A sizable delegation of Hawke’s Bay representatives recently made the mandatory pilgrimage to Wellington to plead for Government funding support.
Our team – three of our mayors, HBRC chair and a couple of iwi reps – met with PM Luxon, Local Government and Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell.
However, with the Government budget still in lockdown, there are no commitments yet to announce. ‘Shovel ready’ Shane Jones, the only Minister with a known and relevant budget – $1.2 billion for regional development, NZ First coalition agreement – was not in attendance.
At the top of the wish list for the HB delegation is roading support, with in the neighbourhood of $1 billion required for the region’s roading repairs. The workload is so heavy that our councils have sorted out to some extent what will come first, using government funds previously committed in the cases of Hastings and Wairoa.
As one member of the delegation told BayBuzz, “The regional programme is weighted firstly toward CHB and then Wairoa in Year 1, but more is needed for Hastings in Year 2/3. This allows us to spread the funding requests but also be more efficient and pragmatic on deliverability across roading contractors around the region – good clear and committed pipelines are needed for the best contractor value.
Water infrastructure and housing were also on the agenda, as well as speeding up the kaupapa Māori pathway for Category 3 housing, which is lagging.
You can bet that every council impacted by the North Island weather event last year has made their similar pitches to the Government, but if you don’t put your horse in the race, you can’t win anything!
CHB’s Mayor Alex Walker said Councils are open to how and over what period of time additional support is allocated, which aligns with a commitment made to building and maintaining a long-term credible partnership by only asking for what the region can actually deliver in any given time period.
“With a firm commitment to material levels of support over the next several years we can ultimately plan for a better future for the region, and we will continue working with central Government to achieve this.”
What funding support Hawke’s Bay might receive will remain unclear until the Government budget is announced in May.