Finance and cyclone recovery minister Grant Robertson has told Q+A with Jack Tame that progress is continuing on negotiating a buyout deal for cyclone-affected Category 3 homeowners in Auckland and Tairāwhiti.
On Thursday, five Hawke's Bay Councils voted to accept a deal with central government to share the uninsured cost of buying out Category 3 residents 50-50.
Category 3 refers to the most severely affected homeowners, where the risk of future weather events makes rebuilding unviable.
Robertson said the indications he's seen show affected homeowners in Hawke's Bay will start getting offers in about a month.
But a similar deal isn't yet over the line in other cyclone-affected regions.
"Good discussions are taking place with both Tairāwhiti and Auckland," said Robertson.
He added an even split is still the basis for the government's approach.
"We said at the outset that the government could not pay for everything here. We obviously want to support people who live in these affected areas but we've also got wider obligations to the rest of the country," he said.
"We think it's a fair position, particularly when you set it alongside the other support that we're doing – the flood protection work, the transport work that we've agreed with Hawke's Bay."
The government announced at the end of last week an immediate $567 million for road repairs across cyclone-hit areas of the North Island.
"We need to ensure that transport infrastructure is rebuilt quickly post the weather events, but also that they are built in a resilient way as increasingly severe weather events will continue to hit New Zealand," said Robertson.
Around the country, it was estimated in June that there are around 700 properties that are now uninhabitable due to cyclone damage, with a further 10,000 that will require some remediation work.
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