Hirini Street port access opening

My colleague Transport Minister Annette King is unable to be with us today to share this celebration, and she asked me to pass on to you her congratulations and very best wishes for a successful day.

Introduction

It is a great pleasure to be here in Tairawhiti once again to celebrate another milestone in the journey we began together back in 1999.

Soon after I became Minister for Economic Development, it was obvious to me that forestry and the wood industries would have a central place in New Zealand’s economic development.

The wood industry offered then – as it does now – great potential for substantial returns, both economic and social.
We joined forces to establish the Tairawhiti Development Taskforce. We recognised that if we want to increase the living standards of Tairawhiti, and of New Zealand, we have to sell more of what we can efficiently produce to the rest of the world.
The East Coast Forestry Industry Group came to the Taskforce and presented a picture of the economic potential of forestry to the region and to New Zealand, which gave birth to the Wood Processing Strategy.
The openness of the industry to work closely with government enabled the development of effective policy solutions.

Future Developments

Without understating some of the challenges facing the industry in this region there appears to be a unified resolve amongst the major forest growers that forestry has a healthy future on the East Coast.
To reach its full potential, the industry will need to continue to work collectively through the Eastland Wood Council, with Gisborne District Council, local stakeholders like Eastland Port Limited and with Central Government.

Projects such as the one we celebrate today show how well things go when we all work together.

Transport overarching principles

This realignment project stands in a wider transport context. Since 1999, after years of neglect, annual investment in land transport has gone from $1 billion to $2.75 billion.

This realignment project is an embodiment of this spending at work at the local level.

It integrates a roading and a port project that ticks all the boxes of economic development, transport integration, environmental sustainability, and international competitiveness.

The Tairawhiti region is about three-quarters of the way through a major upgrading of local authority access roads to all forests to provide reliable all-weather access.

This work is part-funded by central government from the Regional Development Roading Fund, which was established in 2002 as part of the Government’s regional economic transformation agenda.

I am confident that through the continuing partnership between central and local government, and the forestry industry, the Regional Development Roading initiative will provide ongoing economic returns to the regions – and to the country as a whole – for years to come.

The new port access road

Which brings me to the reason we are gathered here today. A little over eighteen-months ago, along with my colleague Annette King, I announced that the Regional Roading Fund had agreed to stump up $2.5 million towards the $4.3 million cost of the Hirini Street port bypass road, the rest coming from Eastland Port and the Gisborne District Council.
The completion of the Hirini St port access road project provides a solution to a complex problem that has been causing a lot of grief to a lot of people for a long time. It solves a port problem with a roading solution.
As well as increasing the operational area of the port, and catering for the future increase in timber products, this project has removed conflict with traffic cutting through the port, and makes access to State Highway 35 easier and safer. Currently logging truck traffic accounts for 80 to 100 movements a day around the port, and, with export volumes of logs and wood products on the increase, that number will double.
As with many ports, land use patterns here have evolved over a period of time, and its unique shape has presented challenges. But by working with the stakeholders, port customers and service providers, I understand the process and flow of the project has been relatively smooth. You have constructed a new gateway to the port, which you can be proud of.

Conclusion

The progress we have made together in Tairawhiti, in forestry, in transport, in economic transformation and development, bears witness to the power of sharing a common purpose.
The focus, resolve and commitment of you all, to staying the course, despite the occasional ‘bump-and-grind’ around the edges, is a tribute to your vision for Tairawhiti and for its people.
The commitment that I made, and the government made, to you back in 1999 is as strong and real today as it was back then.
The milestone we are celebrating here today is a collaborative effort. Let’s keep it that way as we move on to the next challenge.

ENDS