Reconstruction Corp needs to be held accountable

In the wake of ‘maps’ released last week by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC), which illustrate a priority list where homes are likely to be bought, raised or retrofitted, flood-affected residents contacted The Echo to express their disappointment and personal experiences dealing with the government-run corporation.

All expressed that they have no confidence in the NRRC, which is led by CEO and career bureaucrat, David Witherdin. 

Accountability measures are unclear and appear non-existent with the NRRC, given its corporate status excludes them from parliamentary scrutiny. 

Echo requests for information from the NRRC are not forthcoming, and there is yet to be a reply to questions put to the MP responsible, NSW Labor Planning Minister, Paul Scully. 

Echo questions also remain unanswered by the NSW Department of Regional NSW, who are the other body responsible for the NRRC. 

Absurd offers

One Byron Shire resident, who did not want to be named, told The Echo, ‘I have a buyback offer which is half the value of my property, once my insurance payout has been taken out’. 

‘However, I wanted to speak up on behalf of countless others who have been made an absurd offer to buy back their land at “low ball” prices. If you accept the offer, it’s not enough to buy elsewhere. 

‘If you lodge an appeal, you get nowhere, offers are currently not being increased, and worse, nobody gets back to you. So while our comments and questions are not being replied to by NRRC, we all wait in limbo, as our lives perish, mental health diminishes, and we all go broke paying double rents and mortgages, funding repairs ourselves and living with PTSD’.

No ombudsman 

‘The biggest problem is that there is no ombudsman to keep NRRC accountable. Who do we complain to? The NSW Ombudsman won’t take our complaints, saying that we have to escalate our issues through NRRC itself, or via the Department of Regional NSW. Who, by the way, administer the NRRC, so how objective is that investigation going to be? 

‘The second-biggest problem is that the appeals panel in NRRC is the same panel that issues the offers in the first place. 

‘So how is this going to be an objective review process? 

‘There is also no negotiation process, there is nobody to talk to, most case managers are powerless puppets, devoid of any meaningful advice, which means that any questions or comments end up in a black hole with no reply. 

‘Timeframes are tight, but one-way – you’re given 14 days to make comments or 30 days to accept your offer. 

‘And yet, when you make contact with NRRC, there is no reply from them. At. All. 

‘So it seems that this prompt timeframe that we have to adhere to doesn’t apply reciprocally to NRRC. Again, where is the accountability in this?

‘Thirdly, NRRC are deducting insurance payouts from all offers. Our question to NRRC is – when did you start paying our insurance premiums to warrant your deducting our insurance payouts? 

 ‘And if NRRC wants to deduct the insurance payout, then why aren’t they deducting the cost of the premiums which is hundreds of thousands over decades for most households?

‘Fourthly, the NSW State government has so far refused to waive the stamp duty on a new purchase for those that have to buy again. 

‘The fifth-biggest problem is that the state government has used so-called “independent” valuers to value each property. Let’s also shine a light on the fact that these valuations have included incomparable properties, which bring property values down. This means that property valuations are coming in at 30-40 per cent less than what they should be. This is a rather convenient “low-ball” approach that warrants a Royal Commission investigation. 

‘We were promised buyback offers at pre-flood market value, not post-flood market value, and not Valuer General. So for NRRC [seem] to be engaging an army of valuers who all seem to be pulling the same tricks to favour the NRRC purse, [this] is not only hideous, but we can also see straight through this stunt.

‘It’s a rort. 

‘Historically, in Brisbane and New Zealand, victims post-disasters have been paid out within weeks. 

‘But 16 months later, and the majority of the victims of the Northern Rivers 2022 floods are still either waiting for a phone call from NRRC to advise if they are eligible for anything, or have been made a low-ball offer. 

‘One has to wonder how the state government expects folks to recover at all from these disasters? Or do they even care?’

Lismore flood-affected resident, John Stewart, says that the NRRC should be held accountable for the misinformation and inaccuracy within the flooding maps released last week.

Living in attic

Stewart approached The Echo to tell his story, having lived on Magellan Street since 1978, and said that the NRRC are not doing a good job of flood-recovery, and are not being upfront about their plans.

After 6m of water ran through and over his Magellan Street home, his home is still unliveable, he says, 16 months after the 2022 floods. 

‘I camp in the attic’, he said, and ‘the progress of recovery is slow’. 

‘The trauma is still very real for everyone around the area’, he says. ‘It’s not going very well for Lismore.’

Stewart says his flood-affected neighbour, six doors down, committed suicide three weeks ago. 

‘He was renting, and he had nowhere to go. I knew him for 30 years… His funeral was the saddest I had ever been to. I felt so sorry for his friends and family.’

Stewart says, when the flood hit last year, no one was prepared for the scale of it, and everyone thought the water would stop rising and the levy would hold. 

Except it didn’t. 

‘An 80-year-old woman drowned in her home around the corner’, he said.

As for the NRRC maps, which include revised flood data and a list of ‘priorities’, he says all of priority 1 for Lismore is where no homes are located, as they are all mapped along rivers and creeks. 

Another long-term resident of Lismore, Avinash Ayres, contacted The Echo and provided a long list of unanswered questions for the NRRC.

Ayres asked how the ‘expert advisory panel’ was chosen, ‘and why no local experts were appointed to the panel who have a lived experience of the area’.

‘I note that the panel is made up of ex-bureaucrats, who have retired in some cases, or the overwhelming majority of the panel are experts in business. 

‘Only two of the eight live in the Northern Rivers region; none are currently living in Lismore. I do understand that there needs to be policies and procedures in place as we are dealing with government money’.

Ayres also asked: ‘Why was there no initial survey of residents affected?’ 

‘There was no data supporting types of housing required or wanted by the people concerned i.e. no survey that people could effectively participate in. Please explain’. 

As for the recently-announced lands identified for greenfield development to fast-track housing supply,  Ayres was ‘baffled by the choice of land’. 

‘I cannot believe the [lands] are tacked on to the ends of already approved suburban developments. Where was the consultation with the community? How many times, apart from the two locals, did the panel visit Lismore? How was this information received by the panel and how were decisions made?’

Bigger view needed 

Ayres questioned why a sustainable template for disaster resilience is not being formulated.

‘Why not take a bigger view of this area as we know that more extreme weather is going to happen? Let’s take the view that water, and the preservation of this precious commodity, could be our biggest problem’.

Finally, Ayres asks why new technologies and innovations are not being embraced, ‘instead of continuing with 20th century solutions’. 

‘Given the scarcity of our regular building materials, we have an opportunity to rebuild houses with fire retardant materials that also have insulating properties. Many of these new materials have been used in this area as well as overseas. Hempcrete comes to mind as it is fire retardant – it is non-toxic and has great insulating properties. There are many other suitable building materials’.