Urgency and a fair go needed now

For many of us, Cyclone Gabrielle has been a headline about somewhere else – a story of unfathomable destruction and loss, but one that thankfully most of us outside the worstaffected areas like Hawke’s Bay and Northland dodged.

Even Auckland, expected to be in the cyclone’s path, escaped the worst of it in the end, though the storms of the previous week had done more than enough damage.

And yet, more than a week on, we are still feeling its effects deeply; just like the Christchurch earthquakes, we’ve been shocked, even emotional, about the scale of the unfolding disaster.

Everyone wants to help – and Kiwis have dug deep in response to the call for help for the affected regions.

When Stuff launched a fundraiser after the February 12 cyclone, it was with the seemingly ambitious goal of raising $1m. That target was smashed just 12 hours later, and it now stands at more than $4m. According to the charity page Givealittle, it’s the secondlargest campaign in its history.

Many more millions have been raised by other organisations and groups; we’ve all been touched deeply by the stories of families left with nothing, and livelihoods wiped out.

The Stuff fundraiser closes tonight, but we will continue to track how and where the money is being spent.

After the more pressing need for disaster relief, we will all want to see the money used to help families and businesses get back on their feet, to replace what was lost, and help people get their lives back to normal as soon as possible.

But while donations in the millions of dollars will help with some of the immediate need, the bill for the recovery will run into billions of dollars more.

For the Government, there will only be hard decisions – and harder ones.

The infrastructure costs alone will be huge, while the scale of personal support – for businesses, for households, for workers – is still a big unknown.

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, a job-support package for affected employers and employees was up and running within six days and had paid out $53m in wage subsidies in its first week.

By June that year it had paid out more than $200m in wage support to more than 20,000 employers and 50,000 workers.

It’s hard to know the scale of need in Hawke’s Bay yet but similar urgency in shoring up businesses and incomes is crucial. While some support has been announced, including an immediate $50m to support the primary sector, much more will be needed.

Then there are people like Jessica Morgan of Wairoa, whose house was flooded, wiping out her soap-making business at the same time.

Like many of those our reporters have spoken to, Morgan wasn’t insured. Nor were most of her friends or neighbours. It’s a similar story elsewhere our reporters asked, and it was a recurring theme after the Christchurch earthquakes as well.

The dilemma is how to deal fairly and equitably with those who have been left with nothing and no insurance to cover the loss.

People forced to abandon their red-zone properties in Christchurch after the earthquake battled for years over a decision by the previous government to pay them out at 50% of their rateable value, compared to 100% for those who carried insurance.

The cost of paying them out at 100% wasn’t huge in the scale of things – the dilemma for the Government was whether it was fair to those who had carried the financial cost of insurance for years, versus those who had never paid.

But what’s fair when you’ve got too many bills to pay already, and insurance becomes a luxury, not a necessity? And what’s fair about some people losing everything to cyclones, or earthquakes, while the rest of us don’t?

In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, the innate Kiwi desire to help out and support others to get a fair go rushed to the fore; it’s now the Government’s job to carry that through and ensure everyone affected by the cyclone gets a fair go, so they can get back on their feet, and back to normality, as soon as possible.

What’s fair when you’ve got too many bills to pay already, and insurance becomes a luxury, not a necessity?