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Food Focus May 2007

Crisis control

Emergency management is a key part of NZFSA’s communications strategy. As well as continually refining our own systems, staff are working with Australian government departments to develop a core group of trained communications specialists who can operate on both sides of the Tasman

Dealing with food safety incidents, unwanted animal diseases and rapidly emerging concerns that have the ability to impact on New Zealand’s trading status is all part of a normal day at the office for many NZFSA staff.

In the past NZFSA has dealt with lead found in cornflour, endosulfan contamination in exported meat and, in May 2003, the recall of more than 1000 dietary supplement products manufactured by Pan Pharmaceuticals Ltd as a result of serious concerns about their quality and safety.

There are other occasions where dealing with an event, or suspected event, requires greater urgency – and a sizeable increase in staff, for example, the May 2005 foot and mouth disease (FMD) hoax on Waiheke Island, dubbed Operation Waiheke.

Providing accurate, honest, timely and relevant information to media outlets is a key element of ensuring a successful outcome for an emergency response, as is effective communications with affected or potentially affected consumers, stakeholder organisations and business partners.

Stakeholder liaison

During any emergency management situation, liaison with stakeholders is also critical to:

• ensure that people affected by the event are kept informed of progress and aware of what is being done to manage the situation

• provide a means by which people who can supply resources, information or other support, can interface with response managers.

Exotic disease outbreaks in animals, such as FMD (classed as a low-risk high-significance disease) can create significant national and international interest. In these situations NZFSA works closely with Biosecurity New Zealand. NZFSA specifically manages any trade implications and real or perceived food and human health concerns; Biosecurity New Zealand focuses on disease management.

During Operation Waiheke, NZFSA market access experts, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, remained in constant contact with more than 50 countries, including major members of the European Union, keeping them up to date with developments as part of our efforts to limit any trade impacts.

At its height, the operation directly involved more than 100 NZFSA, MAF and Biosecurity New Zealand staff: 60 in Wellington, 20 at the Exotic Disease Response Centre in Upper Hutt, and 31 on the Field Operations Response Team in Auckland and on Waiheke Island, plus staff from other organisations. During the operation, a total of 12,000 animals were located and monitored.

Testing responses

Before Operation Waiheke, NZFSA, together with MAF and Biosecurity New Zealand took part in two simulated emergency response exercises. Exercise Taurus was designed to clarify the roles and responsibilities of government agencies that may be involved in an FMD response.

The first exercise, held in Manawatu, focused on activities in the field at a regional level to test the resources and systems that would be needed in an outbreak. This provided a basic scenario for the second exercise which tested the workings of the National Response Centre (NRC), based in Wellington.

NRC is responsible for coordination across all central and local government departments; international notification and trade negotiation, media communications, stakeholder liaison and compensation processes.

Emergency manual

Exercise Taurus and Operation Waiheke provided a focus on the emergency communications preparedness and processes used by NZFSA and MAF.

A project team was formed to develop a consistent, scalable emergency management communications (EMC) system to be used within NZSFA, wider MAF and other departments as needed.

A key outcome of the project is a reference manual that contains checklists, process flow charts, job cards, work streams, accountabilities and ‘how to’ guides.

This manual will be tested regularly in future NZFSA/MAF simulation exercises and used in any real events that may occur. Adjustments will be made based on the outcomes of those experiences. NZFSA and MAF are also looking at software that will keep stakeholders closely involved and informed as emergencies unfold.

The project team also looked at current international best practice in EMC. Part of this assessment included an examination of systems used by government agencies in other parts of the world, and particularly the EMC systems used by the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

Around the clock

Like the NZFSA/MAF EMC project team, DAFF officials had realised that running an around-the-clock emergency for an extended amount of time required a lot of competent communications professionals – potentially at least 60 people in a national emergency centre and at the emergency site or sites.

As neither NZFSA nor MAF have this many communications professionals on staff, suitable people have to be sourced from elsewhere.

DAFF has addressed this by running courses to accredit communications professionals in their system, called the Australian Veterinary Emergency Plan (AUSVETPLAN), with particular emphasis on the public relations component of the plan.

Course participants include staff from DAFF and the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) as well as from other potentially related Australian federal departments and state governments.

Recently the net was cast wider to include Australian industry organisations and NZFSA/MAF staff from New Zealand.

Useful insights

Gary Bowering and Diane Robinson from NZFSA’s Communications Group are now accredited practitioners in the DAFF system.

“This means that, in the event of a large scale animal health emergency across the Tasman we can be called upon to help our Australian neighbours,” explains Communications Manager Gary Bowering.

“The training course offered by DAFF has also given us useful insights into our potential to develop a similar training system in New Zealand for professional communicators who may be called upon to help in large-scale emergencies here.

“NZFSA, along with other government departments, uses similar systems to those put in place by DAFF when it comes to dealing with emergencies. Although an earthquake or terrorist emergency may, at first sight, appear to have little in common with a major foodborne illness or zoonotic disease [one that is passed from animals to humans] the systems and processes required to respond to these from a communications perspective have a lot in common.

“Actual events of the past few years, combined with regular whole-of-government emergency simulations mean there is now a team of government agency communicators who are used to working together.”

Check out the AUSVET system at www.outbreak.gov.au.

*A version of this feature first appeared in Biosecurity Magazine, produced by Biosecurity New Zealand.