The Government has intervened after a warning that Wairoa residents could be exposed to an “intolerable risk to life” from severe weather if vital flood protection work does not continue at pace.
A Cabinet paper outlined disagreement between councils and mana whenua on the $70 million project.
As a result, the Government has extended the Crown manager’s term overseeing the work of the Hawke’s Bay regional and Wairoa district councils.
A spillway, paid for by $70m of Crown funding, is expected to be completed next year. It aims to protect the town from the impacts of severe flooding it has faced in recent years.
Crown manager Lawrence Yule, former Hastings Mayor and an ex-National MP, has been reappointed to oversee the councils for a further year.
His term now has an end date of February 13, 2027.
Yule is being paid at a rate of $1100 a day.
Cabinet papers, proactively released by the Department of Internal Affairs, show Local Government Minister Simon Watts noting further intervention was “required” to support the area’s flood protection works.
Yule was appointed as Crown manager in August 2024, after concerns that the two councils could not work together to improve flood protection, river management and emergency preparedness, the papers say.
The papers, issued on behalf of Watts’ office, state that, without further Government intervention, the minister believed there would be an “unacceptable risk that the recent momentum gained in progressing the Wairoa flood protection project will be lost, and the project will not be completed by the expected completion date of May 2027”.
“Failure to implement timely flood protection works would result in a significant part of Wairoa township being exposed to an intolerable risk to life from future severe weather events,” the papers state.
Failure to implement timely flood protection works would result in a significant part of Wairoa township being exposed to an intolerable risk to life from future severe weather events.
While good progress had been made on the flood protection project, the paper noted that momentum had been “slower than expected”.
Delays were blamed on “complexities with land acquisition and poor project and design management oversight by HBRC [Hawke’s Bay Regional Council]”.
In a statement, Yule confirmed a resource consent had been granted, detailed design was progressing at pace, and a contractor was ready.
“After three years of planning, engagement and determination, Wairoa is about to see the physical delivery of flood protection begin,” he said.
Technical investigation, concept design and consenting work have progressed on the project. Construction, which has not yet started, is forecast to be completed in mid-2027.
A notice about Yule’s reappointment in the New Zealand Gazette – the official paper in which Government decisions are published – said failure to implement flood protection works “would leave a significant part of the town being exposed to an intolerable risk, and therefore uninhabitable”.
That risk would create an unaffordable burden for Wairoa ratepayers through the Wairoa District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the notice read.
Councils and mana whenua have disagreed on how the work should be progressed.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little welcomed Yule’s reappointment as “really good” and something that “gives a lot of confidence”.
Little believed that, after the Wairoa River burst its banks in June 2024, “people lost confidence in the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. They really didn’t have much of a social licence here in Wairoa to operate”.
He claimed too many decisions were being made outside Wairoa.
Last year, it was reported that a class action lawsuit was lodged against the regional council in relation to past flooding.
Little added that Government intervention had been positive, as “it’s been a hell of a job”, with families having to move out of the way of the planned river bypass.
He promised construction would start “very, very soon”.
“It’s a huge project, and Wairoa will be at ease once it happens.
“This is the first river protection work we’ve ever had, that’s a big one for Wairoa. This is so important for our town. We’ve never had that ever, and we’re probably one of the few areas that needed it and didn’t have it. This is so exciting for us.”
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.