Local government leaders and the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) used the industry’s annual conference to press the government on climate adaptation funding, with political parties declining to commit to specific policies ahead of the election.
The tension between local government’s financial constraints and central government’s pace on climate policy came to a head at the ICNZ conference, where Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz told attendees that councils could no longer absorb the cost of repeated climate disasters alone. Stoltz, who also serves as Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) president, said her district had been hit by a succession of severe weather events since 2017, calling the pattern “New Zealand’s future arriving early.”
“We have seen so many events I have stopped counting how many civil defence emergencies I have declared. We never, ever reset,” Stoltz said, as reported by RNZ. Her core argument was that councils were being handed a national problem to solve using local budgets – an arrangement she said was unsustainable. She called for clearer lines of responsibility between central and local government on both funding and decision-making. “We need durable co-funding, we need adaptation planning, and we need stronger national direction. What’s missing is very clear delineation – who is responsible for what and who will fund what,” Stoltz said.
In a separate interview with RNZ, Stoltz was direct about her view of the political situation. “We should not be delaying any investment decisions or how we address this problem, because it is not going away,” she said. Her own region illustrated the stakes. Over the past 18 months, planners and landowners in Gisborne have been working on a proposal to shift 100,000 hectares of erosion-prone land away from farming and forestry – but the plan has stalled without a funding pathway. “But we need money. We do need investment into cases like this so we can make it happen,” Stoltz said.
Stoltz’s remarks echoed frustrations documented in a recent Climate Change Commission report on Westport, which found that funding was available to produce an adaptation plan but that support for implementation was absent. Buller District Council Regulatory General Manager Simon Bastion described the situation in the report. “But there’s no follow-on – after that you’re on your own,” Bastion said, as reported by RNZ. The commission said it “consistently heard calls for increased funding to allow councils to implement work, after the research and planning phases are complete.”
Central government has signalled it will not make decisions on how climate resilience costs should be shared until after the election. Climate Change Minister Simon Watts told RNZ last month the issue was “a complex area and one where it is important to take the time to get things right.” Critics, including Stoltz, argue the government’s National Adaptation Framework – released last year – laid out a broad direction without resolving the more pressing question of who pays for what.
At the conference, Finance Minister Nicola Willis pointed to the recent Budget as evidence the government was already acting. She cited $400 million allocated for upgrading highways exposed to severe weather, as well as funding for a National Flood Map set to deliver its first version in 2027. Labour leader Chris Hipkins took a different line, arguing the Crown had a role to play as a financial contributor to resilience work. He noted that Labour had previously ring-fenced climate resilience funding while in office – money he said the current government subsequently cut. He also pushed back on the notion that all government debt was problematic, suggesting borrowing to fund long-term infrastructure was legitimate. However, Hipkins declined to outline specific commitments, saying the party was still working through what the Budget meant for its own fiscal positioning ahead of the election.
ICNZ chief executive Kris Faafoi used the conference to argue that the policy conversation had run its course and that the sector needed a funding mechanism. “We’ve done a lot of policy thinking ... but no one actually wants to commit the funding,” he said. The council put forward a proposal to shift FENZ onto direct Crown funding and convert the fire levy – currently collected by insurers – into a Community Protection Levy directed at natural hazard risk reduction. ICNZ estimated the change could redirect $600 million to $700 million per year toward resilience projects. Insurers would continue to collect the levy on behalf of the government.
The response from both Willis and Hipkins was cautious. Hipkins said the mechanics of the proposal created complications for how FENZ would be funded going forward, given the service already faced financial pressures. “In the short term I don’t think it’s a viable proposition. Ultimately, someone still has to pay,” Hipkins said. Faafoi acknowledged the scepticism but challenged critics to offer an alternative. “Politicians are welcome to ‘rubbish’ the levy suggestion. But ok then, what is the alternative? This is our submission, take it or leave it, but somehow we have to have a conversation about supporting the councils for those resilience works. We do need some urgency,” Faafoi said. To support the case for earlier investment, ICNZ pointed to a survey it commissioned in February 2026, in which 87% of respondents said they supported acting before disasters occur rather than responding afterward. The council also cited project-level data, including a $15 million flood protection scheme in Kaitaia that it said had already helped the area avoid an estimated $50 million in damage.
