Debris at the Esk River mouth north of Napier, six weeks on from the cyclone. Photo / Paul Taylor
Debris at the Esk River mouth north of Napier, six weeks on from the cyclone. Photo / Paul Taylor
Calls are increasing for more parts of Hawke’s Bay devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle to be included in a Government inquiry into forestry slash, amid the Forestry Minister being sacked and an inquiry head resigning.
Questions remain about whether - or to what extent - forestry slash was involved in causingdamage around the wider Napier and Hastings districts during the February 14 floods.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council said following the flood that slash from forestry sites had been a “very minor problem” in the wider Hawke’s Bay disaster.
A two-month Government inquiry was announced after the cyclone to look at land use and forestry slash issues in Gisborne and Wairoa which will be completed by the end of April, but it does not include the rest of Hawke’s Bay.
Calls ramped over the week for all of Hawke’s Bay to be included, and for the inquiry timeframe to be extended.
Former forestry minister Stuart Nash, who is also the Napier MP, was sacked from Cabinet last week for sharing confidential information with donors. Megan Woods has now been appointed as Acting Forestry Minister.
And one of the three inquiry heads, Bill Bayfield, stood down last week after entering into employment negotiations with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council while a panel member for the inquiry.
A house in Rissington, on the outskirts of Napier, buried by silt. Photo / Warren Buckland
He has been replaced by new inquiry member Dave Brash.
Despite the personnel shake-up, Environment Minister David Parker said the scope of the inquiry was not being revisited.
Parker said, during Question Time in Parliament last week, that the “issues are different” in Gisborne and Wairoa compared to the rest of Hawke’s Bay.
“The inquiry is into the slash and other woody debris/sediment issues in the Tairāwhiti [Gisborne] and Wairoa districts.
“Tairāwhiti is very steep and highly erodible. About 25 per cent of the North Island’s most severely eroding land is found in this district.”
He claimed Hawke’s Bay, outside of Wairoa, was different and therefore was not included in the inquiry.
Environment Minister David Parker defended the inquiry in Parliament.
“The huge flood events that came down those rivers [around the Hastings district] pulled out all of the willows.
“The willows then banked up against bridges; the stopbanks then broke.
“The willows and the floodwaters then cleaned up orchards [and] shelterbelts, and those issues are very serious, but they are different in nature to the mainly pine forest-related erosion in the Tairāwhiti and Wairoa areas.”
Parker also confirmed in Parliament that ex-panel member for the inquiry, Bayfield, decided to stand down after what Parker described as “unwisely” entering into employment negotiations with the regional council.
He had since abandoned those negotiations, but it had “created the impression that his duties as a commissioner in the inquiry could have been brought into conflict”, Parker said in Parliament.
Following that resignation and Nash’s sacking, Federated Farmers meat and wool chairman Toby Williams said “this ridiculously short timeframe needs to be extended so that the issues can be thoroughly considered” in the inquiry.
Williams also said the rest of Hawke’s Bay should be added.
Debris at Esk River mouth north of Napier was washed down during the cyclone. Photo / Paul Taylor
“Hawke’s Bay has been as badly affected as Tairāwhiti, and this Government needs to show them some respect as well.”
National Party candidate for Napier, Katie Nimon, said the entire region needed to be added.
“Hawke’s Bay wants answers and some type of accountability,” she said.
“We know this region is not the same as Tairāwhiti, but we still need to understand what caused the damage and how to avoid this happening again.”
