Appendix: Auckland Council's Covid-19 response work

Auckland Council's roles and responsibilities during the Covid-19 response were to:

• co-ordinate processes and structures with relevant organisations;
• activate an emergency co-ordination centre;
• lead on operational response co-ordination;
• support the New Zealand Police in co-ordinating, setting up, and managing regional borders;
• establish liaisons with the health sector and support that sector;
• be ready to lead, co-ordinate, and deliver welfare services in partnership with support agencies with plans in place to identify and meet community need;
• support the fast movement of consumer goods; and
• monitor for any supply chain or infrastructure issues and escalate accordingly.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Auckland Council supported its communities by:

• handling more than 35,900 requests for assistance during Alert Levels 3 and 2;
• ensuring that the most remote communities were able to access essential services – this included daily flights to Aotea Great Barrier Island and a ferry service to Kawau Island to ensure that residents continued to receive services and supplies;
• delivering 50,000 Ministry of Health bilingual English and te reo Māori Covid-19 flyers and a total of 2500 kai and hygiene packs across Auckland;
• working with community partners to reach out to the city's homeless and providing accommodation and essential services such as distributing food packages;
• making more than 15,000 calls to those aged 70 and older who lived alone;
• partnering with other agencies to dispatch more than 27,400 food parcels and 10,000 essential parcels through a distribution centre at Spark Arena to over 25,000 households; and
• working alongside iwi, hapū, whānau, and marae to ensure that Māori communities received the support they needed.²⁵

25: Auckland Council launched two initiatives to support a Māori response to and recovery from Covid-19. These were Te Pou Whakarae and the Manaaki Fund. Te Pou Whakarae involved a team working alongside iwi, hapū, whānau, and marae to identify and bridge gaps in the delivery of welfare services. The Manaaki Fund was a one-off grant available to the Council's established Māori partners who were actively supporting Māori whānau to recover from the impact of Covid-19.