Resourcing critical for real change

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

Opinion

It seems the Government will look past the most explosive recommendation in the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Uses report — that it appoint a Commissioner to take over Gisborne District Council’s resource management functions — and focus instead on what Environment Minister David Parker describes as “a series of substantial recommendations to improve the planning rules around log harvesting and slash management”.

Minister Parker makes quite the understatement when he says they recognise local authorities “may require central government assistance to implement changes based on the report’s recommendations”.

Resourcing is the elephant in the room of a report which stresses the urgent need to resolve a “perilous situation” — for Ngati Porou in particular, who are “at risk of becoming homeless and landless” — involving both “huge risk and great opportunity”.

The recommendations are much wider than forestry rules, and many would require significant financial backing . . . none more so than the call for a fully-funded resilience plan for State Highway 35 and SH2, as well as provision of adequate maintenance and renewals. The resilience plan “needs to include innovative design solutions and considerations of routes and large stabilisation works”.

Also in the major investment category are calls to further support wood processing and identify biomass and co-generation opportunities; ensure sufficient funding for the barge and marine facility proposal at Te Araroa; and to approve a Just Transition process for Tairāwhiti and possibly Wairoa, supporting research and development as well as investment for alternative industry growth and workforce development.

There are recommendations to help fund flood-capacity assessment for rivers and agree a long-term funding model for ongoing waterway mangement; to procure high-resolution soil erosion susceptibility maps for Tairāwhiti and Wairoa, require permanent canopy cover on the most erosion-prone land and urgently focus land management policy and funding on stabilising existing gully erosion; consider expanding programmes like Jobs for Nature to match the size of the challenge; and provide urgent resourcing to the Maori Land Court.

Support for regional recovery efforts should include funding for “social, emotional and mental health support for all affected people”, and better access to primary healthcare is recommended for the East Coast.

This inquiry will not achieve a great deal for Tairāwhiti and Wairoa if the Government does not back the most impactful recommendations with adequate resourcing.