Region’s $1bn-plus request with Govt

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

Opinion

It’s no surprise that roading makes up the lion’s share of the $1.168 billion requested from the Government in the Cyclone Recovery Plan released this week by Gisborne District Council — $820 million, or 70 percent of the total.

The funding request (yes, request — not an allocation as we incorrectly reported last Saturday based on a misleading council media release) uses upper estimates for roading investment, probably wisely . . . the range for the rebuilding of local roads is $305m-$420m of “immediate funding required to be safe, protected and connected”, and $200m-$400m “required for resilience”.

This is just for the local roads that GDC is responsible for; investment required for our state highways is listed as “unknown” — something for Waka Kotahi to work out, hopefully based on plenty of engagement with local communities, but it would be a fair assumption that fixing and building resilience into SH35 and SH2 would cost around a further $1bn.

Other big expenditure items in the recovery plan are $73m to build resilience into the city’s main water supply system; $39.8m to restore damaged stopbanks and accelerate flood protection projects (eg the Waipaoa western side upgrade); $49.4m to instal processing facilities for woody debris; and $25.2m for the core response such as silt removal, recovery and risk assessments.

It also requests $65m for the continuation of 20 Jobs for Nature projects, focused on recovery and climate resilience, for the next three-to-five years. The district already received $65m for these projects, for employment and biodiversity outcomes, as part of Covid-19 response funding over three years.

The plan includes a section estimating direct economic losses in the region from Cyclone Gabrielle, in five focus sectors, at $415m to $475m. This includes immediate losses and one-off costs for clean-up and infrastructure replacement, as well as economic impacts over the next three to five years.

Most losses are in the horticulture ($200-$220m), agriculture ($140-$160m) and forestry ($50m-$60m) sectors — based on analysis undertaken by these sector groups and aggregated by Trust Tairāwhiti. Estimated losses of $20-$30m for small-to-medium enterprises and $5m in the tourism, accommodation and hospitality sector are sourced from Cyclone Gabrielle grant applications.

These five sectors were identified in early post-Gabrielle discussions as having experienced significant loss; in total they represent about 42 percent of regional GDP ($1bn), about half the number of employees and businesses (about 12,000 and 3000 respectively), and operate on 74 percent of land in the region (622,000 hectares).