Andrew Constance calls for disaster recovery controller for northern NSW after floods
Former NSW MP Andrew Constance has warned more homes could be potentially be lost in the NSW flood emergency than in the Black Saturday bushfires.
NSW
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A dedicated disaster recovery controller should be appointed from outside government to protect the welfare of people who have lost everything in northern NSW, former Minister Andrew Constance says.
Mr Constance says key lessons from the Black Summer bushfires haven’t been learned, and Premier Dominic Perrottet should bring in an external co-ordinator to “cut across everybody and make sure the resourcing and targeting is right,” he said.
Mr Constance has called for the state government to call on the respected Euan Ferguson, who was brought in to manage the recovery from the Tathra fires, to ensure people’s needs are met.
He said governments have failed to learn key lessons from the Black Summer bushfires, and they need to change their response to disasters.
“Critical Supply Chain Management from fuel to food and those basic necessities was one of the challenges … the people who are in those situations are left very isolated.
“And so, that’s why I feel that some of those key learnings haven’t been addressed,” he said.
“I think the big issue at the moment is just making sure that there is unity in survival and unity in recovery,” Mr Constance said.
“The trauma response will be key,” he said.
“There’ll be more homes lost potentially in this event than in the fires. So, you know, it’s an incredibly huge scale,” he said.
Mr Constance defended the role of Shane Fitzsimmons as the head of the new Resilience NSW agency, but said outside government should be brought in to help.
“It’s got to be someone who’s got the authority to look at the way in which the community is going … and also the way in which the public sector agencies (are working),” he said.
Mr Constance named Euan Ferguson as the best person for the job.
Mr Ferguson was appointed by former Premier Gladys Berejiklian to co-ordinate the Tathra bushfires recovery.
Mr Constance said Premier Dominic Perrottet is doing “exactly” what he needs to but he needs external help.
“He should be getting that independent person in. They can’t handle this in house, it’s too big a role,” he said.
Mr Constance’s comments come as stories of unspeakable horrors are still pouring out of flood-ravaged Lismore as authorities mark hundreds of homes “unliveable” and locals scramble to access help.
Lismore families are escaping with the help of friends, neighbours, and charities as questions grow over why army officers are barely in sight in the town’s wreckage.
Apprentice diesel mechanic Ned Foster was saved by a workmate in a boat from the chest high waters that inundated his house alongside his friend Tayla Dawson, 19.
Standing in a foot of water on Ballina Street Bridge, they watched on as people fought for their lives – frantically grabbing power lines to survive.
“When the boat flipped and people went downstream grabbing onto power lines, we were watching that, we thought they were dead,” he said.
In South Lismore desperate mum Helene Hainaut put her daughter Genivieve, 6, inside a cupboard to keep her dry as water engulfed their home.
The family waited an hour and a half before being ferried in a tinny to South Lismore Public School and hiding in the library before SES took them to Ballina Street Bridge.
The heartwrenching civilian stories came as just 275 ADF officers had boots on the ground in Lismore on Monday according to Federal Government figures while the State Emergency Service said 630 officers were deployed across northern NSW with another 1300 coming by Tuesday night.
Frustrated locals crowd sourced more than $70,000 to charter private Ocean View Helicopters and fly to flood affected areas as defence troops slowly rolled in.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 50 people had been saved by the community-run operation including an elderly woman with two broken legs who waited 36 hours for help.
It’s understood the federal government told the state they had only 2000 officers available across Queensland and NSW before boosting it to 5000 across the two states.
“The Minister has said that we will take every single one of those personnel, if possible,” a spokesman for Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said.
“The Minister is extremely grateful for the support the ADF is already providing but hopes support will continue to ramp up very quickly.”
Lismore MP Janelle Saffin unleashed on the Commonwealth – saying that the troops were too slow to arrive, and the state had asked for many more officers than they received.
“The state asked for thousands and thousands … We needed them faster and more of them. We needed at least six battalions,” she said.
Ms Saffin said families with nothing left to their names were struggling to access support grants because they were required to show paperwork they no longer had and to complete online applications in areas with no connection left.
“The business grants come with requirements. We don’t need the bureaucracy; they just need to come as grants. That needs to be fixed,” she said.
“I am staying around 15 minutes out of town and I need to walk up a hill to get the phone to work.”
Premier Dominic Perrottet said Ms Saffin’s criticisms were fair and vowed to fast-track the process as soon as possible.
“We need to get money out the door as quickly as possible in a way that will help as many people as possible, and businesses get back on their feet,” he told T he Daily Telegraph.
“Janelle is right … The momentous task at hand will certainly be a challenge and we need to be agile.”
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