Kia ora everyone 

I know that yesterday’s message came as a shock. That would have particularly been the case for those of you who participated in the call with Deidre. This is a constantly evolving situation, and as such we will review the direction daily as the situation develops. I will keep you informed as quickly and as clearly as I can.

Yesterday afternoon, following a request from the national emergency management agency, I issued a direction for schools, kura, early learning services and tertiary organisations in the Auckland region (Wellsford to Pukekohe) to close for physical onsite attendance until Friday, opening after Waitangi weekend.  This was necessary in order for emergency services to work on fixing road infrastructure.  

I want to be clear that I will review the directive daily based on advice from Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) and the roading situation. Those early learning services that can safely open, may open for families in their community that need education and care.

The direction I issued yesterday is part of the multi-agency response to the Auckland state of emergency. As part of our daily review, we will be reviewing advice from the sector and emergency management experts. AEM is best placed to provide advice on weather and related impacts, as well as what needs to be urgently to resolve infrastructure issues. We will provide an around midday starting tomorrow.

Our communications to you were too slow yesterday and I apologise for that. The short version of the problem is that we have a spam filter which constrains any potentially hacked devices from propagating a cyber-attack via any further via email. This places limits on the number of emails able to be sent from one mailbox over a 24-hour period. This limit kicked in after the second load of emails from one mailbox in Auckland. We’ve sorted a temporary fix on that issue for now, so that you should receive communications from us promptly. 

Aku mihi
Iona