The Gisborne District Council building. Photo / NZME
The Gisborne District Council building. Photo / NZME
Those looking to the district’s future should be concerned about two major issues.
The first is that candidates for public office do not understand the limits to people’s ability to pay.
As a result, and with central Government also imposing extra responsibilities, local bodies are now empires that bear noresemblance to those of the past, whose roles and funding were small and strictly limited.
For readers’ consideration, I attach the annual council accounts for 1886.
Local body spending (and waste) needs to be drastically cut and permanently shackled.
The second concern is the very long history of Governments giving no support for the district’s development.
Roger Handford writes that local body spending (and waste) needs to be drastically cut.
The Gisborne-Wairoa-East Cape region has always been on the periphery of North Island progress.
Residents do not need to be grateful for the few millions now being spent on replacing bridges and rebuilding roads ... this is a mere sop after years of neglect and underfunding.
The same goes for agriculture, industry and other significant economic enterprises.
A few dollars here and there have not been enough to save the railway line. Attempts to build timber processing struggle, tourism is undeveloped, transport and power resources are thin and always at risk, environmental problems such as erosion and weather threaten land and livelihoods. Unemployment, drugs, health, housing and other social issues need attention.
The district needs to demand a better, properly funded, planned and directed future than the one it will face thanks to the ongoing indifference of those who control the pursestrings and power.
Locals should be banging on doors to know why the Wairārapa/Manawatū region gets $800 million for new trains (the Post, September 8, 2025), while this district has no rail and just one road in and out.
A similar amount here could help redirect land use and put the district on a healthier footing.
Huge money goes to Auckland and regions that already have infrastructure wealth and development, which is a universe ahead of here.
Tairāwhiti does not deserve to be the forgotten province. Our representatives need to fight much harder to demand our fair share of the nation’s economic development effort.
