State highways in Tairāwhiti, Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, Coromandel and Northland damaged in this year’s cyclones are the first to benefit from a $6 billion climate change resilience fund.

Minister for Cyclone Recovery Grant Robertson today announced the first tranche of the fund - $567 million - would go towards rebuilding those roads as part of the National Resilience Plan announced in May’s Budget.

That resilience fund was set up to support building infrastructure such as roading and rail, as well as telecommunications and electricity transmission, to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

“At the time, we indicated that immediate focus would be on building back better from the North Island weather events earlier in the year,” Robertson said.

 “Over time, the plan will also address the severe infrastructure deficits that have held New Zealand back.

“We need to ensure that transport infrastructure is rebuilt quickly post the weather events, but also that they are built in a resilient way as increasingly severe weather events will continue to hit New Zealand.”

The Government had already committed to spending an extra $525m on critical repairs immediately following February’s devastating cyclones.

Speaking on the announcement at today’s post-Cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government also welcomed a package from Hawke’s Bay mayors about buying out properties in their region.

Councils will need to ratify and consult with their communities. The Government had agreed to contribute to flood protection.

Leaving a home in a community was not an easy decision, Hipkins said. But starting anew without fear of floods or landslides was a good opportunity.

He said they were hoping to see similar decisions reached in other affected regions shortly.

Minister of Transport David Parker said that now almost all links had been restored in cyclone- and flood-affected areas, many of those roads needed to be made safer and more resilient.

“We need permanent solutions in places where Bailey bridges were put in to reopen river crossings. This extra funding will replace or strengthen and rebuild damaged bridges,” said Parker.

“It will also improve the road surface on major stretches of road where potholes and cracks left after the weather events have made travel slow and frustrating for locals.”

The Government had also contributed $210m to local road repairs, which were normally the responsibility of local government.

PM responds to National transport package

When asked about National’s recently-released transport package, which would scrap Wellington’s long-awaited transport plan ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’, Hipkins said the biggest issue was how much it would cost and how it would be funded.

He called on National to front up on the real costs of their proposed roads.

On ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’, Hipkins said not as much progress had been made as needed.

“It is something we will be looking closely at.”

His comments came after Parker failed to express confidence in the project earlier today.

He said they had been looking closely at “transport stuff” as part of reprioritisations, but would not be making any announcements on that today.

He said the project had still not been able to reach agreement on some of its major elements.

He said there was Government policy and Labour policy and the two might not completely “marry up”.

On transport policy and Auckland’s light rail, Hipkins said the Government policy on that had not changed. He said he was not announcing Labour’s policy today.

Hipkins added an announcement on the Auckland Harbour crossing would be announced in the next few weeks.

Tax

Hipkins said the party’s tax package would still be announced “within the next few weeks”, as indicated last week.

National “took a guess” at what their policy would be, he said.

Hipkins said a sugar tax was not on the table as part of their tax policy.

Football Ferns’ achievement

When asked about the Football Ferns bowing out of the Women’s Football World Cup after their draw with Switzerland last night, Hipkins said he wanted to acknowledge their effort and the fact they had gone further than any other New Zealand football team in a World Cup by getting a win over Norway.

“They have inspired a whole generation of young athletes.”