As severe weather events continue to expose the fragility of infrastructure across Māori electorates, Waatea’s series examining the impact of repeated rain events turns north to Te Tai Tokerau.

In Part Three, we examined the pressure on Tairāwhiti’s roads and the long recovery from storms and slips. Now, in Part Four, Matthew Tukaki speaks with Green Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Huhana Lyndon, about connectivity, safety, and what she says is decades of underinvestment in Northland.

For Lyndon, the issues facing Te Tai Tokerau are not new – but they are becoming more urgent.

State highways remain the key arterial routes for whānau and businesses moving in and out of the North. Yet closures due to slips, unstable terrain and long-standing road degradation are common. While a proposed four-lane highway project has been identified as nationally significant, she says the scale, cost and carbon footprint mean delivery is likely many years away – and would not necessarily resolve congestion and heavy traffic pressures in the Far North, particularly from logging trucks.

She argues that immediate, practical solutions are required now – not just large-scale infrastructure promises. A more connected system that includes rail, coastal shipping and expanded public transport, she says, would reduce fuel costs for families while also lowering emissions.

Local roads present an even deeper challenge. The Far North District alone maintains approximately 2,500 kilometres of roads, with only around a third sealed. Lyndon says councils simply do not have the rates base to maintain and upgrade that network adequately. Proposed caps on rates, she warns, would make it even harder for local authorities to fund the roading programmes needed to keep communities safe.

Cyclone Gabrielle highlighted these vulnerabilities. In remote parts of the Far North, communities were forced to manage recovery largely on their own as slips and damaged roads took years to repair.

The ongoing closure at Helena Bay underscores the human impact of infrastructure fragility. With the Whangaruru community effectively cut off by a slip, the alternative route via Kaiikanui Road is unsafe and unsustainable for daily traffic.

Whānau who once faced a 60-minute drive to Whangārei for work, school and appointments are now forced to travel north to Kororāreka, take a ferry, and then drive south again – turning a one-hour journey into a two-hour-plus commute each way, with added ferry costs.

Lyndon says while initial response efforts were swift, recovery is proving far more challenging on the ground. She believes greater wraparound support is needed, particularly for iwi who often carry the heaviest load during civil emergencies. A temporary ferry pass or discount for affected residents, she suggests, would provide immediate relief but has not been activated quickly.

She describes recovery as a long game that requires ring-fenced funding and sustained focus to ensure isolated communities are not forgotten once headlines fade.

Lyndon says Northland has been underinvested in for generations. She raises concerns that proposed changes to census collection, shifting toward administrative data and annual surveys, risk undercounting communities in places like Moerewa and Kaikohe. Without accurate demographic data, she warns, funding allocation could miss the unique needs of Te Tai Tokerau.

Housing cuts have compounded the issue. The cancellation of hundreds of Kāinga Ora builds in Northland left cleared sites vacant and projects stalled. While some homes have since been reprioritised, Lyndon says the numbers fall far short of what is required to meet demand.

For her, regional investment must reflect both infrastructure resilience and social need – and she argues Te Tai Tokerau should be prioritised accordingly.

Poor road conditions also affect emergency response times, school transport and access to healthcare. In remote areas of the Far North, public transport is limited or non-existent. When roads close due to weather events, children and whānau can be effectively stranded.

Lyndon says funding barriers often delay access to specialist services for tamariki with disabilities, while dusty, unsealed roads can worsen health conditions for those already vulnerable.

Community-led initiatives, including driver licensing programmes and drink-driving prevention campaigns, are making progress – but she maintains that systemic road safety improvements remain essential.

Looking ahead, Lyndon points to the recently completed Future Development Strategy for Whangārei, which anticipates population growth of more than 30,000 over the next three decades. The strategy, developed with hapū input, outlines how the region will accommodate growth and manage land use.

She says the upcoming Long Term Plans will be critical in setting ten-year priorities for funding and resource allocation. Ensuring hapū and iwi voices are meaningfully included in those plans is central to building a climate-resilient and future-focused Northland.

As Waatea’s series continues to examine rain impacts across Māori electorates, Te Tai Tokerau presents a familiar picture – a network under strain, communities adapting as best they can, and a growing call for sustained investment rather than reactive patchwork repairs.

For Lyndon, the message is clear: resilience in the North must be proactive, properly funded, and built around the needs of whānau who rely on safe, sustainable access every day.

• Part One: A Network Under Strain: The State of New Zealand’s Rural and Regional Roads 
• Part two: #infrastructure: Waiariki: A Network Under Strain
• Part Three: Tairāwhiti Under Pressure: Storms, Slips and the Fight for Resilient Roads
• Blue-Green Infrastructure: Dr Shaun Awatere Calls for Nature-Based Climate Resilience
• Government Rejects Gisborne’s Landslide-Prevention Plan, Raising Fresh Climate Resilience Concerns
• #regional: Manu Caddie: Tairāwhiti Must Move From Road Repairs to Climate Resilience  
• #regional: Rates Caps Could Undermine Emergency Management Reform, Councils Warn
• #regional: More Slips Halt Traffic Through Waioeka Gorge
• #climatechange: Climate Change Emerges as Top Priority for Iwi Leaders at Waitangi

Note: Waatea approached the incumbant MPs office to participate in this series but they asked us to speak with the Government or reframe our questions – Waatea declined their request. We posed the same line of questions to the MPs colleauge who did participate. In the interests of time Waatea approached Greens MP Huhana Lyndon.