In early 2023, Aotearoa New Zealand was hit by two separate extreme weather events. The Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle caused widespread catastrophic flooding across large parts of the North Island, devastating communities and businesses in affected regions. Fifteen people were killed, and thousands of people displaced from their homes. The events caused widespread damage to land, infrastructure, and services; particularly power, communications and roading.
In response, the Government announced funding to clean-up, rebuild and aid long-term recovery, as well as to support local communities with temporary accommodation, mental health services, and food security.
Allocation of funding directed towards initiatives responding to the North Island Weather Events (NIWE)
Funding directed towards the recovery or response following the North Island Weather Events includes the two funding packages announced (set out below), reprioritisation within appropriations and support provided through automatic mechanisms, such as Civil Defence Payments.
The two funding packages were:
- Immediate funding decisions in the aftermath of NIWE ($883 million total operating, $1.5 million capital) to make urgent infrastructure repairs, assist with temporary accommodation, and provide business and community support.
- Budget 2023 NIWE Response and Recovery Package (Beehive website) ($941 million total operating, $195 million capital).
Through Budget 2023, the previous government established the National Resilience Plan (NRP) and set aside $6 billion to provide funding for medium- and long-term infrastructure resilience projects. Under the last Government, $2.697 billion was allocated through Phases One and Two of the NRP, and a further $63.3 million has been allocated under this Government. This funding was a significant source of NIWE investment. This left a balance of around $3.2 billion unallocated in the NRP, comprising a mix of capital and operating expenditure. This funding was returned through Budget 2024.
Monitoring and reporting
Any agency which receives funding directed towards initiatives responding to the NIWE is required to monitor and track spending (excluding support provided through automatic mechanisms, such as Civil Defence Payments). Quarterly data is collected and published. The Treasury collected the first set of NIWE expenditure data on initiatives $10 million or above, for the quarter ending 31 March 2023.
The reporting is focused on initiative-level insights, broken down by vote, appropriation and category (if applicable). For each initiative these results show the expenditure and performance for the year to date, alongside forecasts for the next three quarters, together with the baseline appropriation.
This approach is similar to the monitoring and reporting processes for the Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and provides an additional layer of scrutiny for special purpose funding.
Results are available below:
- NIWE Quarter 3 2024 Financial results (PDF 549 KB)
- NIWE Quarter 3 2024 Performance results (PDF 377 KB)
This data can be accessed in an open-source format here, alongside a data dictionary. Users of the data should note that this data is still subject to audit.