'Selling communities down the river'

Flooding and slips across South Dunedin and Otago last week show politicians need heads “knocking together” to come up with a climate adaptation plan, Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick says.

Speaking to media at South Dunedin’s BathgatePark, which was last week fully-submerged during heavy rain, she said people in the region were still cleaning up their lives and livelihoods after another “so-called 1 in 100 year” event.

That gave more urgency to the Dunedin District Council’s South Dunedin Futures plan, she said.

South Dunedin Futures is a joint programme of the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council to respond to flooding problems, climate change and the other natural hazards facing South Dunedin.

“Over the past few years it has brought the community together to come up with a blueprint for meaningful climate adaptation,” Swarbrick says.

“A bit of a straw man was put on the table with the Government and the Climate Minister a few months ago now and unfortunately that door was closed on the community. We would implore the Government to reopen that door.”

Not tackling climate adaptation would be a case of “selling communities down the river”, she said.

Responding to questions from Crux, Swarbrick said the Green Party would be putting forward something “really exciting, very soon”.

“Watch this pace, in early December. It’s something we’ve spent lot of time working on.”

She was unable to provide details but added: “It was really clear, in what we took to the election that there is an incredible opportunity, not only for us to lower household power bills for example and be far more resilient energy network and reduce emission if we were to put solar panels on homes across this country.”

Dunedin-based Green MP Scott Willis said the South Dunedin community had been clear that they wanted a partnership with the Government, through the South Dunedin Futures proposal.

“The community have worked on this for a long, long time.

“Central Government needs to invest where the community values it and has already invested so, so, much.”

Amongst a list of ideas to deal with climate issues the South Dunedin Futures proposal includes a $132 million programme to buy up properties in South  Dunedin.

Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was asked about the potential of the Government or council buying houses in South Dunedin and then renting them out as a way to offset costs in a podcast with crux at the weekend and he suggested the scheme could still be possible.

“We went to the government with a scheme like that any Minister of Finance could revive it at the stroke of a pen.”

However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week said he had not seen any such request and added should one be received it would have to be “a two-way conversation”,  with councils, Government and property owners shouldering responsibilities.

Main image: Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick and Green Party Dunedin-based MP Scott Willis at  Bathgate Park.