Buyout blueprints are “on the way” after the severe flooding in Dunedin last week.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell says they’re currently building legislation that can be used as a template for future disasters, streamlining the process.
He told Mike Hosking that in terms of recovery, they’ve definitely moved the needle, and he’s hoping they’ll have most of the buyouts completed by the end of the year.
Labour’s Ginny Andersen said that there are parts of New Zealand that will continue to be hit by weather events again and again, and the difficult question will be how, over the next 20 years, the safety of those communities can be improved.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time of Politics, Wednesday, Marke Mitchell, Ginny Anderson, good morning
to you. Good morning now Mark, Mark the blueprint you're
in duned and taking a bit of heat, and I'll
come back to that. But the blueprint and the buyout
and stuff. This blueprint that you talked about for the
people who got flooded, is that a new blueprint or
is it part of the ongoing conversation that we've had
in places all over the country that get flooded where
(00:22):
it might be the council's fault, it might be the governments,
it might be the individuals.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
What is it now?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Look, first of all, blueprint's not by words at all.
That's the words of a journalist and it always sort
of gets picked up and attributed to the politician, but
it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We're doing a lot of work around it.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
There's a big edit, a lot of work being done
around adaptation plan that's been led by Simon Watts. I'm
doing a big piece of work around our legislation to
make sure that's fit for purpose and sets us up
as a country to be able to have a really good, strong,
comprehensive response to these weather events that we keep getting
hit by. Daned I just want to give a shout
out right from the controller, all the volunteers, everyone that
(01:01):
turns out and dealt with the flooding events in Otagu,
the Mayor's, the chief executives, and especially for South Dunedin,
the people that were running the pump stations.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
They did an outstanding job.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I was talking to luxon yesterday about that off air,
but are those pump stations better, new, bigger because it
all seemed to work given the circumstances reasonably well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
There was upgrades lessons learned from twenty fifteen, but you
know the way that they manage those pump stations the flows.
They've got big screens that they have to get out
physically clear of debris.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
They did that right throughout the rain event, right through
the night.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And I do want to really specifically acknowledge the guys
and the girls that run those pump stations because though
often invisible to the public, but in my mind, they
made sure that the damage in South to Need in
particular was limited.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Is there something, Jinny, you guys could, in this age
of where allegedly supposed to be on the big issues
kind of to agree with each other. Is it potentially
something that you could coalesce along the lines of at
some point we need to have an understanding in this
country with whether events that somewhere the government fits in
somewhere it's a council, somewhere it's the individual and we
should have a set plan so we all understand where
we're at.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well, it's funny you say that, Mike, because we did
have one and that was all about minit retreat and
about how we deal with situations, particularly post Gabriel and
Dunedin was in that mix. He was a big piece
of working place that got put on the scrap peep
with the cuts and when the Prime Minister was asked
about that specific to duned and he didn't even know
(02:37):
that that program of work had been cut. So then
when you come out and say right, combay our lex
hold hands cross party agreement, there was stuff in place
going on that was cut that the Prime Minister didn't
even know about while he was standing in questions.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Well, the reason why neither I nor the Promeinists knew
about that is because that was a proposal put to
the previous government that you rejected into ane.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It was not place. There was bookam place with council
managed retreat.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's just.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I don't think you're across your brief, might Mark, you
need to check your brief.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So so glad I raised this particular issue having said
that Dunedin as well. I just happened to know Dunedin particularly. Well,
that's all South. The Needin's been a problem forever and
the managed to retreat thing you talk about, Ginny has
been a conversation for a long period of time. It
just to me, Mark, giving you running the place at
the moment strikes me we've got no further down the track.
