Cyclone recovery eats into Budget

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The Government set the scene for Budget week with a nearly $1 billion flood and cyclone recovery package, which is in effect a further down-payment on its expected $4.5bn to $9bn share of the overall cost.

A large part of the funding announced on Sunday is targeted directly at infrastructure, principally road and rail repairs.

Waka Kotahi and local councils are getting $275 million more to fix affected roads and get essential transport working again; this is on top of $250m the Government announced immediately after the cyclone.

A $200m tranche to repair the North Island rail network includes fixing the Wairoa-Napier section of the line.

And $100m is being set aside for “protection” work to ensure future events don’t cause the same devastation.

There is also $117m to repair or replace the more than 500 schools which have been affected by flooding, including 258 in Auckland.

The pre-Budget announcement was made by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins standing on a stopbank in Taradale that had withstood the flooding.

Both Hipkins and the other ministers acknowledged that more would be needed.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the figures did not include all the immediate and ongoing support for communities and business.

Opposition leader Christopher Luxon endorsed the package, which he described as a “no brainer”, but criticised the lack of clarity for homeowners and farmers worried about their properties and fearing they could be red stickered.

His fears were echoed by Esk Valley residents interviewed on television.

National Party cyclone response spokesman Chris Penk said the horticulture industry, which much of the local economy was dependent on, continued to face uncertainty. This was exacerbated by the time-critical nature of planting for next season and even the one after.

Act has taken a more cynical view, accusing the Government of timing its announcement to coincide with the Budget rather than the needs of the people on the ground — and suggesting it was going to dripfeed funding announcements over the months leading up to the election.

There is no doubt that the cyclone and the Auckland flooding have had a massive effect on Thursday’s Budget, which was intended to be a back-to-basics one after a number of projects were taken out of the Government work programme.

For this district it was the second major announcement in three days after the release of the ministerial inquiry into land use in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa was released on Friday.