Judy Gill: When Tree Removal Becomes Risk

Hawke’s Bay, Mauao, and the Consequences of Substituting Ideology for Environmental Science

Introduction

Natural disasters do not begin with storms alone.

They begin with decisions made years earlier — decisions about land use, vegetation, risk tolerance, and which knowledge systems are permitted to guide public policy.

John Porter: This review is not about apportioning blame

“This review is not about apportioning blame.” So said Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Chair Hinewai Ormsby,  when announcing the review into the performance of Hawkes Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management, post the devastating flooding associated with Cyclone Gabrielle, one of the most devastating weather events to hit New Zealand.

Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle devastated the North Island of New Zealand in February 2023.

In business, you are accountable. Mistakes carry a penalty. People are fired for incompetence. Why is it in the parallel world of government and the public service, the reverse is the case?

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/2/24

It looks like Asian students have outshone the others – does this call for Treaty-based changes to our school system?

Here’s hoping the PM – at his post-cabinet press conference this afternoon – has something to assure us that his ministers are hard at work on making New Zealand a better place in which to live.

John Tookey: One year on from Cyclone Gabrielle, NZ still needs a plan to fix its failing infrastructure

Cyclone Gabrielle caused chaos one year ago. Repairs due to that storm and the Auckland floods have required substantial time and resources. Hawkes Bay, parts of Auckland and the Coromandel all still bear the scars of the worst storm to hit New Zealand this century.

The good news is that most initial repairs are complete. The bad news is that the restored infrastructure is just as vulnerable as it was prior to Gabrielle. Restoring infrastructure to the way it was before a natural disaster is not necessarily the best approach for a resilient future.

Ian Bradford: One explanation for the excess rain, mostly in the North Island, and a look back in history.

Much worse weather events occurred back in history.

Much has been made of Cyclone Gabrielle and the rain and flooding, mostly in the North Island, by the Labour Government.  This has been reflected in the basically government controlled news media. Both the cyclone and the rain are weather events - not climate.

Any reasonable person would think that the Tongan eruption putting huge amounts of water vapour into the atmosphere and all the rain that has followed is no coincidence. I cannot recall any deluge, such as we have seen for the past few months, in my lifetime.   

Ian Bradford: Can We Trust NIWA and Why “The Hottest Day This Century” May Not Be

Ian Wishart and Investigate Magazine have been probing NIWA’s records.

Cyclone Gabrielle  hit the country on the 14th February 2023. The Climate Change Minister said of the cyclones devastating effects: “ This is climate change.” ( From the Guardian 14th Feb 2023).

Let me remind Mr Shaw of the NASA definition of climate change.

“ No weather by itself is evidence of climate change/global warming, as the test is whether the weather adds to a new weather pattern over many years or even millennia.”

Kate Hawkesby: Why isn't there any urgency in distributing the relief funds?

So despite more money being announced yesterday for cyclone recovery, there’s still money floating around that hasn’t even been allocated or spent yet.

Months on from Cyclone Gabrielle, more than 30 million dollars in donations is still unspent. How’s that possible? What is it they’re waiting for? It was reported that, “So far, only 5 million of the 24 million donated to the Red Cross Disaster Fund has been allocated, while none of the 11.7 million raised in a March Lotto draw has been dispersed… as 79 cents of every donated dollar remains unspent, earning interest of 150 thousand dollars, the Red Cross is defending the time taken, saying it's allowed for crucial planning and trials.”

Point of Order: More Māori words make it into the OED...

....and polytech boss (with rules on words like “students”) is promoting the use of others

New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia.

Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or packed the latest edition of the OED. The publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary last week announced the OED has deepened its coverage of New Zealand English by adding 47 new entries.

Clive Bibby: Time for the politicians to listen to the people - all the people.

A couple of weeks on from the Cyclone that wrecked havoc throughout Tairawhiti and the northern parts of Hawkes Bay and those of us at the coalface are still trying to salvage what is left that can be used as the basis of rehabilitation. 

Having survived every major climate event since and including Cyclone Bola my wife and I have become old hands at assessing the damage associated with each one in relative terms. But more importantly, we remain two of the few who can offer comparative analysis looking at the effectiveness of local and central government’s response to each event. 

Karl du Fresne: Please remind me - who's Jacinda?

How quickly things change in politics.

The Ardern era is behind us. Just as the water instantly closes over a stone that’s been thrown into a river, leaving no trace of where it fell, so the former prime minister has already assumed the character of a political ghost.

The change in the political tone of the country that followed her departure has been dramatic and immediate. It’s now clear that Ardern had come to be regarded – and very likely regarded herself – as a liability in election year.

Point of Order: Greenpeace attacks government on tardiness to cut farm emissions.......

.......but doesn’t NZ need all the income it can get?

At a time when the nation is reeling from the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, climate change campaigner Greenpeace is demanding answers on why the government has yet to come up with an effective plan to cut emissions from the country’s biggest polluter.

