Tamara Smith, Member for Ballina and NSW Greens Disaster Relief Spokesperson, has welcomed an additional $150m in funding for the Northern Rivers and Central West flood recovery in Tuesday’s NSW budget.
However, Smith has warned that this announcement falls far short of the additional $800m that was committed to by Premier Minns in the lead up to the 2023 state election. She says it is required to ensure that residents devastated by the 2022 floods can receive a buyback, house-raise or retrofit.
Mandy Nolan, Greens candidate for Richmond, has condemned the federal Labor government for failing to pitch in funding for a second tranche of flood recovery funding for the Northern Rivers, leaving residents who have been waiting for assistance confused and anxious about their future.
Both Ms Smith and Ms Nolan are urging the federal Labor government to immediately prioritise delivering the remaining $700m to the Resilient Homes Program, and to end the uncertainty for flood victims across the Northern Rivers.
Smith said, ‘The federal Labor government now needs to step up and deliver the additional $700m in funding that flood survivors were promised. How much longer does our community have to wait?’
Reliant on fed funds
A spokesperson from Lismore MP Janelle Saffin’s office (NSW Labor) told The Echo they were not aware whether the state government had applied to the federal government for the next round of flood funding.
The Echo understands that to be granted the funds, the state government needs to apply to the federal government.
PM Albo to the nation, “No one held back no one left behind”.
Those wonderful words yeah, just make sure that it ain’t ever you that needs help after a catastrophe.
Albanese and Minns, the ALP just don’t care.
Labor’s budget falls short on flood funding: MP…talk about being an Understatement.
It doesn’t matter if you are a Black or White flood victim on the Northern Rivers..they are getting screwed by both Federal and State governments of BOTH political persuasions.
Talk about constancy.
Here are just a couple of examples that are in the public domain.
Example 1: When the Dom Perrottet visited Cabbage Tree island after the flood..he and his NSW government made a statement that $70million would be allocated to rebuild Cabbage Tree island…this money was pledged in a public statement.
In the mean time the residents of garbage Tree island found themselves living in Pods in Wardell until their homes and infrastructure on Cabbage tree was repaired.
All was good…fast forward to an announcement 3 weeks ago, all bets are off, the Cabbage Tree residents will have their homes now in Bath St Wardell and a couple of pieces of infrastructure on Cabbage Tree island will be repaired.
What has changed?
The Labour NSW Government has decided that spending $70 million on a Cabbage Tree island is a waste of money as the place will get poleaxed again in the next flood…so to save the budget, they (NSW State Government) will put the residents in Wardell and work the procedure to such an extent that the residents of Cabbage Tree will eventually be fighting with the Jali Council and we the NSW Government will just slip out the back door.
Well in time, that money the NSW government thinks they have saved on relocating the Cabbage Tree mob into Wardell..that and more will be spent on the funding the problems of social upheaval, community discontent and anti social behaviour.
Example 2:
Every state and federal political ventured to Northern Rivers during the flood clean up..looked the media in the eye..and pledged to “stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of the Northern Rivers”..”not abandoned them” and do all that is economically possible to rebuild the Northern Rivers better then ever.
Nice words..platitudes..waffle..saying stuff that people wanted to hear.
A global Insurance report stated that the cost of the 2022 floods just in the Northern Rivers alone…$9.6billion.
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/australia-s-floods-were-fourth-most-costly-global-disaster-in-2022-20230110-p5cbhx
All we on the Northern Rivers have been getting…crumbs.
But hey, if there is another tunnel, train line or stadium that needs to get built that costs billions..try holding the NSW government back.
No, both Federal and State labor governments got it right by not sending good money after bad. We can only hope that future funding will eschew ‘buybacks’ and now concentrate on retrofits, house raising, and mitigation.
The LNP badly mismanaged the original funding, with far too much going into private management.
New governments have been left with vast debts and many regions screaming for funding.
Put the blame where it belongs.
The usual playbook is to of course, promise the world and deliver as little as possible by ALL politicians. Provide a good hit though first, and then dribble it out over years . Until, surprise another disaster will smash in and reset priorities and maybe a few victims. will just fade away.
Unfortunately, for so many properties, a buy out is the ONLY way to solve houses approved by councils AND state govs to be built on flood prone land . It is THE best value for money for the flood victims and the community. Yes expensive, but thats life! Yes, everything is getting very expensive but we have to honor building permits issued that were NOT SAFE or we destroy the credibility of the local gov permitting system.