It comes as the Cyclone Recovery Minister portfolio has been ditched and replaced with a new Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery.
On Friday, 40 days after the election, National, Act, and NZ First announced a deal that will enable the three parties to form a government.
A list of ministerial positions was also revealed including a 20-strong Cabinet and a further eight ministers outside Cabinet. Hawke’s Bay MPs were not named on that list.
Hawke’s Bay has three National MPs - Katie Nimon (Napier), Catherine Wedd (Tukituki), and Mike Butterick (Wairarapa) - who are all newcomers to Parliament.
Napier MP Nimon (who was number 22 on the National list heading into the election) said she was happy with the shape of Cabinet, and it would be “incredibly surprising” for a first-time MP to be named a minister.
“I’ve said to everybody I just want to be a really good MP for Napier.”
Labour’s Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (Ikaroa-Rāwhiti) and Kieran McAnulty (Labour list MP) are the other MPs based in Hawke’s Bay.
National MP Mark Mitchell (the Whangaparāoa MP) has been assigned the portfolio of Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery.
That takes the place of a Cyclone Recovery Minister, which was a ministerial portfolio in the previous Government and was set up after the devastation of February 14.
Katie Nimon says she is looking forward to meeting with and briefing the new Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery. Photo / NZME
Nimon said replacing the Cyclone Recovery Minister with a Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery was intentional.
“It is ignorant of us to think that an emergency is not going to happen again,” she said.
“So, what it needs to be is that whoever is working on the recovery needs to be preparing for the next emergency in what work they do. So those roles need to go hand in hand.”
She said people often commented to her: “We need to be learning from [the cyclone] and we can’t just be responding to this emergency. We need to be using everything we are going through now to inform us for the next time, so it doesn’t happen again.”
Nimon said she and the likes of Tukituki MP Wedd would arrange a meeting with Minister Mitchell in the near future, to brief him about the ongoing needs of Hawke’s Bay’s cyclone recovery.
“He has been to Wairoa with me following the cyclone and is well connected with people here, and is well placed to [hold that ministerial position].”
Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise said she was very much looking forward to engaging with the new Government on the region’s cyclone recovery, and “we have worked together as a region to prepare a briefing to the incoming ministers on our regional priorities”.
“Although it is disappointing that no specific minister has been appointed to respond [solely] to this significant natural disaster, I do trust that the new Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery will work closely to assist those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay as well as elsewhere in the country.”
She said the new ministerial role “signals the growing need for our communities to grow their resilience and preparedness for future events” which she supported.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said she was pleased to see the commitment of a $1.2 billion Infrastructure Fund to the regions, under the new Government, which was “something that is very important to Hawke’s Bay in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle”.
“I will be looking with interest for the Government’s view on the Local Government Reform.
“The funding model for councils is broken and it is unaffordable to fund the infrastructure our communities need.
“I am keen to see the new Government work with councils on innovative ideas to address this.”
