Years behind other regions

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

Opinion

Kia ora, I support the push for an indoor basketball centre for Tairāwhiti.

Embarrassingly, Tairāwhiti is years behind other regions across New Zealand in terms of sporting infrastructure, which affects our ability to retain and attract sporting talent.

Time and time again, athletes from Tairāwhiti have to travel to other areas to compete, which adds unnecessary direct and indirect costs to funders, whanau and community groups.

The Tairāwhiti region needs to invest in more local sporting infrastructure to help host wider sporting events, which helps drive local economic returns and also helps to retain our local talent.

I moved back to Gisborne from overseas around five years ago, after having been abroad for 21 years — only to see the same old Gizzy Town.

In comparison, other regions such as Tauranga, Napier, Taupo and Hamilton have prospered economically under their various leaderships.

Again, we are years behind.

Luke Fox