Minister refutes National candidate's slash inaction claim
People in Hawke’s Bay dealing with damage from forestry slash will have no answers after the Government failed to include most of the area in its inquiry, says National’s Tukituki candidate Catherine Wedd.
But Minister of Forestry and Napier MP Stuart Nash says the inquiry’s findings due in April, might include recommendations that could be used in Hawke's Bay.
While in Hastings on Thursday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, joined by Nash, announced an inquiry into forestry slash and land use in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
The inquiry will happen over a two month period and will be chaired by former National Party Government Minister Hekia Parata, who lives on the East Coast. She will be assisted by former regional council chief executive Bill Bayfield, and forestry engineer Matthew McCloy.
National has launched a petition to have Hawke's Bay included in the forestry slas inquiry.
“It’s a slap in Hawke’s Bay’s face to know we won’t get answers through the Government’s inquiry into forestry slash,” Wedd says. "Pockets of our region are unrecognisable and the compounding role slash played in this destruction cannot be ignored."
“I’ve been meeting families whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by slash. One family I met was on the roof of their house during the floods with slash coming at them from all directions, devastating anything in its path. Families like them deserve answers for how this could happen and how it can be stopped from happening again."
Nash says they needed a "short, sharp, very targeted inquiry that dealt with the issue at hand".
"The wider you make these inquiries the longer they take. Ten thousand Tairāwhiti people signed the petition to have an inquiry. We wanted to confine that to the specific region and the specific issue that had been identified. It doesn't mean that out of the recommendations, there won't come actions that will have an impact on forestry up and down the East Coast."
National Party Candidate for Tukituki Catherine Wedd with Louise Upston Todd Muller. Photo/Supplied.