It's just like at I mean, we go back to
(03:35):
the Auckland anniversary stuff and there are still people trying
to get sorted out somewhere in there. It's their fault,
council's fault, government's fault. We don't seem to have moved
the needle much.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, Well, in terms of the recovery, we've definitely moved
the needle.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
And you know, I'm hoping that there's been a big
focus for me in terms of categorizations and buyouts.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're going to have most of the biots completed by
the end of this year.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You've always got the very small tricky and complicated ones
take a bit longer to sort out, often driven by
the homeowners themselves, who, of course you understand the anxiety
and the stress associated with that is is terrible. But
look that in terms of managed retreat. I get around
all the councils. We've had six local states of emergency
since I've been Minister. They are very aware of what
(04:16):
they need to do and the plans that they need
to have in place in terms of mitigation, reduction.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And starting to manage that. So there's a big piece
of work going on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Like I said, Simon Watts is doing a massive piece
of work around the adaptation plan. I'm doing a big
piece of work around new legislation that's going to set
us up as a country.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And by the way, I do agree with you that
it should be bipartisan.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And I took Camilla Bellach, who happened to be in
Dnedan who is the Labour spokesperson with me and made
sure that she was included in all the briefings and
was completely aware and across how the response was unfolding.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Inter Neeed just hold on, carry on, kar and go Jinny.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I was going to say, the big point is that
there are parts of New Zealand where people live now
that will continue to be hit again and again. And
the difficult question, no matter who's in how between central
and local government, is how you deal with people who
are living in those places now, the roads, the infrastructure,
all of those things, and what are we going to
do in the next twenty years to try and make
(05:11):
those communities safeast who's gone?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Which one of you two has the crockery? Which one
of you two's got crockery?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Crockery I've got so I think who's got a cup
of tea? Mother's old crockery?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Who's got a cup of tea? At the moment somebody said,
somebody saysts and said.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So I'm sitting I'm sitting outside. I'm in a beautiful
turning with terror on the today.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I've got a series of meetings here and the staff
just brought me at this beautiful cup of coffee.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, I've got a nice flat.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Watch, So you've got a nice flat right. Where are you?
You're on the corner of Seventh and camer Where are you?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I me at the Trinity Hotel in Carol.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
It's just going to get some people to honk along
the way if they saw you. That's ginny as regards
to the Needen Hospital, and the Prime Minister, as you
will have seen, got a bit of peat about that
the other day. If the numbers are right, and they
appear to me from what I've been been seeing that
it is three billion, if in fact not more, would
you still go ahead and justify that three billion? Or
would you do what the government has done and go
(06:09):
lovely to do it but we just simply can't.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Well, it depends on what timeframe you do that. So
in projects like in the Hutt Valley where we've had
them through inflation and a bunch of other things go
over priced, the question is how long you take to
do them. And you can do them in stages and
you can fund it. So those sorts of decisions you
really need to be over the numbers to be able
to say.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But isn't that part of the problem though? The longer
you go, the more risk you run and the thing
blown out.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Well, it depends on what's needed now, and some of
the compromises that have been made are not sitting well
with that community because they feel that they're not getting
their health n I get all of that share.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
They need.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
No one disagrees with the fact that it's a shame
that we can't build three billion dollar hospitals. But if
you accept the numbers and they do appear to be right,
would you spend three billion and fair enough? Or would
you say, look, one point nine is it we can't
afford anymore?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Be talking to Barbara Edmonds because she does she does
finance a bit better than me. So I'm not going
to make that commitment on your radio station right now.
But what we would do is make sure we don't
give things like tax cuts to landlords of two point
nine billion, because that's a waste of money when you
could have had a hospital for people.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, So does that mean is it so you're going
to reverse that policy? A Jenny?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
What two point nine billion dollars were the tax cuts
for landlords? Yeah, well, that that that in place is
something I'm not going to make caucus decisions on live
on radio.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
But we don't think that's a good spend of money.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's a poor choice that you won't commit to reverse it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Look the end of the day, Mike, as simple as
it's as simple as this, we are going to deliver
a world class hospital. You are not inded. It's going
to be one point. No one believes that, not three billion.
Well I think people do, because actually we've got a
trick we could of delivery, not the.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
People indoneda and who protested in the street.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And that's and that's what we're focused on. We're focused
on delivery. We want to deliver that hospital and we're
going to get a mark.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
When you talk to the people in Duneda, I mean
I can't get my head up. I mean, yes, they're disappointed,
and I would argue they're going to every right to
be disappointed because they have a promise something they're not getting.
I get that part, But do they get that we
just don't have the dough. If we did fantastic, we don't.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Look, I'm not going to speak for the people in
the need. I've been down there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
To ask you when you go unto town, don't you
know take your flat? So I'd love to a couple
and ask a you questions.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So I spent a lot of time with them.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The hospital was not raised once with me personally, but
I was there and you know, helping with the response
obviously to the to the flooding events. Some people came
out and protested. We're in open democracy. That's great that
they can do that. We are going to deliver a
world class hospital. We're going to deliver it for one
point nine billion dollars, you know, and that's just we
cannot afford as a country a three billion dollar hospital.
(08:50):
And we've just been very honest, very clear about it.
What we're focused as a government and doing is actually
delivering it. You've had of labor government six years hasn't
been delivered. We want to get it delivered for the
people of a tiger in Toleding.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Alright, are you by the Infinity Pool? By the way?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Am I what? No, I'm not. I'm out the other side.
It's a beautiful day here today.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful Infinity pool as well.
