CENTRAL GOVERNMENT CO-INVESTMENT IN RIVER MANAGEMENT FOR FLOOD PROTECTION
PAGE I 20
Request to central government
Regional authorities seek a central government commitment to co-invest, with regional authorities and
other directly benefiting property owners, in improving the integrity and resilience of flood risk
mitigation infrastructure. This should be alongside the wide-spread and comprehensive adoption of
whole-of-catchment solutions.
28
Collectively, such an approach will better achieve integrated land use, enhanced ecological values,
improved water quantity and quality outcomes and generally a better reflection of iwi and wider
community aspirations about how natural systems should be managed.
Regional communities and directly benefiting private property owners cannot fund the necessary step-
change needed to manage increased flood risks, in the more sophisticated manner set out above, on
their own. Central government and regional authorities must therefore share the task of addressing this
challenge. This is not about attributing blame for the failure of the efficacy of current systems. All New
Zealanders are facing the challenges of climate change. A new co-investment and funding partnership
approach with central government is sought
29
as the preferred path forward.
Regional authority river engineers have engaged in an active ‘foresight’ process to estimate spending of
$374m / year is required to ensure river management and flood protection schemes are ‘fit for the
future’. Regional authority Long-Term Plans (2018-2028) currently indicate operational and capital
expenditure of approximately $200m / year. The shortfall required to make the necessary step-change
to add resilience to the schemes, and to enable them to meet other contemporary objectives, is
estimated at $174m / year.
Central government co-investment of $150m per annum, with an incremental ramp-up to this level over
the first three years, and expenditure at this level for ten years, is viewed as a pragmatic contribution to
this necessary expenditure.
30
The balance of the shortfall in funding, currently estimated at $24m per
annum to meet the desired ‘future-proof’ status of these schemes, may be contributed through
increased regional rates and increased rates on directly affected private properties.
The actual co-investment share at any single location would reflect a range of considerations, perhaps
in a similar manner to the financial assistance rate (FAR) applied by NZTA to central / local co-investment
in transport solutions.
It was initially proposed that the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) provide a short-term central government
funding solution to support four critically necessary scheme upgrade proposals
31
. Since preparing the
draft of this report (November 2018), government informed regional authorities they did not see co-
investment in river management schemes from the PGF being an appropriate use of those funds. Within
an overall national policy context, their preference was for it to be addressed as part of the ‘resilience’
work currently being progressed for consideration later this year by a group of ‘Resilience Ministers.’
28
The co-investment propositions outlined in this paper do not include provision for soil conservation planting and or
steep land retirement. These provisions are currently being separately considered by MPI. Budgets for these
complimentary activities could be sensibly combined with the proposed programme outlined in this paper under the later
described ‘new works involving fully-integrated catchment schemes category.
29
Regional authorities acknowledge that, alongside a government decision to co-invest in river management and flood
protection schemes, there is a need to establish related funding-accountability measures.
30
These estimates were derived by asking the river managers from the seven major river managing regional authorities
to make their own estimates, based on their knowledge of council policy and their various schemes, of the likely future
cost to make them ‘fit for the future’. These estimates were then moderated and applied across all 16 regional authorities.
Based on this moderation work, an average increase of 85% of the current spend of $200m is required, bringing the total
future expenditure need to $374m per annum for the next ten years.
31
These applications were for the: Lower Whanganui River in the Horizons / Manawatū-Whanganui Region; Awanui River,
Kaitāia in the Northland Region; Rangitāiki River, Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty Region and the; Waipaoa River, Poverty
Bay in the Gisborne region.