New Zealand’s political parties broadly agree that insurers will stay at the centre of natural hazard recovery. Their answers at the final election debate showed how differently they see the government’s share of the cost.
The question came from a voter whose family had been red-stickered out of their home after Cyclone Gabrielle and later qualified for a buyout from Auckland Council and the government. Speaking at TVNZ’s Q+A People’s Debate on Thursday, he asked the seven parties what they saw as the role of the market and insurance, and the responsibilities of government, in helping New Zealanders feel secure when natural disasters next occur.
National deputy leader Nicola Willis said insurance “does need to keep playing a really significant role” and insurers should be open with customers about the risks their homes face. She said the government was working on a national flood map “so that every insurer, every homeowner, every mortgage giver has access to the risks and information about the hazards your home faces”. She also pointed to Resource Management Act reforms requiring councils to have hazard plans, and said the government had invested more than $200 million in flood prevention schemes this term.
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the government had cut flood protection funding and removed councils’ ability to consider climate when consenting new projects. She said 97% of central government spending went on clean-up after events and 3% on prevention. “At the end of the day, we can have cross-party agreement on climate adaptation, and clearly, that is what New Zealanders desperately deserve,” she said.
ACT leader David Seymour said emissions were already covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme. He argued that ACT’s Resource Management Act reforms meant “for the money we’re spending, we actually get more flood protection”. He said the government had the Natural Hazards Commission, which he said buys $2 billion of reinsurance. The commission’s reinsurance programme for 2026 totals NZ$12.3 billion.
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong called for “a clear insurance framework that the government has to take the lead on”, in which government, insurers and communities share the costs of more frequent weather events.
NZ First deputy leader Shane Jones said “insurance has to be at the frontline”, and that the onus was on insurers to make sure they were not passing the problem on to the public.
Te Pāti Māori candidate Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke pointed to her party’s $1 billion Pūngao Auaha Fund, which would retrofit marae, kura, papakāinga and housing with solar energy and insulation.
Labour’s Kieran McAnulty said insurance “must play a part, of course”, but argued that people build or buy homes because they are told they are allowed to. “There will always be people caught out, and the state should never step away from helping,” he said.
The answer will matter soon. The outgoing government deferred decisions on how adaptation costs are shared to the next term, after introducing legislation in July requiring councils to plan for high-risk communities, as IB New Zealand has reported.
For brokers with clients in flood-exposed areas, the common thread across the parties is more public hazard information and continued pressure on insurers to disclose risk. How much of the cost the state shares will be decided by whichever government forms after the election.
