A NSW Parliamentary Committee has recommended increasing upfront disaster payments to primary producers and to completely overhaul a grants system that has become overly bureaucratic – changes championed by NSW Nationals committee members Scott Barrett MLC and Member for Clarence Richie Williamson.
The Joint Select Committee on the NSW Reconstruction Authority has tabled its final report into the Authority's response to the May 2025 East Coast severe weather event, which caused widespread damage across the Mid-North Coast and other regions.
The report includes two significant recommendations put forward by Mr Barrett directly targeting support for farmers following natural disasters.
"The report acknowledges that recent changes to Emergency Grants increased complexity for applicants and reduced upfront payments available to farmers," Mr Barrett said.
"I think it's really important that we get this on the record as a mistake and look to get it simplified for future disasters."
Another critical recommendation, put forward by Mr Barrett, was to raise the upfront primary producers grants above the current $5000 to provide more immediate support to the sector.
"This is something I heard in the inquiry, but also on the ground in the immediate aftermath when I was on the Mid North Coast," Mr Barrett said.
"In the aftermath of a disaster, farmers don't have the capacity to wade through bureaucratic obstacles to receive basic support, and anyone who's been on a farm post-flood knows how easy it is to tally up more than $5000 worth of damage."
Other recommendations included changes to the joint Commonwealth Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, changes to betterment funding and permanent Community Recovery Preparedness Officers embedded in Councils.
"This comprehensive report was a really important piece of bipartisan work, and I hope the government follows through on their end delivering these much-needed changes to the disaster recovery space," Mr Barrett said.
Shadow Minister for Disaster Recovery and Member for Myall Lakes Tanya Thompson said our communities deserved practical support, not bureaucratic hurdles, after the devastating May 2025 floods.
"This report is a clear acknowledgment that the system needs fixing," Mrs Thompson said.
