Our community has been left behind with the Labor Governments failed flood recovery efforts

Our community has been left behind with the Labor
Governments failed flood recovery efforts.
A report released yesterday by the NSW Auditor-General has reinforced everything that our
community has been saying for years. The Resilient Homes and Resilient Lands Programs
have failed. There has not been 1 home built after 4 years.
“It will be over 5 years since the event before 1 home will be ready to move into. This is
obviously not good enough.” Federal Member for Page, Kevin Hogan said.
The buyback scheme has also failed. It has moved half a street and left the other half there.
Over 1,000 homes identified to be bought back won’t be.
“For a cost of nearly $1 billion little has been achieved. Lismore and surrounding villages are
still exposed; our industrial estates and CBD are still no safer.
Recovery has been driven overwhelmingly by local families, farmers and businesses who
have poured their savings into rebuilding homes, reopening shops, restoring farms and getting
people back to work.” Mr Hogan said.
Flood mitigation is the only strategy that will deliver long-term safety and certainty for our
region. Yet to date there has been no meaningful engineering work done to reduce the level
of the next flood.
The CSIRO Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative Report will be released next month.
Governments must commit to funding and delivering recommendations to take 2 metres off
the next flood.
“The strategy of removing people from the floodplain has failed. The focus now needs to
shift to flood mitigation.” Mr Hogan said.
ENDS
21 May 2026
Media:
Kevin Hogan: 0428 291 307
Immy Cook: 0419 821 142