Dr Nic Peet: Hawke's Bay Regional Council Chief Executive defends Wairoa river bar opening timeframe

The Hawke's Bay Regional Council is defending not opening up the Wairoa river bar earlier.

Last week's downpour damaged more than 100 properties in the district, where a state of emergency lifted this morning.

The Government has launched a quickfire review, including assessing locals' claims the river should've been cleared sooner.

Council Chief Executive Dr Nic Peet says calls were made on information in front of them at the time.

"You need some really specific conditions to open a bar, so you need a really decent flow in the river to shift probably 50,000 cubic metres of rock and shingles."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. As we foreshadowed last night, the government has
announced today that it's launching a review into the flooding
and wid a well last week. Locals reckon it's the
hawks Bay Regional Council's fault because they didn't clear the
river bar early enough, which meant that the water backed
up and flooded about two hundred homes. This was wird
Llwa Mayor Craig Little on the show last night.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I just think they don't listen. They're above listening to
the public.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
What do you want? Do you want an apology?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Oh gosh, yes, with vast for apology. With no apology,
it's just like saying, well, actually nothing's wrong here now.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Doctor Nick Petere is the chief executive of Hawks Bay
Regional Council.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Heinik hi Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
So are they right the locals? Did you leave the
clearing of the bar too late?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think that's going to be revealed with the with
the government inquiry that's underway and in our inquiries as well.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
What does your gut tell you, because I mean the storm,
what was it? The flooding happened on the twenty sixth,
that's a Wednesday, and the friday before You obviously knew
that there was bad weather or on its way because
you put the contractor on standby, but you didn't order
him to clear the bar until Monday. Do you think
you left it too late?

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I think the guys that made the right calls with
the information in front of them. You need some really
specific conditions to open a bar, so you need a
really decent flow in the river to be able to
shift probably fifty thousand cubic meters of rock and shingles.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Was there was there not enough flow between Friday and Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
No, there wouldn't have been enough.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
He reckons that he could have done it though. Is
he wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Oh? Look, I don't know that. Want to dispute it
with the mayor, but.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
I'm not talking about the mayor. I'm talking about the
contract to Hamish Pride, who's been working on that bar
for decades. He reckons you could have started him over
the weekend. It would give him enough time and it
would have worked. Is he wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Look, I think it's really important that we look at
that and understand that, and if that's what the review reveals,
then fine. But at the stage we've made the best
decisions with the public.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Have you gone to the lads who pull the pin
on this stuff, are the ones who say, yep, go
clear the bar. Have you gone and talked to them
about what the river flow was like at the weekend?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
And what did they say?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yep? So the river flow on the weekend was too
low for the bar to break through, like.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
A line call or like really like massively too low.
Would never have.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Worked too low at the weekend, but by Monday it
was becoming clear that the amount of rain was likely
to be high enough to shift the bar. We keep
a lookout, you know, over months, for opportunities to get
the bar moved and shifted across from where it's more

(02:42):
constrained to where it's got the rivererate.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Why is it not cleared all of the time like
it used to be.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
It's always been, as I understand, cleared as demanded. So
that kind of bar can shift I understand, about a
meter and a half a day. So the river is
always wanting to go back to the location at the
far end of a lagoon, and we do work as

(03:12):
as is possible to shift it back to a place
where the river can exit more easily.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
If it finds if this review finds Nick that you
guys were to blame for this, even just in part
what are you going to do?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Look, I think let's wait and see what the review says.
I think we've got a It's really important to understand
that there's a really complex interaction at a river mouth
between the sea, the water coming down the river, and
the potential for coastal.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I get that. But the reason I'll tell you why
I'm asking you this question because last time I talked
to you people on this show was after cyclone. Gabriel
and Mike Bush's report was pretty scathing of what you
guys did. In fact, you had people in your community
calling up up and saying, hey, the weather looks really bad,
and they were told by you guys, you're overreacting. And

(04:06):
then what happened like Esk Valley was flooded and we
were plucking people off the rooftops, right, And what happened
after that when you were found to have failed is
literally nothing. Nothing happened. There was no massive mere culpa.
You didn't go out and pay people compensation. And I'm
worried that if you'll found again to have dropped the ball,

(04:26):
nothing's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Just in terms of cyclone Gabriel, the evacuations that are
not done by the regional council.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
It's not by emergency management. But isn't that part of
you do you guys not run that.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
We provide the funding for it. But it's done on
behalf of all of the councils of Hawke's Bay, not
just the regional council on its own.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Okay, fair enough, but so emergency management. So in that situation,
nothing happened. You have a hand in that. You provide
the funding. Henuwei Lmsby, who's part of your team, was
fronting that situation. Nothing happened. And here we are again
with Hawks Bay Regional Council involved in some way. What's
going to happen if this time you are found to
be in fact responsible.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
So look, if we've made significant mistakes in the process,
we'll absolutely take that on the chin and then look
at what we need to as a result.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
You apologize, Craig Craig craig wan's an apology? Would you
give them one? If you are found to be responsible?

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Look, as I say, let's let's see what the reviews say,
and you know whether we agree or not with what
Craig's saying at the moment, I think it's really important
and it's really good practice after any event like this
to review it. You review your operational response, and you
review why why in this case, why we all flooded.

(05:46):
Until you've got that information, and you'd need to do
it quickly, we all sit and guess. So I think
it's really critical that we go through this process and
as a result, really welcome what the government's doing today.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Fair enough, Nick, thank you very much, and thank you
for turning up and talking to us. It's doctor Nick Pete,
the chief executive Hawks Bay Regional Council.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
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