Cyclone Gabrielle recovery efforts on the East Coast have been criticised by the Human Rights Commission as being too centrally driven, with local communities shut out of decision-making.
Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt, who visited Wairoa, Gisborne, Uawa/Tolaga Bay and Te Araroa with a delegation last week, said residents wanted the Government and councils to support community-led responses.
“We heard loud and clear that communities know the solutions. They have the knowledge, insights, relationships and experience that should be determining what development and recovery looks like.”
Many expressed a sense of powerlessness and spoke of being wedged between the impacts of forestry and farming on the land and the waterways around them.
The threat of more frequent and intense weather events due to climate change, and the centralisation of resources and power away from them - the legacy of colonisation - were also issues raised, Hunt said.
