Christopher Luxon during his visit to Hick's Bay on Friday.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon touched down in Gisborne this morning for his second visit in a week since the region was devastated by severe weather last Thursday.
He was accompanied by East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick, along with Minister for Housing Chris Bishop and Associate Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Chris Penk.
The group stopped by Te Araroa and Hicks Bay, after Luxon had flown into the area the previous Friday.
Speaking to media at the Tairāwhiti Emergency Management Centre in the afternoon, he said the “very successful” trip was intended to get on the ground to understand the issues.
“We’re very struck by the huge challenges in the area and across the roading network,” Luxon said.
“There has been very good coordination between local government, central government, our agencies, iwi have been outstanding, marae across the country, but particularly here as well.
“A lot of time was spent understanding what they need us to do in order to support them.”
He said small, isolated, rural communities had borne the impact.
“In some ways, what we have seen has been much bigger and deeper than what we experienced through Gabrielle in those particular communities.”
When asked if it was time to reprioritise resilience for roads in and out of the region following the closures of Waioweka Gorge and State Highway 35, Luxon said the Government was already doing that.
“We put a huge investment into our national land transport fund. As we build back those roads, if you think about the work we did on State Highway 25 in the Coromandel and the work we are doing on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway, which is twice as resilient to floods [compared to] the road that was there previously.”
Bishop said the aim was to reopen Waioweka Gorge to at least one lane in the “next week or so” and described the work as a “significant challenge”.
He added that SH35 was going to be “clearly very tricky” too.
When asked if upgrades were on the agenda for either highway, he said: “We will cross that bridge when we get to it, literally.
“Let’s just get through the response and the recovery. We also need to let things settle a bit so that NZTA and the contractors and the team can actually get out there and assess the scale of the damage.
“Some of those things only become apparent as you get into the work.”
Bishop earlier described Waioweka Gorge in a statement as “one of the most significant closures we’ve seen”.
There was still an estimated thousand truckloads of material to remove.
An estimated 500,000 cubic metres of material has come down in slips and landslides across SH35, with one major slip involving nearly 250,000 cubic metres of material between Te Araroa and Pōtaka only coming down in the last couple of days.
“The National Land Transport Fund has a specific category of funding for emergency work, so for both state highways and for local roads and there is potentially further funding available if and when required, so it is not a money issue, we’ve just got to get in there and look at what is required,” Bishop said.
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston announced today that Civil Defence payments would be available for people affected by the severe weather in specific areas of Northland, Bay of Plenty and East Coast to help cover some emergency costs.
“We want to make sure those communities that are doing it tough because of the latest severe weather event have as much support as possible,” Upston said.
“By the end of [Thursday], if you’re based in Rawhiti, Ngaiotonga, Bland Bay (Whangaruru North), Punaruku, Ōakura (Whangaruru South), Mokau, Helena Bay, Mimiwhangata, Whananaki, Waioweka Gorge, Hicks Bay, Te Araroa and have been impacted by the recent severe weather event you may be able to get help to pay for food, bedding, clothing, accommodation or loss of livelihood.
“You don’t have to be on a benefit to qualify for a Civil Defence payment, and non-residents in these areas may be eligible.”
She encouraged those who wanted to apply to talk to someone from their local welfare team at a Civil Defence centre, or phone MSD’s general enquiries team on 0800 559 009.