Flood recovery money raised by a March Lotto draw is yet to be spent. Photo / Warren Buckland
Flood recovery money raised by a March Lotto draw is yet to be spent. Photo / Warren Buckland
The destination of Lotto profits promised to Hawke’s Bay could be known by early June.
The Lottery Grants Board allocated $11.77 million from a March 18 Lotto draw to Cyclone Gabrielle relief that is yet to be sighted.
The Department of Internal Affairs administers funds on behalf ofthe Lottery Grant Board and the money raised by the Cyclone Gabrielle Appeal is being overseen by a charitable trust.
The trust is made up of Department of Internal Affairs chief executive Paul James, Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou chairman Selwyn Parata, and former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott.
Arnott told Hawke’s Bay Today the trustees would be meeting on June 1 to discuss how the $11.77 might be allocated. Preliminary information should be available after that.
The funds are designed to be used on medium-to-long-term projects, with a focus on potentially providing assistance 12 months after the fact. It’s understood the $11.77 million has been earmarked for both Cyclone Hale, which hit the north of New Zealand in January, and Cyclone Gabrielle.
Former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott is among those who'll decide where Lotto funding is distributed in Hawke's Bay. Photo / NZME
In a statement to Hawke’s Bay Today, Department of Internal Affairs general manager of community operations Clare Toufexis said $3 million of immediate response lottery money had already gone to this region, as part of the Emergency Natural Disaster Relief Fund. This funding is from the general pool of lottery profits.
The $11.77 million profits from Lotto’s March 18 draw was “from a special-purpose Lottery Minister’s Discretionary Fund,’’ Toufexis said.
“Lottery profits have supported communities in the Hawke’s Bay by providing containers for marae who were severely impacted to set up temporary administration buildings and get the community clean up underway, supplying petrol tanks in rural areas so people could get to town for necessities and health visits, leasing chillers for marae to store frozen donated goods to enable them to continue to feed communities, enabling community organisations to hire equipment to assist with the immediate response and supporting community organisations by replacing damaged equipment or property like septic tanks.”
Toufexis said the Department of Internal Affairs had teams on the ground at grassroots level and were well aware of the “aspirations for recovery” in Hawke’s Bay.
That’s why there were two tranches of gambling profits being made available.
“Immediate lottery funding is meeting immediate needs and helping communities to develop those plans, and the medium-to-long-term funding will support implementing them,” said Toufexis.
Meanwhile, A bulk payment of $2.3 million from the Hawke’s Bay Disaster Relief Trust will go to mayoral relief funds in Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay, Napier and Hastings District, it was announced on Wednesday.
The bulk payments were recently approved by the trustees, made up of the region’s mayors and chair, of the Hawke’s Bay Disaster Relief Trust.
This will enable district and city councils to make targeted payments, if they choose, to those directly impacted by flooding and remain out of their family homes due to cyclone-related damage. The bulk payments are about the equivalent of $2000 per stickered property.
Hawke’s Bay Disaster Relief Fund and Regional Council chairwoman, Hinewai Ormsby, says the trustees recognise the need to support individuals and families who have been significantly impacted by flooding and have continuing costs.
