NSW floods: Lismore failed by ‘broken’ system

As battered Lismore continues its billion-dollar flood clean-up, The Daily Telegraph reveals how flawed funding programs and stymied spending have failed the stoic NSW town.

Lismore has been failed by a “broken” system that has stymied spending on flood mitigation projects and prevented experts examining solutions to stop the area flooding in the future, locals say.

A “flawed” state government grant program which requires councils to fund a third of the cost of proposed flood management projects has been blamed for inaction in building infrastructure to reduce flooding risks.

Problems with the grants program were one of a number of failures outlined in a searing submission to the Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements in 2020, which said councils are “stymied” at the first hurdle in applying for funds.

An aerial view of flooded buildings in Lismore on March 3. Picture: Bradley Richardson/Australian Defence Force

Aerial photos show the Lismore clean up after flood waters receded. Picture: Toby Zerna

The submission also drew on a 2015 Productivity Commission report which found that in the years prior, spending on efforts to mitigate the impacts of natural disasters was only three per cent of the spending on recovery after a disaster hits.

A group of concerned Lismore locals has been lobbying for more to be spent on flood mitigation strategies since major floods in 2017.

Lismore is one of the most flood-prone areas of the country, with hundreds of buildings flooded in 2017.

“The biggest problem we face is that the system for mitigation is completely and utterly broken from the ground up,” Lismore Citizens Flood Review Group co-ordinator Beth Trevan told The Daily Telegraph.

Ms Trevan’s submission to the Natural Disaster Royal Commission said cash-strapped local councils were being prevented from applying for State government funding for flood management projects.

Under the NSW government’s Floodplain Management Grants program, the state government provides local councils with funding to spend on projects to manage flood risk, providing $2 for every $1 applicants propose to spend.

Ms Trevan said that program is broken in Lismore because the council doesn’t have any money to spare on new programs.

“This town has had 138 floods in 152 years,” she said.

“There’s a flood every 14 months, and you constantly have reparations at the local level that keep the council in a virtually bankrupt state, so they never have the finances to get any project to shovel-ready stage.”

Aerial photos show the Lismore clean up after flood waters receded. Picture: Toby Zerna

Local governments effectively need to pay for a third of any proposed projects to be considered for the grants.

The criticism was echoed by local MP Janelle Saffin, who called on the federal and state governments to chip in more into flood management.

“Councils should not have to compete for those grants, it should be done on a needs basis,” she said.

In the 2021-22 funding round, the Floodplain Management Grants program handed out just $10 million to councils to assess risks and reduce the impact of floods, as part of 50 projects.

Ms Saffin described that as “chicken feed,” saying more needed to be spent, including by the Commonwealth Government.

She said authorities should place a greater focus on “lessons learned” from previous floods like that in 2017.

Ms Trevan has called for all levels of government, including the commonwealth, to fund an expert study into how to manage water on the far north coast which could develop lasting solutions.

After the Productivity Commission found in 2015 that mitigation spending only amounted to three per cent of the money spent on recovery, Ms Trevan said the Commonwealth’s National Recovery and Resilience Agency (NRRA) is now working to even out that balance.

Meanwhile, local MPs say the problem of the NRRA not listing Lismore as a priority area for federal government grant funds has now been fixed.

Lismore had been left off the list of priority councils prone to natural disasters which got easier access to $600 million of Commonwealth agency funds.

Ms Saffin said the omission has now been fixed.