Creaky infrastructure adds to natural disasters' 'staggering' cost

Some people were trapped without power during Cyclone Gabrielle when a substation failed and roads were closed. (Image: NZME)

Jem Traylen

Fri, 05 Jul 2024

The new head of the prime minister’s department is surprised by how much natural disasters cost the nation.The chief executive of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), Ben King, recently told MPs scrutinising his budget he was “staggered” to discover that over the past 20 years, the average cost of responding to disasters such as earthquakes and weather events was about 4% of New Zealand’s economic output.According to major insurer IAG, the figure is about 4.3% of GDP, which, in a briefing note to the...

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