The Muster- Mark Patterson: A Month On From The Winds

Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson says there are certain things that need to be learnt after the recent winds that hammered the south.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Thanks to the South and Ural Support Trust. We're catching
it with different individuals involved with the farming sector down
here in the South of course and association with Community
Trust South. This afternoon we are catching up with Mark Patterson.
He is a Minister for Rural Communities. Mark, Good, afternoon,
great to chat.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's been a while good and good to be on.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
So about a month on from the events that occurred
as far as the win situation down here in the South, Mark,
when you reflect back on those four weeks, it's certainly
showing there's a big task ahead. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Well, I mean, firstly, it was a really big event
in terms of how widespread the damage was the south
coast of South under the right up the culture and
then you know there's a gap through the middle of
the island and then hit hard again through Haranui and Kokorus.
So yeah, very widespread.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I take it. The power situation has been resolved one percent.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Now, yeah, to the best of my knowledge. And I
mean it's been an incredible efforts for power it, particularly
in those early days to get things up and running
and the crews that came in to help them from
Waiteki and Central Tago and the like as well at
Kulan task. But you know, even then, you know, we

(01:34):
hit people out of without power for ten twelve days,
which is pretty debilitating.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
So when we reflect back on those events of four
weeks ago, Mark, there are a number of things that
came to the four We'll start off with this straight away,
being rural connectivity. I'm sure you guys are pushing for
this up in parliament, but the fact we had to
rely on three G to get one bar on our
cell phones and this three G network is being disestablished,
it's a big concern, is a big.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Concern, and I think that that was the biggest lesson,
just the fragility of our rural connectivity. And you know,
we actually had one New Zealand and here yesterday sort
of talking through the bolstering of their networks, and you know,
you get these sort of soothing sounds from corporate headquarters,
but you know, when push come to shove and we're

(02:21):
under real, real pressure. There was people without connectivity for
quite some time and that was the feed that got
that was the most abilitating. But you know, not knowing
what was happening, and whilst the emergency management was pumping
out huge amounts of information people just simply weren't able
to get it, and it was third world stuff actually

(02:43):
at times. So we've got to get much much more
resilient in that network.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, arguably parts of the third world would have better
connectivity than what we experienced. And if we're going to
have to rely on four GN Fi G going forward,
there's going to have to be serious, serious conversations had
regarding rural.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, well they're giving us, as I say, all sorts
of siving sounds that the four G will be equivalent
in terms of coverage, but there is some request then
in terms of network bandwards. But I would say, you
know that the most underestimated response or toll, and this

(03:22):
response is radio and the Hoker fantastic yourself, Chetty. You know,
time and time again we're hearing that that was the lifeline,
that was the one avenue people had to get information.
So we really owe you a data gratitude. And as policymakers,
we've got to make sure we recognize that, Sam and Gabriel,

(03:42):
and so we're going to make sure we sort of
fire our radio network as.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well based on that mark. I think more than anything,
this brings to the four that people don't really have
a plan B in place as far as a survival pack.
I mean, we think back to the COVID times and
goodness me how much toilet paper and the likes are
left over from that day and age. But it's all
about having a plan be in place. Do you think
we're really up to the spit up to pace as

(04:06):
far as having a plan B in case of an emergency.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Well, there's some real lessons there wasn't there. And I mean,
you know, we can look at the top down stuff
from the government, but I think in terms of the
just at an individual preparedness, at a business preparedness, so
many you know, let's be honest, theory farmers didn't have
a generator capacity or access to a generator, even sheds
wide up for a generator, putting massive pressure on actually

(04:33):
a volunteer network to keep them going. And that's a
lesson that I'm sure that we'll be learned and you know,
we'll be followed up on by the companies. At a
community level, Has every community got a facility that's got
access to a generator and starlink or some sort of

(04:54):
you know, resilience built into it that everyone in the
community knows they can go there to you know, to
charge the phones or you know, get information or whatever
it might be. So there's a whole number of layers
to this that we've got to take into account because
the big question that we keep getting asked, you know,
imagine if this was you know, the fault line going,

(05:14):
you know, and we didn't have roading access and things
like that on top of this. So I think we've
got to be much more prepared at a number of levels.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
As far as funds from the government Southern District may arrived,
Scott has been critical saying for the amount of GDB
produced by such a low amount of the population, there
should be more on the ground here for response services.
Would you agree with that?

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well, you put me on the spot there, Andy, But yeah,
I mean it's been a pretty modest contributional though, you know,
rounded fifty or seventy thousand. I think all up, we've
got to be careful here. You know, this is not
to bail out businesses, you know, the type of businesses
to protect themselves, build resilience into their system. But where

(06:03):
we can help at a community level, whether that's through
support for the real support trust or merror relief funds.
We should be doing that with us some community good
element to it and some wellbeing stuff there and those
groups too exceedingly well as we know, doing great work.
But it's a hard balance to strike. But yeah, I

(06:24):
think Rob has you know, he's got a point, and
I think our systems need upgraded too. I mean it
was actually getting the money out of the door was
pretty clunky, which created some anxiety for organizations that were
just trying to do some really good stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Passforce workers have they been mentioned at all mark regarding
their recovery.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
It TAS's key. We yes, So I went up and
saw them in action up in Hernuis. They're in negotiations
to come down both the Kluth and Southland, putting a
bit of a stretch on their resources as well. But
and I know the Rural Support Trust and the real
advisory groups are looking at how they might be deploy

(07:07):
those resources. But they are really good addition into our
recovery toolcat as a country, mainly at service personnel. They're
all trained up, they've got their health and safety, the
change sell tickets the like, so but you know it's
inequity and how to deploy them to you know, people
that may have been most badly impacted. But we really

(07:32):
are encouraged. We're really pushing on the safety side of things.
You know that missage cannot get through enough. These trees
down are still under load, they're still dangerous if they
get people that which frankly as most of us haven't
got the skills to deal with that sort of dangerous tree.

(07:53):
So you know, really encouraging people to get the professionals
to forestry gangs that have come out of the forest
to help get them to assess the trees first, work
out what's safe to what's not. Get the heavy gear,
get the specialist gear, get the people that know what
they're doing to do the heavy stuff, and then you know,
we can clean up the rest of the family.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
With some farmers, I've spoken to Mark and talking about
a year being in recovery mode.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
What are you hearing, Well, that'll be true. I mean
some of the properties, you know, it's heart wrenching to see.
And of course this has happened at such a busy
time of the year, so it could be worse in
that regard. So a lot of the stuff said to
be parked up and just worked around for now, but
some of that's not a bad thing because there's a
lot of danger in some of those fallen or a

(08:40):
half fallen tree, so it's you know where you can
just work around it. But yeah, it's going to be
a long, long haul and that's where you know the
Royal Support Trust come in because they're there for the
long haul helping farmers through these events.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Mike Patterson and Minnesota Eral Community, thanks to your time
on the muster and keep out the good work.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Out there in Parliament. Thanks Ernie.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Mark Patterson, Minister for Rural Communities. Of course, thanks to
the South and Rural Support Trust and conjunction with Communities South,
we're catching up with various people, so Mark giving some
insight there from a government perspective. Sam Grant and Craig's
Investment Partners is up next. You're listening to the muster