Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty says he visited the Far North at the first opportunity. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Emergency Management Minister is promising Northland cash to fix its flood-damaged roads, but cannot say how much or when he will deliver on the commitment.
Today, McAnulty flew over the severely flood damage section of the State Highway 1, closed at the Mangamuka Gorge. He also saw other busted regional roads.
It means locals and visitors are having to take lengthy diversions and freighting is costing business more in time and money.
The Far North Deputy Mayor had been critical of the government's response, earlier saying no minister had gone to view the damage since the highway closure mid-August and the district was not a priority.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty told Checkpoint that was not true.
"I'm not sure that's a fair assessment," he said. "In any weather event you're going to prioritise those regions that declare local emergencies. And so with the same weather event that hit Northland we also had Taranaki hit Nelson, Tasman, West Coast, Buller and Marlborough and obviously we're going to prioritise those regions that had state of emergencies.
"But at the first opportunity that I was able and appropriate, I came up today and that was a date that we agreed with the mayor actually last week and I was grateful for the opportunity," McAnulty said.
Although the minister had already been scheduled to travel to Northland, local authorities had agreed it was a suitable time.
"I was programmed to come up here as part of my tour of rural and provincial councils and when I spoke to mayor John Carter last week, he agreed that today would be the appropriate day."
Damage on SH1 through Mangamuka Gorge. Photo: Supplied / Waka Kotahi
During his time in the area, McAnulty said he saw the extent of the significant damage facing Northland's roads.
"Extensive damage, not just on State Highway 1, but also on local roads as well," he said. "It's going take some time to, not just clear the damage, but also assess the extent of it.
"There's fifteen slips along State Highway 1, and four of them need pretty significant geotechnical assessments, so Waka Kotahi started straight away, but it's still going to take some time."
The repairs would likely require a significant financial outlay to restore the region's roading network to its previous capacity, he said.
Future infrastructure investment needed to be made with a focus on resilience, he said.
"I think it signals something that every region in the whole country need to be aware of is ultimately with climate change these weather events, they're going to become more frequent, they're gonna become more severe."
Waka Kotahi says a temporary track has been cut through this large slip at the southern end of Mangamuka Gorge. Photo: Supplied / Waka Kotahi
McAnulty said he would raise locals' concerns with senior ministers and potentially the Prime Minister who he was set to meet with in Wellington tonight.
However, specific funding requests were not yet on the agenda, he said.
"I won't be asking for any specifics until we get that assessment done. We need to understand the extent of the damage first, we're talking about not just over slips, but also under slips. We're talking about significant cracks in the road that are still moving.
"This is gonna take some time, but other ministers through their portfolios, they need to be aware of the extent of the damage, the disruption that it's causing in Northland and potentially what assistance could be available."
He guaranteed the region would receive support but said he was unable to go into details about how much money was on the way.
"Ultimately we're talking about local roads and state highway and even though we've seen a $50 million increase in funding available to the Council since we came into government for local roads, that's still not doing what needs to be done due to the under investment that they're facing leading up to the point that we got in."
He rejected assertions that the government was not prioritising the region.
Himself, Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis and Northland MP Willow Jean-Prime had constantly been in contact with the local council since flood damage had brought the region's roading network to a near halt, McAnulty said.