Land inquiry progress report found wanting

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

Iwi chairs of Ngāti Porou and Te Aitanga a Māhaki are disappointed by the update, released last week, on progress implementing recommendations from the Land Use in Tairāwhiti Inquiry report Outrage to Optimism.

“We are witnessing ecosystem collapse, failure of infrastructure and the relentless toll this is taking on whānau, whenua, and wellbeing,” the iwi chairs said in a joint statement.

“The risks and threats of this happening were starkly documented in the report of the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use in Tairāwhiti, Outrage to Optimism just last month. The report’s 49 recommendations delivered an integrated and sustainable way forward for our region — a blueprint for climate adapted transformation,” Te Aitanga a Mahaki chair Pene Brown said.

“On Thursday, we received the Ministers’ response. While we are grateful for funding to remove slash to help with the safety of our communities, the response falls far short of our expectations, and of what is critically necessary,” he said.

The Cabinet paper states: “Given the panel has made wide-ranging recommendations that cut across multiple portfolios and work programmes, we propose to report back again to Cabinet on progress responding to the panel’s recommendations by the end of July 2023.”

Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou chairman Sir Selwyn Parata said, “We don’t need a government process update, we need action now.”

“Let’s not confuse weather recovery measures with the much larger crisis that has arrived and is here to stay,” he said.

The view of both iwi is that climate change “has both laid bare and made worse, the long-term underinvestment in infrastructure, the long-term mismatch between land use and land form, and the long-term deprivation of communities across Tairāwhiti”.

“We need the integrated interventions and solutions that will allow our region to move from recovery, to reset, adaption, and transformation. We have made it clear time and again that we want to work with local and central government to make progress. We are ready — work with us,” said Sir Selwyn and Mr Brown

They said they would now have to pin their hopes on implementation of the Ministerial Inquiry Report on scheduled meetings with the Ministry for the Environment this week, and with senior Ministers when they visit Tairāwhiti.