February 01, 2023
Emergency hub makes welfare real for minister Sepuloni
Deputy Prime Minister and Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni is getting an up close view of the impact of flooding in west Auckland.
She’s been helping out at the evacuation centre in her Kelston electorate since early Saturday morning.
She says about 50 people stayed there overnight, and people have been coming and going as their homes are red or yellow stickered.
“The vast majority of people coming through the Kelston evacuation hub actually have somewhere to stay – they have friends or family to stay with – but they have been coming for support with respect to MSD services or food parcels or clothes because they lost everything. We’ve had so many generous donations so we’ve got all that stuff there from our whanau,” Ms Sepuloni says
Most of the families coming through out west are Pacific Islanders who don’t have any where to go, don’t have contents insurance and who are very vulnerable.