Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will chair Cabinet today Photo / Mark Mitchell
Cabinet will meet today for the first time since the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle became clear.
The death toll now stands at 11, with grave concerns for more.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said on Sunday that Finance Minister Grant Robertson would be working with Treasury officials overnight to come up with an early support package. This would likely be the first part of a wider programme of economic support for the region, which will be rolled out over the coming weeks.
“Clearly it’s not going to be the final word on the matter though because it is going to take us a while to identify exactly what the need is and we are going to want to make sure we are targeting the right areas in terms of additional support,” Hipkins said.
The Government is slowly shifting from the initial response to the emergency, to the long slog of rebuild and recovery.
Hipkins warned “there is no doubt that as a country we have a steep mountain ahead of us” but said “we will climb it together”.
He said the Government’s focus would shift to the longer term.
“In other areas, recovery is starting to get under way. As the extent of the damage and need becomes clearer, we will be able to shape our response accordingly,” Hipkins said.
He warned the cyclone would come with “a big price tag”, which would force the Government to “reprioritise and refocus our resources”
This would mean re-looking at the Government’s budget, which is in its final stages.
“If we are going to build back better, and build back quickly, some tough calls are going to have to be made and we are absolutely committed to doing that,” Hipkins said.
He said there were some ”big Budget calls” to be made in the coming days.
“People will expect, given the size and scale we are dealing with, that we are going to need to make some prioritisation decisions. Some of the things we might have been aiming to achieve we won’t now be able to achieve,” Hipkins said.
Robertson told Q+A with Jack Tame on Sunday that the Government was relooking at the overall level of spending in the budget.
“That’s what we’re reassessing now. You can imagine the pressure that responding to a massive event like this will have,” Robertson said.
“We save for a rainy day, we happen to be having a lot of them at the moment and we will respond,” he said.
The HMNZS Canterbury will leave Lyttelton today and is scheduled to arrive in Napier on Tuesday along with equipment to help with the emergency response.
New Zealand has accepted support from a number of countries. Twenty-five Australian emergency response staff are on the ground in Hawke’s Bay, with two more helping the national co-ordination centre.
On Sunday, Hipkins accepted an offer of help from Fiji, which will send 10 defence force staff, four fire crew members, and four disaster management staff.
The US and Australia are also helping with satellite imagery and the Government is in the final stages of securing the help of an Australian C-130 Hercules to help with the recovery.
There were “a dozen or so” other offers of assistance from other countries.
Hipkins also cancelled plans to fly to Fiji next week for a Pacific Islands Forum special leaders’ retreat. It would have been Hipkins’ first meeting with forum leaders since becoming Prime Minister and an important opportunity to welcome Kiribati back into the forum after its dramatic withdrawal last year.
Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni will travel in his place.
“In the face of the increasingly complex challenges posed to the Pacific — including from climate change, the impacts of which are currently being felt here in New Zealand — a unified approach to collective action has never been more important,” Sepuloni said.
Hipkins said he would be looking for “opportunities to connect with Pacific Island leaders as soon as possible”.
Hipkins warned stress levels were high after almost a week without power, but urged calm.
“I know how hard it is, but I ask everyone to remain calm,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins said he was aware of claims about a “much higher death toll” than had been publicly reported. He urged caution with these reports and asked people who wanted to to report deaths to the police.
“Police are not sitting on significant information about a large number of deaths or anything like that,” Hipkins said.
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