Pipiwharauroa

Mere Pōhatu

RECOVER and SLOW WATER MOVEMENT

As our roads become drivable again, we can come together more often to lead our lives, conduct our business, meet our friends and whānau, go to sport, get to education, arrange appointments, get ourselves ready for Winter, re-stock our cupboards, clean up our grounds, land and homes and attend to our mental and physical wellbeing. We tend to put the cyclone and bad weather behind us.

I asked my mokopuna to help me do a Climate Change submission to the Land Use Inquiry chaired by her Taua Hekia. She told me, and she learnt about this at Kaiti School, about the water cycle. She explained evaporation, condensation and precipitation to me. This is what she had to say about precipitation. “Well,” she said. “That's the last part of the water cycle. “The clouds crash into one another and the water bursts out from the sky in streams and lands in our gardens, on our mountains, lawns and all the soil, rivers, lakes and

Meka Whaitiri

Tēnā tātou kaota

I’ve been on the ground across IkaroaRāwhiti, listening to how many of you have been impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. I want to assure you that myself, Minister Allan and MPs are working together on the cyclone recovery. No one person has all the answers, which is why I am focused on engaging, listening and working with different communities and groups to understand how the Government can best provide support. While I’m doing what I can in my own capacity, each community will have different needs – and it’s the people in each community who will understand this.

The recovery is going to take time, this is why the Government is ensuring the cyclone response is community driven and community-led. My role is about looking across communities to advocate for the most pressing needs, and how we as a Government streams and seas.” Then she said, “the cycle starts all over again.”

The rise of the water table. Scary. Normally trees will help us in two important ways. They would break the fall of the rain with their leaves and then they would help to soak the water up after it has been sifted through the trees undergrowth. Any rate. Lots of learnings. We all should know what happened and how we all reacted.

We all need to be plumbers in our own right. Gardeners. Foresters. We all use the whenua whether we are big production growers of food for money, rent a house in town, or live in or on earth. All of us are in the forestry industry, the horticulture industry, farming, and every other harvesting activity. We all need to be a part of the slow water movement. Start at your house. Clear your drains. Observe where your water goes. Be careful about what goes down your drain. Know where your storm water and wastewater goes. And definitely don’t be chucking stuff out your car and truck windows as you motor along the troubled SH35 and SH2. It all ends up blocking the drains.

Get involved with Local Government planning. Don't let flood protection rule your rates and definitely don't be a party to Catchment planning in your part of our geography without your input. Every drain, can have a coordinated response. It’s important both central and local government coordinate and work together to ensure we are getting help to where it is required. The Government recently approved an additional $25 million to help more businesses in the clean-up from the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle affected regions to get them back on their feet. This will allow more firms to be supported up to the $40,000 per-business. This follows earlier support of $50 million to assist the business community with their immediate cashflow needs.

Alongside help for businesses, the Government has provided other supports.

• An initial $250 million for Waka Kotahi and local councils to assess and fix roads

• $74 million for affected farmers and growers to clean up and re-establish their businesses

• $5 million to Mayoral Relief Funds

• More than $28.4 million in Civil Defence Payments

• Inquiry announced into forestry slash and land use after Cyclone Gabrielle

• A new Recovery Visa created to help bring in additional specialist workers

• Temporary Accommodation Service activated in affected regions river and waterway matters. Every tree, and finding the right tree and vegetation to help the heavy hard rain hit our fields lightly and in a graduated process is important.

Rongowhakaata iwi, you deserve our thanks. I love that your purchase of a Native Nursery is such a huge part of your future investment strategy. I love that Soraya leads out learning and seminars and actions to increase vegetation where it's required. She’s joined by Reweti at Tūranga Health who loves great community well-being. He runs out health services in a circuit way.

Sticking to his mandate and, like Soraya, bringing what he knows best to the whānau in a regular planned way. It's all purposeful, slow and deliberate. Look at the Railway Reserve. Absolutely beautiful. Planting. Growth. And how about the old police station? It stood there as a symbol and sentinel of our shambolic misfortunes. The whole of Tūranga had a view about it.

Rongowhakaata has taken a lot of rubbish talking about them and the police station. It's all but gone now folks. Pīpīwharauroa readers know that this is huge. It represents how this iwi is going to forge ahead. Bringing back the environment to its former glory. Congratulations Iwi Trust. You are inspiring us to be careful with our earth. That’s refreshing.

• $15 million short-term relief package to support Māori communities

• A further $17.5 million to support communities and community providers

• $3.25 million to support the immediate mental wellbeing needs of people impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle

• $15 million for councils to remove rubbish

In Tairāwhiti, $14 million has been spent on repairs to local roads, the Mayoral Relief Fund and the Disaster Relief Fund have distributed just over $1.5million todate, 800-900 businesses have applied for Government business grant funding. Of this, over 600 applications have so far been approved, with over $6 million in funds distributed. It’s great to see that work is progressing. Minister Kiri Allan has done great work as the Ministerial Lead for the Cyclone response for Tairāwhiti and Bay of Plenty. I know it’s been a tough few years, and I know this has been a traumatic event and unsettling time for so many. My message to you all, whether you’re an employer, a student, elderly, low income or high income earners. We have your back and we’re going to help you get through this.