Orchardists tell PM they need financial help after cyclone devastation

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is in Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday to meet orchardists and local growers along with helicopter pilots who rescued stranded residents when Cyclone Gabrielle hit.

Hipkins’ first stop was Apatu Farms Orchard where he met Hawke’s Bay orchardists Paul Apatu and John Bostock.

Both orchardists told Hipkins the Government needs to provide financial assistance.

“This is serious. It’s very hard to come back from this”

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Bostock told the prime minister that only machinery and sheds were insurable, not crops. He said he was 65 and had never asked for government assistance, but was now.

Bostock had serious concerns about economic future of Hawke’s Bay due to flow on effect of devastation

Hipkins was accompanied on his visit by Cyclone Recovery Taskforce chairperson Sir Brian Roche and the acting director of Civil Defence, Roger Ball.

This is the prime minister’s third visit to the Hawke’s Bay since the cyclone on Febuary 14.

Roche has said the damage wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle was “sobering and confronting”.

The government taskforce will report back to a new Cabinet committee set up by Hipkins, called the Extreme Weather Recovery Committee.

Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson will chair this committee, Minister Barbara Edmonds will be his deputy, and other ministers would represent the various affected regions.