but our response to disaster has remained the same - with a hopeless lack of willingness to step up on emergency management.

After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national Civil Defence boss compared his experience to "putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before".

Eight years later - and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods - John Hamilton's view has not changed.

"Arguably, and this will be highly critical of the NEMA people, but it's made worse," he tells The Detail.

He slates the lack of experience and training at regional and community levels, with all the latest reviews pointing to the same thing - it's inadequate.

Hamilton believes authorities have forgotten an important lesson - that the response has to start at the community level - and he's calling for detailed local plans.

"I come from a little place down on the East Coast, an hour and a half south of Hastings called Pōrangahau, an isolated community of about 300 people. It seems to me that, if they were struck by a problem, and they were struck during the cyclone by flooding, they are going to be able to understand their community and their situation best.

"They report into a hub. The hub marshals the resources that they have available in the community. If they get overwhelmed they report up the line to the council and they should be able to marshal resources... to provide extra assistance."

Then if the district council gets overwhelmed, it moves up to the regional council and then to central government in Wellington.

Minister of Emergency Management and Recovery, Mark Mitchell, during Marlborough floods last month.

"To be brutally honest, I think in Hawke's Bay, they have not done enough to facilitate the development of local plans".

RNZ reporter Lauren Crimp tells The Detail the inquiry agreed with Hamilton, finding this kind of community response to be lacking.

"First and foremost, and this came through the most strongly throughout that 164 pages, was, and the inquiry reads: 'put people and communities at the heart of an integrated emergency management system'," Crimp says…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details