Cyclone recovery fund over-subscribed in Hawke’s Bay

Esk River silt coats a playground in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland

By RNZ

The Government’s $50 million cyclone business recovery fund is massively over-subscribed in Hawke’s Bay alone - leaving some worried they will miss out on any financial support.

The fund is for businesses severely disrupted by recent extreme weather events and to help with their immediate cash flow needs.

Eight agencies from seven affected areas, including Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay and Thames-Coromandel, are responsible for approving applications and paying out the cash.

In Hawke’s Bay, it is the Chamber of Commerce, which has already received more than 1600 applications for more than $41m worth of assistance. It has approved just over 500 so far.

The chamber told Checkpoint demand had “well exceeded” available funding and said it was having to prioritise the hardest-hit businesses.

Greg Miller, owner of Esk Valley’s Valley D’vine Restaurant, said his business was still closed.

“Zero business for seven weeks. It means I’m still paying my staff. At this stage, I’ve still got money - had a few good months leading into it, so I had a bit of a buffer. Still fighting insurance... I’m just running on my reserves.”

He had applied for support through the Government recovery fund and had not heard back.

He was concerned there might not be any money left - and was not happy with the process, worried money was handed out to those who got in first rather than those most in need.

“The Chamber [of Commerce] being in charge seems pretty weird - Work and Income should have been dealing with that side of it.”

There also needed to be more money in the pot because there were a lot of people missing out, he said.

Getting support from the Government was important because his staff were “like my family” and it would mean being able to keep them on the payroll.

“I’m pretty stressed. I’ve put 10 years into this place. We’re just under the pump. We went through Covid, and this is way worse than Covid.”

Meanwhile, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little told Checkpoint the town was “not in a good place”.

“These businesses need that money now because they are just absolutely struggling, and they are just burning all the reserves they’ve got and borrowing.”

Little felt having the decisions being made about funding in Hawke’s Bay rather than local communities did not help.

“We need to act fast. From our point of view, someone making decisions down in Hawke’s Bay is probably not ideal. We need to make them up here.”

Little said they had local organisations set up to help cyclone victims.

“Wairoa going up against the whole of Hawke’s Bay is not gonna help us at all.”

Just 4 per cent of the 1600 applications the Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce had received were from the Wairoa District.

Little said there needed to be more outreach.

“A lot of these people are out of their homes, out of their businesses; they haven’t got time to sit down at a computer.

“This has got to be an organisation that actually goes to the people, works out [which] businesses need it, and actually helps them with the application.”

Applications for the fund close at 4.30pm on Monday.

Little said he wanted to know what happens after that.

“We’ve just got to get this right.

“I can’t even get to Hawke’s Bay to even have a look, and that’s why it’s a bit of a joke... It’s well-intentioned, no doubt about it, but it’s not been administrated like it should be.”

Wairoa was still deep within the cyclone clean-up six weeks after the event, he said, even as the rest of the country was moving on.

“They’re still trying to dry out their homes and they’re still trying to get the silt out of their houses.”