Mid North Coast fire, flood threat sees fears disaster funding could dry up

There are fears disaster resilience funding for the state’s Mid-North Coast could dry up as the threat of fire and floods continues to bare down on the community.

A Mid-North Coast councillor is fearful the threat of repeated fires and floods will leave the community high and dry when it comes to government funding.

Port Macquarie-Hastings councillor Rachel Sheppard raised concerns over the ongoing, and desperate need, for state and federal funding to prepare for natural disasters as the region recovers from fires and floods.

Cr Sheppard said more than $1.7 million in funding had been provided by the NSW and Australian government for 43 projects as part of bushfire preparedness and recovery programs across the local government area

“There’s two key points that I want to raise here and they are a little bit controversial, but I think they need to be said.

“One of them is about community resilience, and the other is about our long-term financial sustainability.”

Cr Sheppard said forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO advised fires and floods could be faced more frequently by residents across the Mid-North Coast.

The councillors said this meant that community resilience and long-term financial sustainability could take a hit if another natural disaster struck.

“We can only expect our community to be resilient to so much and, when it keeps on happening, it makes it harder and harder and harder,” Cr Sheppard said.

Bushfires on Port Macquarie’s Crestwood Drive in 2019. Picture: Nathan Edwards

“That then plays into our long term financial sustainability.

“In this case, just the community resilience activities – not talking about the repair of all the infrastructure that was damaged, just community resilience activities – some of it’s quite critical in terms of making evacuation centres fit-for-purpose, that sort of thing.

“If we’re going to keep having these sort of events at greater intensity, greater frequency into the future, that’s going to hit our budget.”

The councillors said she was fearful that public funding could dry up as natural disasters ravaged the state.

“It’s going to be less likely that the state and federal governments will be there to keep handing out money because it’s not just us who’ll be experiencing this, it’ll be all over the country and all over the state,” she said.

Port Macquarie-Hastings Council held an ordinary meeting on Thursday, September 15.

“So I just really want to take the opportunity to ground us in the reality that those climate change-driven events are going to be hitting both our community and our core business delivery into the future.”

Port Macquarie Hastings Council completed 10 NSW Bushfire Community Resilience projects, to the tune of $250,000, which inclided events and recovery expos, video campaigns for farmers, as well as festivals and workshops.

Meanwhile, a further 29 projects had been completed from the $1.4 million Commonwealth Bushfire Disaster Recovery program, with a total of three projects yet to be completed.

The works included upgrades to community facilities, amenities locks, staff resilience programs and personal protective equipment.