Tweed Councillors met last week for a one-agenda meeting that was over in less than half an hour.
The only item discussed was the Late Mayoral Minute on Northern Rivers Joint Organisation Advocacy Regarding Emergency Repair Work Prioritisation Tool.
Cr Cherry said she wanted to move that council write to the Northern Rivers Joint Organization (NRJO) requesting that they advocate to the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority, (NSWRA) to provide a similar betterment prioritization tool, to that provided by Queensland Reconstruction Authority.
A ‘heat map’
‘I attended the Australian Coastal Councils conference last week up on the Sunshine Coast, and at that the Queensland Reconstruction Authority representative, spoke at that meeting about about how this tool that they’ve created for councils and for state government and federal government investment, whereby they’ve collected the last 15 years of requests for repairs and defects that have occurred in all of the roads and infrastructure, and they’ve basically used it to create a heat map, which allows them to see at a glance, where some of the biggest issues are – where are the areas that are having to be repaired again, and again and again? Where are the areas that are really costing the state and federal government, and thereby the taxpayer, a lot of money?
A great initiative
Cr Kimberly Hone said she thought the idea was a great initiative. ‘I commend Madam Mayor on bringing this to the table, and taking home something from the conference that we can fight for here, for our Shire.
‘It does highlight what the RA are doing in other states.
‘When it comes to natural disasters here in Northern Rivers, in particular, in the Tweed Shire, we often feel overlooked. And so this is the reason why I feel it’s important that as a Tweed Shire, we have our own voice, and we don’t sort of lose that voice in the process of writing to the NRJO, and then they write to the New South Wales RA.
‘It’s important that we have our own voice, that we stand on our own two feet.
‘I know that we are quite often competing with funds and resources and awareness and recognition with our other shires every time there’s a natural disaster, and I just think this is a really good example that we can use to voice our own shire and to make sure that we are heard.’
After a short debate and a small slide off-topic, councillors voted and the motion was moved unanimously.
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