Prime Minister Christopher Luxon Visits Eastern Bay

Prime Minsiter Christopher Luxon visited Whakatāne Golf Club yesterday, to speak to members of the community about his Government and the upcoming election. 

PM Christopher Luxon spoke to 1xx following the event. 

East Cape MP Dana Kirkpatrick was amoung the officials who travelled to India to sign the Free Trade Agreement this week. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the agreement will provide the growing kiwifruit industry options when exporting, benefitting the community. 

"I just spoke to some kiwifruit growers, and they're just really pumped."

"If you think about the huge growth we've seen on kiwifruit, that's got huge benefit here at Whakatāne, because we can sell more stuff around the world, and that money ultimately comes back into the economy here on the East Cape."

He called the agreement a "once-in-a-generation opportunity", which will benefit horticulture, meat, and dairy products. 

Luxon acknowledges the impact weather events are having on the Eastern Bay and the need for resilient infrastructure. 

He said with other areas also being hit, the challenge the government faces is where to put government spending while building resilience. 

Luxon said there has been a focus on partnering "in a much better way, I think, with Marae and with Iwi in particular, who become very much in the front line often in our response initially to disasters like that."

He said nationally, the government has invested $200 into riverbanks for resilience and a national flood plan is being developed to show datafor where the greatest risks are. 

"As we have these events continue to hit New Zealand, the reality is it can't be the government that ends up making all of our underwrites' properties, it could be the landowner, it could be the central government, local government, the banks, the insurers, all have a role to play over multiple generations as we learn to deal with extreme weather events caused by climate change."

As community frustration grows over roading infrastructure like the Pekatahi Bridge, Luxons acknowledged roading improvements are needed in the Eastern Bay.

Although unfamiliar with the detail of the bridge, Luxon said the challenge with building road resilience is plans are "very expensive, they are really challenging, we're working in very difficult geotechnical environments."

"This part of the country is very difficult."

He said along State Highway 35, there are parts "of land that is actually moving into the ocean just as naturally, geographically happening," so the government needs to think about "how we deal with these challenges."

Local airline Air Chathams CEO Duanne Emeny has called for structural change to the aviation indusutry to ensure regional routes such as Whakātane can be maintained through tough periods. 

Luxon said the aviation industry is tough at the moment, and the $17.2 million Regional Infrastructure Fund loan has provided a large amount of support to Air Chathams already. 

"At the end of the day, it's about supply and demand, it's about building out a really good business, and a good business requires you to be really smart commercially, you've got to have a really good customer proposition, if your customer doesn't want the proposition, that's a challenge.

"So really that's up for businesses to build great businesses, not for government to interfere with that."

He said there is a good regulatory system in place in New Zealand ontop of government support.