‘One or two people’ key to being heard

Gisborne’s road to recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle will take years but there are positive signs of progress, says former Prime Minister Sir Bill English

Speaking from Wellington following a recent visit to Gisborne, Sir Bill, who was the Minister of Finance during the Global Financial Crisis and the Christchurch earthquake recovery, delivered a public talk here on recovery, focusing on what worked well during his experiences.

He said the recipe for getting attention and good support from government was to be locally well-organised with just one or two voices to government. To get government to perform better, demand that just one or two people in government are who the region talks to, and they are people who can actually make decisions.

It was important to try to get agreement locally about priorities and which things matter most, he said.

“Then you get better performance out of government, and I get the sense the region is heading in that direction.

“In the aftermath of these big events people are pretty well organised. Then you get a period where it’s less urgent and you just have to grind through that and get organised and put pressure on the government, by being organised.”

Sir Bill said it appeared the region was through the initial post-disaster phase but there was “clearly a lot more work to do”.

“There are some complex issues that are going to take years to deal with.

“So it’s important for the region to hold shape, not just for months but for years and that you get the respect and commitment from government.”

Sir Bill, who is an advocate for championing social change and works with not-for-profit and charitable entities, ensuring they have access to the latest tools, technology and information to

determine the true value and impact their investment is having on the lives of New Zealanders.

He was in Gisborne at the request of fund managers Jarden and accountancy firm BDO Gisborne, who organised the public event, held at the Lawson Field Theatre on September 8.