Regional Recovery Board appointed

Added 5 months ago

The Board charged with overseeing the Hawke’s Bay’s cyclone recovery has been appointed.

The Regional Recovery Agency (RRA) is responsible for pulling together a comprehensive recovery plan for the region, drawing upon both territorially-based plans developed by our councils and region-wide plans developed by the RRA staff to address six cross-cutting areas: environmental resilience, economic growth, whanau/community wellbeing, primary sector, resilient Infrastructure and recovery transition.

Appointed as Chair is Blair O’Keeffe, who as Chair of Napier Port has an intimate understanding of the role and needs of our export-driven primary sector. Also bringing primary sector knowledge to the Board is John Loughlin, current chair of Rockit Global, with a long history in the meat, kiwifruit and viticulture sectors.

PM Hipkins recently put the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods earlier this year at between $9 billion and $14.5 billion. That includes an estimated $2-$3.5 billion of damage to households, $2-$3 billion to businesses and $5-$7.5 billion to infrastructure.

The Hawke’s Bay horticulture sector alone will be looking at a nearly $1.5b loss, growing to $3.5 billion by 2030 if the sector is left to recover entirely on its own.