Where’s the long-awaited plan to cut agricultural emissions? Greenpeace climate campaigner Christine Rose demands.

Clive Bibby: It will take more than time to heal this one

While the nation reacts generously and sympathetically to those who have lost so much in these recent climate events, it is worth facing up to the reality of what needs to happen by way of rehabilitation.

When doing so, it is important that our response to the personal losses and material damage is well thought through allowing decisions to be made that may not, at first glance, appeal to those who are wedded to the old ways of doing things.

Point of Order: Maori caucus – by the looks of things....

.....has had a say in who should benefit from $15m of cyclone relief funding

Point of Order hasn’t kept count of the millions of dollars the Government has been pouring into cyclone-devastated communities in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

But we don’t recall the several announcements suggesting there might be a discriminatory element to the way the beneficiaries would be determined. If there was a need for help, then that’s where the money would go, although – fair enough – funding for farmers would probably go to farmers, and funding for horticulturalists would go to horticulturalists. And so on.

Mike Butler: Two reporters, dogma, and a cyclone

Failure to understand and accept the basic differences between science and dogma raises serious questions about the judgement of two people paid to report the news. In an opinion piece by one of these people posted on the Newsroom site, a kicker said:

"Failure to understand and accept basic scientific facts raises serious questions about the judgment of prospective legislators."(1)

Politicking by these two activists posing as journalists started on Tuesday night when Three News political editor Jenna Lynch reported on National Party MP Maureen Pugh uttering the "heresy" that the climate has always changed, but she was still awaiting evidence that humans are causing changes.

Clive Bibby: A Clayton’s enquiry - that’s not what we asked for

Readers will forgive me if I use this opportunity to express my concerns about the Government’s response to our particular problems here in Tairawhiti (East Coast) following Cyclone Gabrielle but I do so knowing that other regions like our neighbours in Hawkes Bay will have experienced similar unwarranted brush offs.

In my entire adult life, I have yet to see a cabinet minister stand in front of the citizens of New Zealand trying to defend the indefensible which such feigned indignation. 

Such was the performance of Stuart Nash, Minister for Forestry in PM Chris Hipkins’ Labour Government as the opening item on Thursdays’ TV One Network News. 

Ian Bradford: Cyclones - Weather Events Not Climate

We have just seen an example of what has happened all around the world when someone- usually a scientist, dared question the so called “settled science” that humans are responsible for climate change.  By now, thousands of honest scientists have lost their jobs, been victimised, and bullied because they have dared to speak out.  After Maureen Pugh wanted to see the evidence that humans were causing climate change, she received the same treatment from a range of Parliamentarians who haven’t an ounce of science between them.  Then the science illiterate media got in on the act too. Sadly, Maureen, like Gallileo, a long time ago, had to retract.  

I predicted this would happen.  Cyclone Gabrielle would be used by the climate alarmists to further the cause of anthropogenic climate change. 

Kate Hawkesby: Govt's denial of any looting in Hawke's Bay smacks of a Jacinda-type approach

There’s a big disconnect happening at the moment between government and locals in the Hawkes Bay area over what’s really going on. 

The Police Commissioner and the PM were both on Mike’s show yesterday saying the reports of looting are just not true, that it’s all the stuff of rumour and gossip, and that it’s unsubstantiated.

But then you have the locals. They’re irate, arguably more irate after hearing the denial of it from government, and saying it is very real, it is definitely happening and they’re traumatized by it. 

Clive Bibby: The Emperor fiddles while Rome burns

For those of us living at the epicentre of all the floods that have ravaged our communities since and including Cyclone Bola in 1988, surveying the damage to livelihoods and mental well-being of residents becomes a process similar to grieving for a lost loved one.

Immediately after the initial shock, you go through a period of numbness that only recedes when help arrives in the form of those who genuinely want to provide the assistance in a form that could make a difference.

But sadly, experience tells us that too often the ones who have the capacity to help in a meaningful way are dismissive of the local advice from those best placed to make comparative assessments of the damage caused during each climate event but, more importantly, comparative assessments of the Local and Central Government responses after each disaster.

Point of Order: Govt pumps $74m into truancy package....

......but will Tinetti be a dunce, or will she prosecute parents and earn top marks

Two cyclone-related announcements were found on the Beehive website this morning. But a ministerial announcement that triggered a tart response from ACT – about truancy – had not yet been posted, although it was the subject of a front-page headline in the Dominion-Post today.

The headline was $74m package to fight truancy.

NZCPR newsletter: Cyclone Gabrielle

Cyclone Gabrielle was a tragedy that has exposed life-threatening frailties and failures within our infrastructure network.

Once the immediate problems have been addressed, a comprehensive public inquiry rather than the internal government review signalled by the Minister for Emergency Management, should be held to ensure that lessons will be learnt and changes made to mitigate the effects of potentially damaging natural events in the future.