I had a birthday party there.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Once, did you. Oh yeah, I think there's some photos
of your birthday.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's nice to see you both again, Mark Mitchell and
Ginny Anderson' it.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Time of Politics, Wednesday, Marke Mitchell, Ginny Anderson, good morning
to you. Good morning now Mark, Mark the blueprint you're
in duned and taking a bit of heat, and I'll
come back to that. But the blueprint and the buyout
and stuff. This blueprint that you talked about for the
people who got flooded, is that a new blueprint or
is it part of the ongoing conversation that we've had
in places all over the country that get flooded where
(00:22):
it might be the council's fault, it might be the governments,
it might be the individuals.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
What is it now?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Look, first of all, blueprint's not by words at all.
That's the words of a journalist and it always sort
of gets picked up and attributed to the politician, but
it's not.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
We're doing a lot of work around it.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
There's a big edit, a lot of work being done
around adaptation plan that's been led by Simon Watts. I'm
doing a big piece of work around our legislation to
make sure that's fit for purpose and sets us up
as a country to be able to have a really good, strong,
comprehensive response to these weather events that we keep getting
hit by. Daned I just want to give a shout
out right from the controller, all the volunteers, everyone that
(01:01):
turns out and dealt with the flooding events in Otagu,
the Mayor's, the chief executives, and especially for South Dunedin,
the people that were running the pump stations.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
They did an outstanding job.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I was talking to luxon yesterday about that off air,
but are those pump stations better, new, bigger because it
all seemed to work given the circumstances reasonably well.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
There was upgrades lessons learned from twenty fifteen, but you
know the way that they manage those pump stations the flows.
They've got big screens that they have to get out
physically clear of debris.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
They did that right throughout the rain event, right through
the night.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
And I do want to really specifically acknowledge the guys
and the girls that run those pump stations because though
often invisible to the public, but in my mind, they
made sure that the damage in South to Need in
particular was limited.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Is there something, Jinny, you guys could, in this age
of where allegedly supposed to be on the big issues
kind of to agree with each other. Is it potentially
something that you could coalesce along the lines of at
some point we need to have an understanding in this
country with whether events that somewhere the government fits in
somewhere it's a council, somewhere it's the individual and we
should have a set plan so we all understand where
we're at.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Well, it's funny you say that, Mike, because we did
have one and that was all about minit retreat and
about how we deal with situations, particularly post Gabriel and
Dunedin was in that mix. He was a big piece
of working place that got put on the scrap peep
with the cuts and when the Prime Minister was asked
about that specific to duned and he didn't even know
(02:37):
that that program of work had been cut. So then
when you come out and say right, combay our lex
hold hands cross party agreement, there was stuff in place
going on that was cut that the Prime Minister didn't
even know about while he was standing in questions.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Well, the reason why neither I nor the Promeinists knew
about that is because that was a proposal put to
the previous government that you rejected into ane.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
It was not place. There was bookam place with council
managed retreat.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
It's just.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
I don't think you're across your brief, might Mark, you
need to check your brief.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So so glad I raised this particular issue having said
that Dunedin as well. I just happened to know Dunedin particularly. Well,
that's all South. The Needin's been a problem forever and
the managed to retreat thing you talk about, Ginny has
been a conversation for a long period of time. It
just to me, Mark, giving you running the place at
the moment strikes me we've got no further down the track.
It's just like at I mean, we go back to
(03:35):
the Auckland anniversary stuff and there are still people trying
to get sorted out somewhere in there. It's their fault,
council's fault, government's fault. We don't seem to have moved
the needle much.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, Well, in terms of the recovery, we've definitely moved
the needle.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
And you know, I'm hoping that there's been a big
focus for me in terms of categorizations and buyouts.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're going to have most of the biots completed by
the end of this year.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
You've always got the very small tricky and complicated ones
take a bit longer to sort out, often driven by
the homeowners themselves, who, of course you understand the anxiety
and the stress associated with that is is terrible. But
look that in terms of managed retreat. I get around
all the councils. We've had six local states of emergency
since I've been Minister. They are very aware of what
(04:16):
they need to do and the plans that they need
to have in place in terms of mitigation, reduction.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And starting to manage that. So there's a big piece
of work going on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Like I said, Simon Watts is doing a massive piece
of work around the adaptation plan. I'm doing a big
piece of work around new legislation that's going to set
us up as a country.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
And by the way, I do agree with you that
it should be bipartisan.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
And I took Camilla Bellach, who happened to be in
Dnedan who is the Labour spokesperson with me and made
sure that she was included in all the briefings and
was completely aware and across how the response was unfolding.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Inter Neeed just hold on, carry on, kar and go Jinny.
