‘Better Off’ funds from 2022 used for new climate project post-Gabrielle

Simin Williams is a concerned Tairāwhiti resident who is interested in democratic processes 

The previous Labour Government created a $2 billion “Better Off” fund for local councils, in support of its Three Waters proposal. 

Gisborne’s share of the first tranche of $500m was $7.21m, for which it could apply for projects that “must help build resilience to climate change or natural hazards, enable housing development and growth or support community improvements”. 

Gisborne district councillors voted eight to five in August 2022 to accept this fund, in spite of it being labelled a “lolly scramble” by the councillors. 

A Gisborne Herald article on August 12, 2022 stated: 

“Councillors were told government funding could not be put in a fund to enable them to make more detailed deliberations or to gain further information. 

“In a report before councillors, the funded projects were supported ‘by a couple of paragraphs’ each.” 

The six projects to get that funding, chosen in haste to meet the deadline set by the Government - with no consultation with the community - were: 

• $2.9m to set up systems to separate waste from households so compostable waste could be collected for future conversion to energy. 

• $1.5 million for the continuation of the Taruheru cycleway. 

• $1m to support marae with infrastructure upgrades to ensure their future sustainability - for example, drinking water, wastewater and renewable energy. 

• $810,000 for solar panels for Kiwa Pools. 

• $400,000 to remediate land on the Turanganui and Waikanae riverbank and restore the mauri of the area. 

• $400,000 to help communities understand and plan for the future impacts of climate change. 

Please note the date, August 2022 - well before Gabrielle. 

We were informed via an article in the Gisborne Herald in February 2024: 

“A ‘Citizen Assembly’ is being set up here to provide recommendations on how the region can recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and how to implement a climate change adaptation plan. 

“The project was mentioned in Gisborne District Council’s recent submission to the Parliamentary Environment Select Committee, which also listed an itinerary of ‘gaps’ in Government funding for the region’s cyclone recovery and climate change adaptation in the form of ‘community retreat’.” 

And: “Alongside cyclone recovery, GDC has commissioned Te Weu Tairāwhiti (a local collective of local researchers and actionists) to carry out a deliberative democracy project as a trial for an alternative approach to empowering community-led decision-making.” 

What surprised me most was that: “The project is funded by the Better Off funding under the water services reforms and will focus on learning lessons from several local case studies about how communities are recovering from Cyclone Gabrielle. It will also organise a ‘regional deliberative citizen assembly process’ to come up with recommendations on how the council, along with private, community and public sector stakeholders, can best facilitate and support communities to develop their own adaptation plans and contribute to the development of regional adaptation plans,” the submission said. 

I can understand that at the time GDC applied for the $7.21m Better Off funding, it didn’t have time to consult with the community - but what was its excuse in February 2024? How did the funding end up being diverted to a new project, post-Gabrielle? What was done with that $400,000 between August 2022 and prior to Gabrielle to “help build resilience to climate change”? 

Had the council asked Gisborne residents, maybe they would have chosen what was left of the $400,000 to go directly to many other worthy post-Gabrielle projects. 

Could council update us with regard to what this $400,000 has been spent on so far? And come to think of it, regarding the rest of the projects - were all the funds spent on the specified projects? Were those projects finished on time and on budget?