After yesterday’s announcement of the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) Special Supplement to residents of Ballina, Byron, Kyogle and Tweed Shires, Tweed Council sent a message of thanks and an invite to the Shire.
Addressing the Chamber at the first Council meeting since the February 28 flood, Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry thanked the Federal Government, and specifically Prime Minister Scott Morrison, for listening to the pleas of the community.
‘We are most grateful to the Prime Minister for listening to our pleas and including the Tweed Shire in his government’s additional assistance package,’ said Cr Cherry. ‘There is no doubt the community needs all the help it can get. The recent flood is the most widespread natural disaster the Tweed community has ever experienced.
Human consequences
Cr Cherry said the human consequences of this flood event, the loss of possessions, the loss of livelihoods and the displacement of people from their homes is catastrophic for so many in the Shire. ‘We have lost two members of our community to this flood. We have communities that are still isolated out at Commissioners Creek after 17 days. Many communities still only have 4WD access.’
Recent figures released by Resilience NSW show of the 3,940 homes assessed in the Tweed so far, more than 2,100 buildings have suffered damage and 498 dwellings have been declared uninhabitable as a result of the flood.
Councillors unanimously endorsed a Mayoral Minute thanking the Prime Minister for the additional funding and invited the PM to travel to the Tweed to see for himself the sheer scale of the devastation facing the community.
It’s very disappointing to see kowtowing to the prime minister that has failed to accomplish anything of value for the people he serves. Here he’s being thanked – thanked! – after a belated rendering of minimal federal assistance long after the emergency and after so much criticism. I can’t believe the state of our “democracy”.
Now be fair NRR, the PM was in isolation with Covid. Surely any announcements of assistance needed to wait until he could do his carefully stage managed appearance. The locals may not have been impressed but there were the national news bulletins to consider.
There’s no Kowtowing to a leaderless abusive Liberal who can’t
& wont get any house in order ie; Federal Parliament. ScoMo will
still call Australia home – Why? He thinks he owns it!
President ScamMO and wife Jen. also reckon Kirribilli House is “their home”.
Although the Tweed cannot offer such unique photo ops as a towering 5G inferno, there’s likely to be a suitably trite opportunity for this regrettable PM.
As getting his smirk into the media is his sole interest, hopefully real workers will not be disrupted.