In an emergency, the provision of public information and warnings plays a significant role in making people and communities safer. Timely, targeted and tailored information and warnings empower people to make informed decisions, to take protective action, and to reduce the potential impacts and consequences of a hazard.

New Zealand has just had a ‘near miss’ with tsunami risk – for the second time in the last three months. An earlier NZIER Insight (no. 63) covered how a tsunami warning was issued 1 hour 20 minutes after the earthquake centred offshore from Te Aroha on Friday 2 September. This warning was issued 1...

This discussion paper is based on collaborative and ongoing research into crisis and disaster management and its intersection with the role of politicians in communicating with various publics before, during and after crises and disasters.

Successive bushfire inquiries in Australia have called for authorities to more effectively harness and disseminate bushfire information. Recommendations from these inquiries suggest a new approach to bushfires involving greater co-ordination, in which home dwellers, emergency fire services and government work more closely together and acknowledge that education, safety, planning and emergency management can be effective...