Resilience NSW’s FY21-22 new hires more than double previous staff headcount

Soon-to-be dismantled disaster preparation agency Resilience NSW has been labelled a “bloated bureaucracy”, with its new hires more than doubling the staff headcount.

The doomed government agency responsible for preparing for natural disasters before it was wound down spent more money on staff in the year to June 30 than it gave out in grants to reduce the impact of natural disasters.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that Resilience NSW more than doubled its employee headcount in the past financial year and hired 11 additional senior executives – while handing out just less than $28m in resilience grants.

The agency is soon to be dismantled as part of the government’s response to the floods inquiry.

Resilience NSW had 226 staff in 2021-22. That’s more than double the 105 staff at the agency the year before.

It boasted 25 senior executives – up from 14 in 2020-21.

Resilience NSW was formed in response to the deadly Black Summer bushfires. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

The total staffing budget for the billion dollar agency was $32m in the year to June 30 – millions more than the $28m it handed out for resilience programs.

Staff costs ballooned by almost $13m compared to 2020-21.

In 2021-22, the agency hired an extra 13 “Band 1 Directors”, earning on average $244,000 per year.

The multibillion-dollar agency handed out almost $893m in grants in 2022. However, almost all of that money went to disaster response.

Only $2.1m was spent on Natural Disaster Resilience Program grants, a program scrapped this year.

Those grants were replaced by the Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program, which was given almost $42m in funding.

The agency has come under greater criticism amid multiple severe flood events across the state. Picture: Dan Peled/Getty Images

However, Resilience NSW’s annual report shows that only $25.6m was allocated under that program in the year to June 30.

A wide-ranging review into the response to this year’s floods called for the bloated Resilience NSW to be wound back, with most of its responsibilities transferred.

That came after a Labor-led parliamentary inquiry found that Resilience NSW failed to meet its objectives in responding to the flood crisis.

The embattled Resilience NSW was controversially established by former premier Gladys Berejiklian after the Black Summer bushfires.

Senior ministers – including Premier Dominic Perrottet – had been privately critical of the agency’s confused role before a decision was made to scrap it.

Labor’s emergency services spokesman Jihad Dib labelled Resilience NSW a failed “experiment”.

“We have a report that shows more money was spent on a bloated bureaucracy than on ensuring communities are resilient against the forces of nature,” he said.