Preparing for the challenges ahead

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

Opinion

The summer holiday will come to an end for many this weekend, so it’s time to start looking to the year ahead.

That includes our road workers who have had a well-earned break — over the busy holiday travelling period — from a huge year of repairing, rebuilding and reconnecting the region’s storm-battered network. This workforce has never been more important for Tairāwhiti and should be refreshed as they launch back into the massive challenge next week. Hopefully they will get good weather for the rest of the summer construction season.

Gisborne District Council also reopens next week. Many of its staff have been integral to the regional response to a torrid year of severe weather events. Sadly, they also at times felt the lash of a community under stress, with a 40 percent hike in abuse and threats against council staff. Hopefully that is all behind us now, and they return to work recharged.

The big challenge for the executive team, guided by councillors and the Mayor, is to work out how to ramp up the recovery and resilience work the district needs as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, while ensuring that residents are not whacked too hard with unaffordable rates rises.

They should cut back and make savings on some non-essential “business as usual” to help achieve this. Will 2024 also be the year a sale of council-owned Tauwhareparae Farms starts being seriously put on the table?

Most importantly, though, they and our other regional leaders will need to bring the new Government alongside, and there are plans to present to Ministers here in mid-to-late February on the district’s economic priorities, needs and aspirations.

Our recovery from the damage of Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle and the other heavy rain events has to involve a strong partnership between local and central government, iwi, businesses and the community at large. For this, before confirming what further Government support we are seeking, we need unity on what our priorities are. Finding that unity will be a key first challenge for 2024.

It has been great to have a more traditional Gisborne summer over the holiday period, which will have helped in teasing out the stresses and strains of a difficult year. Hopefully you and your whānau have had a nice, relaxing break and, for the many who have needed a reset, quality time together and for yourselves.

To all those who have worked over the holiday, hopefully you got at least some quality time off and maybe have a holiday booked for the near future.

This is going to be a better year for Tairāwhiti — it can’t be worse! — but making it a success will require working together with common cause. That has to be our resolution.