PM Chris Hipkins says communities may have to make some 'tough calls about managed retreat' following the destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle. Video / NZ Herald
Opinion by Richard Prebble
Richard Prebble is a former Labour Party minister and Act Party leader.
When lives and livelihoods have been lost, it is no time for politics. So National’s Gerry Brownlee agreed to the adjournment of Parliament, saying “I simply say to the minister, thank you for your engagement and thank you for the work that you’re doing.”
In a national emergency, itused to be that Parliament was summoned so MPs could be briefed and consulted. Parliament never adjourned for WWI or WWII.
National declared a political truce but Labour and the Greens have not. Both those parties used the adjournment to create the narrative that they are best to handle the disaster and climate policy.
The Greens’ co-leader, James Shaw, said the cyclone is the “result of the lost decades that we spent bickering”. He further claimed that we must redouble our efforts to reduce emissions because “every tenth of a degree of warming increases the frequency and the severity of these events”.
New Zealand should support the global effort to combat climate change, but no reduction of emissions by this country will reduce the frequency and severity of cyclones. In our Parliament there is no bickering over the reality of climate change. There is bipartisan support for getting New Zealand to zero emissions.
The party in denial is the Greens. Their refusal to accept that climate change is here regardless of any reduction of emissions by New Zealand, is the reason why in government, the Greens have not promoted policies to help the country adapt.
Chris Hipkins and Finance Minister Grant Robertson navigate tough waters. Cartoon / Rod Emmerson
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has used the adjournment to make a number of very controversial political claims. “New Zealand is in a strong financial position to do so [respond to extreme weather events] thanks to the Government’s careful and prudent management of the books”, and claiming that climate change was at the heart of his agenda.
What was prudent about borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars for an untargeted fuel subsidy? How is that putting climate change “at the heart of his agenda”? This is borrowing capacity that cannot be used for the recovery.
Economics Professor Robert MacCulloch says in his blog that this Government has done almost nothing to assist the regions to adapt. Instead, Labour proposes white elephant projects for Auckland like a cycleway over the Harbour Bridge and light rail to the airport.
Robertson told Radio New Zealand, “the Government may be forced to increase borrowing for the disaster recovery, but had the capacity to cope”. He says the Government estimates the cost of the disaster at $15 billion and insurance will meet some of the cost.
Dr Michael Bassett, who was the Minister for Civil Defence during Cyclone Bola, says in his blog that the Government is underestimating the cost. He says we will all feel the effects for years, starting with higher food costs.
Labour can promise to borrow all the gold in Fort Knox but it cannot rehabilitate without a law change. Parliament had to suspend the Resource Management Act (RMA) to enable Christchurch to rebuild. Labour has announced there will legislation for this disaster.
Local bodies told the parliamentary select committee considering Labour’s proposed RMA replacement that it is unworkable. Unless the proposed legislation is a U-turn on Labour’s proposed planning laws, the affected region will never be rehabilitated.
The paperwork for an infrastructure project can take 10 times longer than it takes to build.
Ukraine’s infrastructure is being destroyed by Russian missiles. But the Ukrainians are rebuilding in the middle of winter, in the middle of a war, at an astonishing rate. It can be done.
National offered its full co-operation throughout the Covid pandemic. It did not stop Labour from running a “Covid election”.
Simon Bridges chaired the select committee into the Covid response. He held a press conference and outlined what the committee had found: tracing was not working, testing was inadequate and the lockdown was longer than necessary. The media crucified him. His caucus rolled him.
Eventually, the Government adopted all of Bridges’ suggestions. If National had held Labour to account, the changes would have come earlier, saving a significant social and economic cost. Being an effective Opposition could not have resulted in a worse election result.
National must hold the Government to account. Christopher Luxon should follow his instincts. He was the first MP to call on the Mayor of Auckland to declare a state of emergency.
Follow the example of David Seymour. After visiting Hawke’s Bay and talking with the community, Seymour said “an emergency response such as this should be directed from those at the centre of the disaster, with support from those in Wellington. Not the other way around”.
Bassett, who was also Minister of Local Government, agrees. “Mayors, councils, farmers and local enterprises are better placed to plan road re-alignments, bridge re-building, new stop banks and drain expansion than the bloated Wellington bureaucracy”. Now that Parliament is meeting, National needs to ask: “how can the Wellington-based Finance Minister be the right person to direct the recovery?”
- Richard Prebble is a former leader of the Act Party and former member of the Labour Party.
