NSW Upper House agrees govt flood response ‘insufficient’

The NSW Government has supported a crossbench motion in NSW Parliament on June 8 that their response to the Northern Rivers floods was ‘insufficient’.

The motion was put forward in the Legislative Council (upper house) by Animal Justice Party MP, Mark Pearson, and passed without opposition. 

Detailing the effects of the floods on Northern Rivers residents and businesses, Mr Pearson also outlined the failures of the NSW Government to assist those needing help.

‘I acknowledge that some level of funding has been promised to the community, but red tape and bureaucratic obstacles have made it difficult for traumatised survivors to successfully lodge their legitimate claims’, Mr Pearson said in his speech. 

He noted that of 9,500 applications lodged for rental support payments, only 1,300 have been paid.

Similarly, 14,964 applications have been lodged for small business grants, with less than 15 per cent of them approved so far.

Labor MLC, Walt Secord described Resilience NSW as ‘a bloated organisation with more than 100 staff, which is expected to climb to 230 people’.

‘The commissioner is paid $475,000. The ABC described it best: that Resilience NSW “was roasted in a recent parliamentary inquiry”.’

Meanwhile, Nationals MLC Ben Franklin, who has a home in the region, played down the lack of government response, and said ‘the event was literally unprecedented in [Lismore] and that community, and in the little towns further downriver’.

‘I worry about these issues being politicised’, he said.