More than 18 months after the North Coast was battered by catastrophic floods, the NSW Premier is once again visiting Lismore to spruik the Resilient Homes Program and shore up support for Labor in their only northern seat. Despite the $100 million commitment in last week's NSW budget, many residents are being left behind when it comes to buybacks, retrofits and house raisings despite losing everything to floods last year.
Greens MP and Lismore local Sue Higginson said "The Government's budget last week was a massive disappointment and failed to address the calls for help from some of the worst impacted areas and communities who have been denied support by the NSW Reconstruction Authority through the $700 million Resilient Homes Program that was announced under the former Government,"
"The lack of clarity and communication with impacted communities has been an ongoing issue since the floods in February and March of 2022 and just last week the Government was still trying to block access to transparency when it voted against my call for papers so the community can access the documents that have informed the decisions taken by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation and the NSW Recovery Authority, fortunately the other members of Parliament supported the call"
"Despite commitments before the state election that a Labor Government would fix the flood crisis on the Northern Rivers, there has been little change in how the government authorities have been communicating with the community,"
"Communities have been split down the middle with houses on some streets receiving support to renovate their homes while impacted houses across the road have been denied any form of support despite flooding just as badly as their neighbours,"
"The ongoing crisis in the Northern Rivers will inevitably be repeated again in our communities and the rest of NSW is likely to experience extreme fire and flood events in the coming years. The Government is fundamentally failing to address the scale of this issue and the piecemeal, top down approach that they have taken with the Northern Rivers is a recipe for disaster unless they take urgent action to reform the system,"
"Chris Minns must take responsibility for the ongoing lack of communication between authorities and communities because many communities across the Northern Rivers are still in the dark about when, if ever, they will be supported in recovering and rebuilding their lives," Ms Higginson said.
