Clive Bibby: Government’s response to East Coast flooding is insulting

Normally, when a state of emergency is called, as it was on the East Coast last Wednesday when Cyclone Hale reached its peak, you expect all the local and government agencies who are charged with mobilising the relief effort to be operating in unison to help those in need. 

As one of those living at the epicentre of the destruction (we live on the Paroa Road inland from Tolaga Bay), l am able to give an accurate account at what happened immediately after and since the storm decimated a good portion of our rural community. 

Point of Order: The rain came down.....

....and so did the debris from logging operations in the flood-damaged Gisborne region

Damien O’Connor, as Minister for Rural Communities, has broken his 2023 duck and issued his first press statement of the year to announce government support for flood-affected farmers and growers in the Gisborne region.

We have yet to hear from Forestry Minister Stuart Nash, but he is bound to have something to say – surely – about the mischief reportedly done by forest companies operating in that neck of the woods. The “slash” from their logging operations blocks rivers and exacerbates the flooding problems caused by heavy rain.

O’Connor’s statement, which kicked off with the language employed by earnest bureaucrats, was headed