Update - Monday 3 August 2020
COVID-19 Local Government Response Unit main page
Foreign Nationals Support Programme: messages and milestones
The Assistance to Foreign Nationals Impacted by COVID-19 Programme (also called Visitor Care Manaaki Manuhiri by New Zealand Red Cross) formally began on 1 July.
Please find week 4 Dashboard based on data up to midnight Wednesday 22 July. This dashboard is unclassified – please feel free to share with your colleagues.
Foreign Nationals Public Dashboard (PDF, 743KB)
As of midnight on Wednesday 22 July, 1725 applicants have sought in-kind assistance from the Programme to date.
The Programme is going well. The relationship between Te Tari Taiwhenua and New Zealand Red Cross continues to be strong.
This dashboard includes insights into the number of declined applications for assistance. These reasons include: applicants not meeting the financial hardship criteria; invalid visas; duplicate applications or were sponsored into New Zealand. Furthermore, many Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) Limited Visa holders have been re-directed to apply through their employer.
Recovery Reference Group
The reference Group met on Friday 24 July.
In this meeting Deloitte updated the group on their progress with the recovery planning tool and Gisborne District Council and the Department of Conservation presented on their recovery programmes.
The next Reference Group meeting will be held on 7 August, and will have a presentation from the Ministry for the Environment about their role in the Jobs for Nature mahi.
Deloitte update on the recovery planning tool
Our last update email to you noted that DIA was working with Deloitte to develop a tool for all council’s to be able to use in planning for COVID-19 recovery.
Deloitte have consulted with a range of councils to get a picture on the different impacts of COVID-19 across the sector and the data that councils use in their planning.
We understand that for this tool to have the most benefit it needs to be built and distributed quickly- this means it will be on the simpler side with opportunities for further development later.
The current proposed format has two main tools:
- A scenario manager- uses data to work out pre-COVID baselines and the new shortfalls, then models the implications for different aspects of council finances.
- A data visualisation dashboard- collating all different data sets within one place.
DIA will continue to update councils on this tool as the development progresses.
Gisborne District Council presentation
Nedine Thatcher-Swan, Chief Executive, Gisborne District Council presented on the Council’s recovery planning.
COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Recovery plan (PDF, 781KB)
The recovery plan was developed within the context of efforts in recent years to improve emergency response and planning, for example in recent years:
- Critical emergency roles have been brought back into the council from being provided externally.
- The council has had a focus on improving and forging relationships across iwi and community.
As the current legislative framework does not include iwi as part of the CDEM group, the council set up a recovery group “Rau Tipu Rau Ora” to work alongside the official CDEM structure to ensure a multiagency, bi-cultural approach to recovery planning. This group included the Mayor, Chairs of iwi, Hauora Tairawhiti (the regions DHB), Eastland Group and Trust Tairāwhiti, Supported by a multiagency – iwi, police, FENZ, St Johns, local and central government CEs and regional leads.
While the multi-stakeholder recovery group officially sits outside the CDEM structure, the Council as the “Group” still officially approves its own actions within the plan, and endorses the plan. It has been important that the council is not the only one who ‘owns’ the plans and actions.
Nedine reflected on the challenge of bringing something together at pace with all perspectives - the end result is not ‘a perfect document’ but managed to accommodate the planning group’s needs in the final plan. This exemplified the compromise and cooperation of the recovery planning process.
The recovery planning’s iwi partnership approach was especially important given that if there was a large outbreak, our Māori community may have suffered more, and currently have lower health outcomes.
The Rau Tipu Rau Ora governance group is looking to build on what was learned during the pandemic to continue to advance the region’s wellbeing.
The Partners have been looking to leverage projects that tick multiple boxes within the plan for most effect delivery. For example, within the region there can be large whānau living in one house. As part of the recovery process the Partners have identified their priority is to improve housing outcomes through building 400 houses while getting people into work, with locally sourced products.
Department of Conservation
The Department of Conservation attended to present on the Government investment in Jobs for Nature ($1.3B total).
Jobs for nature presentation (PDF, 1MB)
This investment is a cross agency project that involves MfE, DOC, MPI, LINZ, and the PDU.
The Government is aiming to create for 11,000 – 13,000 jobs across this investment.
DOC’s $500M element of Jobs for Nature
This DOC funding has three main programmes: Restoring Nature; Protecting Nature; and Kaimahi for Nature.
The presentation focused on Kaimahi for Nature, which has a budget allocation of $200m.
The Kaimahi for Nature programme is targeted towards businesses that may need to make staff redundant. The programme re-deploys workers in the short term into jobs in nature, until they can return to the original business as the economy improves.
The programme will be deployed regionally, delivered through alliances (clusters of partnerships across the region).
The establishment/formalisation of these alliances are seen as important to long term decisions in environment with our Treaty partners at heart. The alliances also look to ensure that funds are deployed quickly, with an equitable distribution across the country.
Role of alliances
These ‘alliances’ include representatives from regional councils, Treaty partners, and central government.
The role of the alliances is to identify and prioritise projects and identify appropriate businesses and matching employees to the regional nature based projects.
The Reference Group discussed the need for timely delivery to make a difference to people, and the concern that bureaucracy would get in the way. The Group also raised a concern that a focus on regional deployment is limiting, as local government engagement could end up focussing heavily at
the regional council level.
