New Zealanders ‘desperately deserve’ cross party agreement on climate adaptation, Greens co-leader says, as politicians talk insurance at final election debate

With Election Day just around the corner, politicians are getting in their last bit of campaigning, handshaking and messaging on a range of topics - including insurance.

On Thursday evening, politicians answered questions from voters at TVNZ’s The Q+A’s People Debate, the country’s final election debate.

An audience member said his family were red stickered out of their home after Cyclone Gabrielle and were fortunate to qualify for a buyout from Auckland Council and Central Government.

Speaking to the politicians, he said: “What I want to know is what do you see as the role of the market and insurance, and the responsibilities of Government in helping Kiwis feel secure when natural disasters next occur?”

National

National deputy leader Nicola Willis said in the future, we were going to see more serious weather events and needed to be prepared as a country.

“Insurance does need to keep playing a really significant role and insurance companies need to be very open with their customers about what risks they face in terms of where their home is.”

But Government has a crucial role too, she said.

Willis said the current government was working on a national flood map “so that every insurer, every homeowner, every mortgage giver has access to the risks and information about the hazards your home faces”.

“Because you should know when you buy a home what the risks are.”

She also pointed to reforms to the Resource Management Act, which would require councils to have hazard plans.

“And that means not zoning for more housing on floodplains. It means being very conscious of where the lifelines are in a city, so that if there are areas that are really at risk, we are managing that.”

“We also need to keep investing in infrastructure that mediates the offence. So, in this term of government, we've invested more than 200 million dollars in flood prevention schemes, stop banks dealing with drains locally, and that approach needs to continue,” she said.

Greens

However Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick challenged Willis’ comments, saying the Government had cut flood protection flooding and had removed the ability of local authorities to take into account climate when it comes to consenting new projects.

"We currently ... spend 97% of all central government spending on the clean up after [the] event and only 3% on prevention. I have actually actively tried to work across the aisle with Simon Watts, the Minister for Climate Change, to get across the line a proper climate adaptation plan," Swarbrick said.

She said this was "notably ... the third piece of the puzzle that the former government had undertaken to replace the Resource Management Act before this government replaced those three pieces of legislation with the Resource Management Act, and then spent three years undoing it all".

“This stuff does not add up and we can do so much better. And New Zealanders deserve so much better.”

ACT

ACT leader David Seymour said the Government had removed the ability to consider emissions because that was already covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme.

He said Swarbrick “believes that throwing money at every problem is the ultimate form of love or aroha”.

“Where that leads us to is bankruptcy and a massive IOU for people too young to vote in this election or not even born yet.

“What we need is proper infrastructure, proper planning, and to make it more affordable to build the infrastructure required. That's why our Resource Management Act reforms mean that for the money we're spending, we actually get more flood protection. We get more information, so people can make smarter choices.”

Seymour said not every solution to a problem was to borrow money and spend more money.

“That is a road to ruin”

Opportunity

But Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong said not every solution was to leave it to the market.

“We need a clear insurance framework that the government has to take the lead on because there are going to be additional weather events. There are going to be costs that communities are going to have to bear if we don't have an adequate insurance framework in place, where government and insurance companies and communities share those costs because this is a major change.”

“It's a major transition for us as a country to go through,” she said.

In response, Seymour said the Government had the Natural Hazards Commission which buys $2 billion of reinsurance and supported the insurance industry with natural hazards.

“These things are actually being done. It’s easy to come here and spin things that sound good but in reality, you’ve got to be up to date with the Government is already doing.”

Te Pāti Māori

Te Pāti Māori candidate for Hauraki-Waikato, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, said her party had a $1 billion Pūngao Auaha Fund for climate change.

The fund aims to retrofit marae, kura, papakāinga and housing with solar energy and insulation. It also would go towards supporting Māori-led community energy projects and transition Māori owned businesses away from coal and gas.

Marae have played a major role during natural disasters, providing support and shelter to communities.

NZ First

For NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones, the key point was that “insurance has to be at the frontline”.

He said the asset goes on insurers to make sure "they, themselves, aren't passing off the problem to the rest of the public".

Jones said Swarbrick was “wrong characteristically” and the Crown had spent hundreds of millions of dollars.

Swarbrick questioned how she was wrong, bringing up documents requested by the Greens on flood protection flooding under the Official Information Act.

“At the end of the day, we can have cross-party agreement on climate adaptation, and clearly, that is what New Zealanders desperately deserve,” she said.

Swarbrick said the Greens had tried to get this across the line for the last three years, “frankly, the right-wing parties that are standing on this stage are not interested in it and have sidelined”.

The disagreement from National, NZ First and ACT were swift with Willis saying she would take that more seriously if Swarbrick was able to celebrate the work of the natural hazards plan.

Seymour said it was one thing to attack someone’s policies and another to attack someone’s intentions.

Labour

Labour’s Kieran McAnulty, who found himself outside of the back and forth, got the final word.

“Insurance must play a part, of course. But at the end of the day, people build their homes or buy homes because they're told they're allowed to.”

He said it was important to get the planning right and insurance plays a part.

“But there will always be people caught out, and the state should never step away from helping.”