Gisborne’s mayor says the region needs to stop playing “whack-a-mole” with fixing roads and instead focus on long-term investment to give confidence to residents and businesses.
Mayor Rehette Stoltz’s comments came as stakeholders, engineers and decision-makers gathered at Waikanae Surf Club on Wednesday to launch a paper examining how to strengthen transport links across New Zealand.
The report, published by engineering and consulting firm WSP, recommended prioritising critical infrastructure, maintaining airport viability, exploring expanded coastal shipping and investigating central government co-funding for smaller ports.
It also called for better national planning across transport modes, rather than relying on expensive road infrastructure where rail or shipping might be viable alternatives.
Author Kali Mercier, a WSP fellow and deputy director of the Helen Clark Foundation, outlined risks of relying heavily on roads, with about 6000 geological and hydrological events affecting state highways each year, disconnecting communities without alternative routes.
With rail unlikely to be restored to Gisborne and deteriorating wharves limiting coastal shipping, State Highway 35 remained the primary transport and supply link for the East Coast.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence group controller Ben Green told Breakfast that "controlled access" was also being restored to Te Araroa township. (Source: Breakfast)
Tairāwhiti accounted for 2% of the country’s freight, much of which travelled by road.
The report presentation was followed by a panel discussion hosted by WSP pou arataki (director) Reginald Proffit, featuring Mercier, Stoltz, Eastland Port chief executive Andrew Gaddum and WSP director of regions Chris Davies.
Stoltz said transport disruptions affected business confidence and community wellbeing, particularly when residents could not rely on connections to other regions.
"If you have to book a holiday or you have to open a new business, you want to know you can get your product in and out of the region," she said.
Recently, business confidence was affected by convoys through the Waiōweka Gorge, and community wellbeing declined because of uncertainty about connection to other regions.
While emergency responses had improved after repeated weather events, Stoltz said the region needed long-term investment rather than repeatedly repairing damaged infrastructure.
"We are really, really tired of being resilient.
"We need to start thinking long term because we are playing whack-a-mole. We see something breaking, and we patch it, and then we move on."
Breakfast spoke to Thames-Coromandel Mayor Peter Revell, Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale, Whakatāne Deputy Mayor Julie Jukes and Gisborne District Mayor Rehette Stoltz following Cyclone Vaianu. (Source: Breakfast)
She pointed to recurring slip repairs on Kopuaroa Hill, saying long-term investment decades ago could have avoided repeated spending.
"We do not have the luxury to build new. We can barely maintain what we have."
Long-term planning, unaffected by local and central government, was needed to achieve the best outcomes for communities, she said.
Gaddum said Tairāwhiti’s forestry, sheep and beef industries had significant potential, but unreliable transport links discouraged investment.
"f you’re processing that product or doing something with it and you don’t know if you’re going to be able to get it to market, then why would you invest in the region?"
He praised improved co-ordination between council, Eastland Port and industry after recent events, but said coastal shipping and air freight needed to be integrated into everyday operations rather than activated only during emergencies.
Mercier said transport planning needed to account for transport poverty and access to essential services, particularly in regions where air travel provided an important link to healthcare.
She suggested regional airport subsidies, similar to those used in Canada and the United States, could help maintain routes when demand was low.
She called for multiple transport options to be assessed for long-term connectivity, rather than developing separate business cases for individual roads, railways or other infrastructure.
"We might do a business case for that road, and we might do another business case for that rail, but we might not look across all the different options and work out what is the lowest cost, best benefit option across all of those and then go for that."
Slip-damaged State Highway 2 is a crucial 37km stretch between Ōpōtiki and Gisborne. (Source: 1News)
Proffit said regional connectivity was about transport, health, wellbeing and economic opportunity.
With major events such as Rhythm and Vines and businesses including Indevin leaving the region, he said Tairāwhiti needed greater certainty to attract investment and realise its economic potential.
“Look at it, it’s more than just beautiful; it’s productive,” he said.
Providing reliable connections and greater certainty would be essential to unlocking that potential, he said.
– Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
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