Speaker 4 (04:50):
I was going to say, the big point is that
there are parts of New Zealand where people live now
that will continue to be hit again and again. And
the difficult question, no matter who's in how between central
and local government, is how you deal with people who
are living in those places now, the roads, the infrastructure,
all of those things, and what are we going to
do in the next twenty years to try and make
(05:11):
those communities safeast who's gone?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Which one of you two has the crockery? Which one
of you two's got crockery?
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Crockery I've got so I think who's got a cup
of tea? Mother's old crockery?
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Who's got a cup of tea? At the moment somebody said,
somebody saysts and said.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So I'm sitting I'm sitting outside. I'm in a beautiful
turning with terror on the today.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
I've got a series of meetings here and the staff
just brought me at this beautiful cup of coffee.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, I've got a nice flat.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Watch, So you've got a nice flat right. Where are you?
You're on the corner of Seventh and camer Where are you?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I me at the Trinity Hotel in Carol.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
It's just going to get some people to honk along
the way if they saw you. That's ginny as regards
to the Needen Hospital, and the Prime Minister, as you
will have seen, got a bit of peat about that
the other day. If the numbers are right, and they
appear to me from what I've been been seeing that
it is three billion, if in fact not more, would
you still go ahead and justify that three billion? Or
would you do what the government has done and go
(06:09):
lovely to do it but we just simply can't.
Speaker 4 (06:12):
Well, it depends on what timeframe you do that. So
in projects like in the Hutt Valley where we've had
them through inflation and a bunch of other things go
over priced, the question is how long you take to
do them. And you can do them in stages and
you can fund it. So those sorts of decisions you
really need to be over the numbers to be able
to say.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But isn't that part of the problem though? The longer
you go, the more risk you run and the thing
blown out.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Well, it depends on what's needed now, and some of
the compromises that have been made are not sitting well
with that community because they feel that they're not getting
their health n I get all of that share.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
They need.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
No one disagrees with the fact that it's a shame
that we can't build three billion dollar hospitals. But if
you accept the numbers and they do appear to be right,
would you spend three billion and fair enough? Or would
you say, look, one point nine is it we can't
afford anymore?
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Be talking to Barbara Edmonds because she does she does
finance a bit better than me. So I'm not going
to make that commitment on your radio station right now.
But what we would do is make sure we don't
give things like tax cuts to landlords of two point
nine billion, because that's a waste of money when you
could have had a hospital for people.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay, So does that mean is it so you're going
to reverse that policy? A Jenny?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
What two point nine billion dollars were the tax cuts
for landlords? Yeah, well, that that that in place is
something I'm not going to make caucus decisions on live
on radio.
Speaker 5 (07:29):
But we don't think that's a good spend of money.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
That's a poor choice that you won't commit to reverse it.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Look the end of the day, Mike, as simple as
it's as simple as this, we are going to deliver
a world class hospital. You are not inded. It's going
to be one point. No one believes that, not three billion.
Well I think people do, because actually we've got a
trick we could of delivery, not the.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
People indoneda and who protested in the street.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And that's and that's what we're focused on. We're focused
on delivery. We want to deliver that hospital and we're
going to get a mark.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
When you talk to the people in Duneda, I mean
I can't get my head up. I mean, yes, they're disappointed,
and I would argue they're going to every right to
be disappointed because they have a promise something they're not getting.
I get that part, But do they get that we
just don't have the dough. If we did fantastic, we don't.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Look, I'm not going to speak for the people in
the need. I've been down there.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
To ask you when you go unto town, don't you
know take your flat? So I'd love to a couple
and ask a you questions.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So I spent a lot of time with them.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The hospital was not raised once with me personally, but
I was there and you know, helping with the response
obviously to the to the flooding events. Some people came
out and protested. We're in open democracy. That's great that
they can do that. We are going to deliver a
world class hospital. We're going to deliver it for one
point nine billion dollars, you know, and that's just we
cannot afford as a country a three billion dollar hospital.
(08:50):
And we've just been very honest, very clear about it.
What we're focused as a government and doing is actually
delivering it. You've had of labor government six years hasn't
been delivered. We want to get it delivered for the
people of a tiger in Toleding.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Alright, are you by the Infinity Pool? By the way?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Am I what? No, I'm not. I'm out the other side.
It's a beautiful day here today.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful Infinity pool as well.
I had a birthday party there.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Once, did you. Oh yeah, I think there's some photos
of your birthday.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
That's nice to see you both again, Mark Mitchell and
Ginny Anderson' it.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.