Former Kapiti Coast District Councillor and local government reform advocate Gwynn Compton has called on central government to establish a stand alone New Zealand Reconstruction Authority with special powers and a dedicated ministerial portfolio to help provide leadership, direction and coordination in the wake of recent Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
‘With recovery efforts well under way and thoughts beginning to turn to rebuilding after the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle, there’s a compelling case to be made for a specialist New Zealand reconstruction authority and associated ministerial portfolio to ensure we build back better, all the while sharing expertise and making the most of every dollar spent instead of duplicating efforts,’ Mr. Compton said.
‘Taking lessons learned from the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and other successful overseas examples such as the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) – established following several devastating flood and cyclone events in the summer of 2010-11, a New Zealand Reconstruction Authority with appropriate special powers and funding would be invaluable in helping lead and coordinate reconstruction efforts in response to both the current national emergency and future natural disasters.’
Compton says the sheer scale and magnitude of the damage done by Cyclone Gabrielle, covering much of the North Island and directly impacting hundreds of thousands of people, means that with a repair bill already estimated by Finance Minister Grant Robertson to be at least $13 Billion, there is a pressing need to ensure there is a coordinated approach taken across the dozens of local authorities, iwi, government departments, communities and industries that will be involved in rebuilding projects.’
‘With significant rebuilding of fundamental infrastructure required across much of the North Island, along with huge human, social, environmental and economic costs of Cyclone Gabrielle, we need to make sure we get this done right so we build back better in a far more resilient way. We need to be better prepared for future natural disasters as well as ensuring that whatever does get built back contributes to mitigating or adapting to climate change.
‘Looking back over the years we’ve had a run of significant natural disasters, with large earthquakes in Canterbury, Seddon and Kaikoura, and numerous major flooding and storm events. It’s a case of when not if, you’ll need to coordinate large-scale rebuilds, and we need to make sure we have the capacity to lead massive and long-term reconstruction efforts in place permanently, with a minister to provide the necessary leadership and responsibility at the Cabinet level to help things get done.’
By the time the vultures get wind of the estimated 13 billion that cost will double.
Whatever happens dont involve the government in anything that is critical. They simply cannot perform at any level.
They couldn’t organise a p***up in a pub. When are we going to learn that we need to take control at a “real” level.
Govt. should be shrinking not growing…..the smaller the govt. the better.
With NONE of ‘this Govt.’ would be even better still.
I’m very sceptical of this Build Back Better line uttered by none other than Helen Clarke some time ago.
Nothing better than the homestead you have a picture of on the news item itself.
The whole idea of better needs to be qualified.
Build back Better = 6uild 6ack 6etter, or…666
This is what was propagated when Biden was running for President…
It’s a WEF catch-phrase,
And what it means is that THEIR financial pockets will be…’built back better’…but not ours!!!!!!!
‘Let’s Do This’ is another phrase adopted from Communist China via translation.
Rebuilding needs to be on higher ground, away from river valleys, hillsides, and known unstable soil plasticity.
All houses that can be repaired and moved should be sent to high ground, and the land that they used to sit on retired and turned over to DoC in a land-swap scheme.
Underground utilities on the higher elevations need to be started ASAP, as well as roads to service the newly-developed higher elevation reinstalled housing areas.
The Commerce Commission also needs to outlaw property auctions and deadline bid dates on real estate.
THAT is what has driven up real estate prices over the last 10 years, along with narcissistic, psychopathic greed on the part of the so-called ‘brokers’…!
Great comments, you talked about the geo engineering and starting new infrastructure on higher ground too when debating the ‘virtues’ of policing minors on the West Coast.
Build back better is evil and should not be taken lightly. Very sneaky.
We don’t want people who have been on council and failed the people dismally by allowing building consents in flood paths to give advice. We don’t want more “authority” and more little dictators taking ever-more from the people. We don’t want these failures. What we do what is people get things done, like the community. At this stage with all the dismal failures from government and councils we could quite happily manage better without them.