E Tū Awatarariki Matatā

In 2005 during an extreme weather event that caused chaos in NZ and major damage across the Bay of Plenty region, the small community of Matatā was devastated by flooding and debris flow.

Since this time the community has cleaned up, rebuilt their homes, and got on with their lives with the knowledge that the Whakatane District Council (WDC) would mitigate future hazards.

14 years and millions of dollars of our ratepayers money later the WDC have decided that they can't mitigate after all and they think it is too unsafe for us to live here. In order to affect their agenda to evict us from our homes the WDC has instigated a managed retreat process to buy us out of homes and at the same time are using the RMA to remove our existing land use rights through a plan change to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to make our area a Natural Hazard zone. We will be either forced to take an offer from WDC or possibly be forced from our homes with no compensation.

We contest that the WDC has not done all they can to mitigate risk in our area, they have not provided us with all the information that we need to make informed decisions and have we feel they have manipulated the 'science' to suit their predetermined outcomes. We believe they have not consulted with us fairly and they are taking away our property rights, our human rights and our mana. This is precedent setting in NZ where there is a focus on our risk to natural disaster, man made disaster and with the potential effect of climate change. What is happening to us could happen to many other communities in NZ, and our families are being used as a test case for this important issue. We feel our Councils who are our elected representative are throwing us under the bus to cover their own bureaucratic backsides.

We intend to fight the unfair processes and Councils that have forced this predicament upon us. Because of the position we have been forced into by the Councils our properties have been 'sterilised', they are worth nothing, and we are unable to raise loans against them. We are literally stuck between a rock and a hard place, with lots of fight but no funds.

NZ please get behind us, we are the test case of what could happen to many other communities like ours. Make our fight your fight. Please donate to our fighting fund.