Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Richard Kempthorne: Rural Support's Top of the South chair on beneficiaries helping with flood clean up in Tasman and Marlborough

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Richard Kempthorne: Rural Support's Top of the South chair on beneficiaries helping with flood clean up in Tasman and Marlborough · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So those are on a job seeker benefit of being
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: sent to Tasman and Marlboro districts to deal with the
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: cleanup after the floods will be paid to do things
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: like clear debris and repair buildings and waterways. And Richard
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Kempthorne is the chairperson at the Rural Support Trust for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the Top of the South Island. He's also the former
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  Speaker 1: mayor of the Tasman District and he's up this morning.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good morning to hear Richard.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: You love this, eh, I.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Don't know about love it, but yeah, it's the enhanced
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  Speaker 2: tustle screen does a great job.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, So this enhancement, this scheme has been
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: in place before. Does it work. Do people come?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, they do. It works really well. It has to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: they select suitable people because this is pretty tough work,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: really clearing debris and slush from fences in particular, and
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: you've got to have people that are physically capable and
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: it is quite hard work. But they do a great job.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: We have had them before and they've been active in
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  Speaker 2: other districts and they do a really good job and
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  Speaker 2: they're very much appreciated.
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  Speaker 1: So they're selected. Are they then compelled or do they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: have to volunteer.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure about compelling, but certainly if you've got
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  Speaker 2: people that are physically and mentally capable to do the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: work and don't do it, I'm not sure what happens there.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: But I don't you know, we're talking about eighteen to
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  Speaker 2: twenty people out of Motorweka Richmond Nelson, So I don't
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  Speaker 2: think it's going to be difficult finding people who are
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: prepared to and want to do the work.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So they're coming from the district. They're not being trucked
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  Speaker 1: in from Canterbury or elsewhere.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: No, they're from the district.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And many of these guys would be like job workers
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: who have already lost their jobs because of the floods.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: They would have probably already been working to clean up anyway,
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  Speaker 1: but here they are getting a little bit of compensation
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  Speaker 1: for it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm not sure that they've lost jobs. I don't
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: know there's been a lot of job losses because of
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: the flood. In fact, probably the people that have jobs
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: have been pretty busy. But these would be people that
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  Speaker 2: aren't normally working, but they've been brought into work. So
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  Speaker 2: one of the outcomes of this is once they've finished
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  Speaker 2: doing this, they often find jobs in other areas or
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  Speaker 2: sometimes they end up working on farms, so it's quite
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  Speaker 2: a good outcome.
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  Speaker 1: Great, So what do you need to do? I mean,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: where are we at with the cleanup?
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  Speaker 2: The cleanup is starting, so we've had a lot of
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  Speaker 2: volunteers within the district so far that they've done a
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  Speaker 2: lot of helping on properties, but there's still a lot
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  Speaker 2: to do. We've also got a group called tasks Kiwi.
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  Speaker 2: These are often retired or semi retired people from the
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: services or emergency services and there at the moment and
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: they've just started work yesterday, so there's a twenty of
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: them having a look around the place. They're using our
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  Speaker 2: surveys that we've done. We've done about one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: twenty so far of properties that need long term help
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: cleaning up, so they're already there. But this group of
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: enthanced Task Force screen they'll be starting in three to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: four weeks time.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Fantastic And is the Student Volunteer Army still there.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure they have been there, but I don't
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: know if they're still there.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Great stuff. It's lovely to see the community getting together
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to fix the place up and I thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your time today, Richard, all the very very best of.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Luck, our pleasure. Thanks very much for more from Early
• 3:37
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• 3:40
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• 3:43
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