Yes we do have a future

Budget 2023 is announced in full tomorrow. Last Sunday in the Hawke’s Bay, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced more than $1 billion more in Government funding for the cyclone recovery, on a nationwide basis.

Following this announcement, the Minister made some clear statements on Morning Report on Monday morning:

• ‘The Government cannot be expected to pay every dollar of the recovery and rebuild’
• ‘Clearly the Government cannot be expected to run and fund every industry in New Zealand’
• ‘We want to work out a way where we can support them [the horticulture industry] that is fiscally sustainable’
• ‘We acknowledge the timing issue. We will again be sitting down with the [horticulture] industry and running through the options to give them the certainty they need as they head into winter’.

The horticulture industry has advocated tirelessly over the past three months. There have been multiple reports written, groups formed, and meetings held. In all this, the Government has been quite clear that while the recovery is being nationally funded, it will be community lead, in contrast to how the recovery from the Canterbury earthquakes in 2011 was run. However, the Government has not engaged with our industry on the full range of funding options to support the recovery.

Many growers are demoralised and are facing going out of business or substantially downsizing their business. That’s not a situation that HortNZ can support or would wish on any grower.

However, faced with a stark reality, affected growers, other businesses and some communities will need to start to find ways to move on, working closely with those in their communities tasked by the Government to lead the local recovery.

Uncertainty remains as to what ‘community led; Government funded’ looks like. The Finance Minister has indicated he expects the situation to become clearer ‘over the next few weeks’. If you are not already well connected to what’s happening on the ground, it would be a good idea to make a strong connection. We will continue to update growers based on the meetings we are having with the Ministry for Primary Industries and other Government departments, as well as the meetings we are having with the various groups formed to lead the regional recoveries, particularly in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti. 

As a mayor in the Hawke’s Bay has said, ‘it’s hard to be positive about the future when you are surrounded by silt’. However, I would like to encourage as many growers as possible to be positive about the future. Yes, this is an extremely challenging time, but the industry has successfully come through many challenges – for example, PSA – before.

We do have a bright future but for several years, it is going to look different to the trajectory that growers were on in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti, in particular.