Photo: Supplied
Associate Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty (third from left) met with Ashburton District councillors Lynette Lovett, Rodger Letham, mayor Neil Brown, Stuart Wilson, and Angus McKay this week.
The new Associate Minister of Local Government admits the impact of funding cuts to roading in Mid Canterbury is now being seen.
Wairarapa-based McAnulty, who also has emergency management, racing and transport in his ministerial and associate minister portfolio, addressed the issue while in Ashburton on Tuesday.
He said he knew roading was a hot topic.
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"It's an issue facing many rural councils in that they have a large geographical area, a lot of roads and a small population from which to fund it," said McAnulty, who is completing a tour of all of the 55 rural and provincial councils.
Ashburton was stop number 41 for the Labour MP.
He had closed-door discussions with the Ashburton District Council in which he said issues including emergency management, the future of local government, three waters, roading and transport, and the proposed second bridge for the town, were covered.
But roading maintenance and funding was top-of-mind, with McAnulty admitting councils had been left in the lurch by a period of underfunding and it was not good enough.
He said there was a small roading financial booster of an additional almost $15m heading Ashburton District's way in the next three years to help.
McAnulty, who knows the district well as his parents lived in Fairton for eight years, was also pleased to see progress being made with Ashburton's proposed second urban bridge.
"The proposal is pretty strong, he said.
"We know that, from a resilience point of view, the recent weather event put that at the forefront of everybody's mind."
He was also aware of Environment Canterbury's plea for $150m of government funding over the next 10 years for nation-wide flood protection funding.
While that wasn't something that had come across his desk, it was linked to work he had in progress.
"There is a need for a consideration around longer-term funding of flood protection," he said.
"If you can invest in flood protection, it lessens the impact when there is a severe weather event."
Moved on from allegations
McAnulty said he had moved on from the bullying allegations involving now exiled Labour Party MP Gaurav Sharma.
McAnulty has vehemently denied the bullying claims against him, which ended with Sharma being expelled from the Labour Party and now sitting as an independent MP.
Sharma was reported nationally of accusing McAnulty for "systematic bullying ... to overburden me and ruin my reputation".
McAnulty, whose name was cleared of any wrongdoing, was then a Labour Party whip, essentially acting as a party disciplinarian in Parliament. Whips make sure MPs are in the House to speak and vote when needed, and allocate leave.
"It's never nice being accused of something that isn't true and having that play out in public," McAnulty said on his Ashburton stop over.
He said he had moved on from the incident and was focused on "working as hard as I can while I have the job".
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
