They have had meetings with the mayors of Gisborne and Wairoa, iwi leadership up the Coast, in Gisborne and in Wairoa, sector leadership and Eastland Wood Council, she said.
The inquiry opened for written submissions yesterday. Submissions close on April 6.
“It’s going to feel short for people because it is an eight-week inquiry but if we don’t have an end date for the submissions then it will be very hard to take account of them before the end of the actual inquiry.”
A series of public meetings and hui are also being finalised.
The meetings will cover the top of the East Cape to Wairoa, she said.
The inquiry is looking at storm damage and its causes, current land-use practices, and regulatory and policy settings.
It will include the impact of storm damage caused by woody debris (including forestry slash) and sediment on communities, livestock, buildings and the environment.
It will also look at associated economic drivers and constraints.
The inquiry will result in a report that will make short-, medium- and long-term recommendations on the community’s aspirations for land use, including any recommendations needed for Government policy, and at a local council level.
Asked to respond to comments by Forestry Minister Stuart Nash that the Government would “not be bound” by inquiry recommendations, Ms Parata said his comment was made “in a context, rather than an arbitrary statement”.
“We expect that our report will be compelling,” she said.
The effort being put into the report, the people the panel was hearing from, the range of reports already written and the fact the panel was required to produce a report of 30 to 50 pages inside eight weeks showed that ministers and Cabinet “will be interested in our recommendations”.
“We also see them contributing to other work that is already under way.”
That included cyclone recovery, as well as bills before Parliament to reform the Resource Management Act and National Environment Standards for plantation forestry.
“A big group we heard from last week was the Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti petition organisers.”
The panel is based in Gisborne with members keen to get out and meet people, but people are advised to attend the public meetings or call the inquiry secretariat.
Born in Tairāwhiti, Ms Parata was the Energy and Resources Minister in a National Government.
“I’m very partial to this region — absolutely, unequivocally. I want the best for this region and I think our inquiry gives us an opportunity to identify what some of the possibilities are.
“The slash is a symptom of what’s happening further upstream. So we will also be looking at the processes and regulations that sit behind that.
“It’s not just forestry, it’s sedimentation as well, so agricultural, horticulture as well.
“It is a range of land use that is causing this sedimentation and slash.
“We also know that the woody debris includes wood other than pine.
“I’m very keen to see this inquiry look at what the options are for a sustainable future for all of us who are ancestrally connected to this whenua and those who have chosen to make this place their home.
“If people want to live good lives here then we have to look at the contribution of industry.
“Forestry is coming in for a bit of a beating but, as in any industry, there are good and responsible players and there are those who are not.
“There are also a lot of people who draw their income from forestry and support their families, so I’m really keen on finding the balance between supporting industry involvement in our region and ensuring the practices that are expected are all good practices.”
