At the time of writing, we are in a National State of Emergency. Aotearoa New Zealand has been overwhelmingly affected by both the flooding events from the end of January, and Cyclone Gabrielle.
More than 3,000 people are still unaccounted for. The lives lost and livelihoods upended are a tragedy for our communities, whānau and friends.
I want to acknowledge the sheer exhaustion many are feeling. After nearly three years of grappling with Covid-19, the arrival of not one but two climate-change amplified natural disasters can feel totally overwhelming. Human connection, talking through problems, finding some recreation and rest are all seemingly silly but scientifically critical to maintaining mental wellbeing throughout disasters. Family and friends are good to turn to, but please always know you can call or text 1737 for help when you need it.
When light first broke on Saturday morning after the floods, I walked through Ponsonby and the Bays’ backstreets, through our city centre and downtown to check in with locals, business owners and residents. It was clear then that the scale of disruption and devastation would sit with us for a long time. Since then, Cyclone Gabrielle has brought an even larger scale of destruction across the North Island.
Our continuing work must be connecting people to the support and services they need, along with simultaneously rebuilding our neighbourhoods for greater climate resilience while urgently curbing carbon emissions. We must walk and chew gum. Adaptation is crucial, given the amount of climate changing emissions already spewed into the atmosphere, but it cannot come at the expense of mitigating emissions. That’s because, ultimately, you can’t adapt to an unliveable climate.
The “system” wasn’t working before the flooding and it didn’t work during. We can choose whether it works in the future. All of it is political because it’s about the legacy of decisions that have been made on all of our behalf.
People in our communities will be fixing their homes and finding new ones and navigating insurance claims and under financial strain for months to come. We can’t keep thinking that all we need to do is rearrange the deck chairs. We need a new boat.
It is encouraging that the mayor has announced a proposed additional $20 million in his annual budget proposal for the flood response. There’s still a long way to go to address the decades of infrastructural underinvestment though, which the budget still largely reflects. You see this in simultaneous proposals like stalling the water quality targeted rate, estimated to invest $361 million in major storm and wastewater improvements over a decade. This is very literally happening in our backyard right now, with new pipes separating pipes in St Marys and Herne Bay and St Mary’s Bay and Masefield Beach improvements to reduce overflow from over 100 times a year, to 20 in stage one and 6 in stage two. We can’t afford any more delays.
The decisions made now will exacerbate or mitigate climate change and the impacts we feel from more extreme weather events. We need all levels of governance making long-term, intergenerational decisions that will outlive their personal polling concerns.
You may have seen Green Co-Leader, James Shaw, characteristically reaching across the aisle for cross-party support on the Climate Adaptation Bill which will finally deal to long term, expensive and difficult problems such as managing coastal retreat. You will continue to see the Greens working for a warrant of fitness for rental homes, especially critical in the wake of a crisis likely to make our already-damp homes even damper, and with it greater risk to health of the 1.4million renters in this country. We will continue to fight for more urban food farms, restoring wetlands, density done well, daylighting streams (Waihorotiu Queen Street, anyone?) and to redistribute resources to the community frontlines that responded to these disasters faster and more efficiently than ‘the system’ could ever hope to.
My office, as always, is here to help through the bad times and the good. Don’t hesitate to send us an email or give us a ring if there’s anything we can do to assist you. (Chlöe Swarbrick)
Chlöe Swarbrick, T: 09 378 4810, E: chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz
www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick
#ponsonbynews #iloveponsonby #ponsonby #auckland #aucklandshippestrip #onlyponsonby #ponsonbyroad #Greylynn #freemansbay #westmere #ponsonby #hernebay #stmarysbay #archhill #coxsbay #westernsprings #ChlöeSwarbrickAucklandCentralMP #greenpartyNZ