Green regulations are stopping bushfires victims rebuilding

Deputy Premier John Barilaro has called for the scrapping of expensive government-imposed green tape that is forcing bushfire victims to pay up to $10,000 for ecological reports to check for non-existent koalas before they can rebuild on burnt-out land.

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Eight months after the summer’s bushfire disaster, devastated homeowners are being driven to despair by expensive government-imposed green tape that is strangling their attempts to rebuild on their own scorched land.

Bushfire victims still living in tents or caravans are being forced to pay up to $10,000 for ecological reports to check for non-existent koalas or ­assess the flora and fauna ­impact of clearing burnt trees.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the building industry warned the state government in May that homeowners were at risk of suicide because the environmental hurdles they were forced to deal with.

Denis and Bev Wallis are frustrated by the green tape hampering their rebuilding plans. Picture: Josh Burkinshaw

Eurobodalla Mayor Liz Innes is calling for bushfire properties to be exempt from the green regulations that are slowing development applications for hundreds of people without homes — one of the major ­issues The Daily Telegraph has put on the agenda at our Bush Summit.

It comes after senior Berejiklian government minister Andrew Constance warned on Monday that owners must be given the right to clear their own bushfire land and that the government had not done enough to help them.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro said on Friday “we have to” get rid of the red tape and “act immediately”.

Speaking on 2GB’s Ben Fordham show, Mr Barilaro backed south coast Ms Innes in her calls for bureaucratic red and green tape to be lifted on bushfire residents trying to rebuild.

The couple are living in a caravan on their property where their home of 35 years burnt to the ground. Picture: Josh Burkinshaw

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“She’s absolutely right...as bushfire recovery minister my job was to clean these sites so we can rebuild - we’ve done a pretty good job of that,” he said.

“People are now in a position to rebuild and are being held up by green tape. I know the Commission of Inquiry will look at all this. That will be far too late. This is something we have to act on and act immediately.

“We have to stop the impact on these poor landholders who are being held up and possibly not being able to build again for 18 months.”

Mr Barilaro said bushfire residents should be able to rebuild in their same land envelope with limited hurdles.

The Bega Valley chair of the Building Designers Asso­ciation wrote to Environment Minister Matt Kean and Planning Minister Rob Stokes in May calling for an urgent ­intervention.

Paul Dolphin has warned the state government bushfire victims are at risk of suicide because of the horrific green tape they are facing. Picture: Josh Burkinshaw

“I corresponded with you over a month ago with ­regards the possibility of varying some of the ecology ­requirements for bushfire ­affected rebuilds. Nothing has happened and we are really delaying people getting back in their homes,” Paul Dolphin wrote.

“I guarantee if this is not resolved there will be ­suicides. Please could we get a resolution to this that helps these people”.

Mr Dolphin listed four ­examples of homeowners hamstrung by fees for ecologists’ reports.

At Malua Bay, he said one property which needed to clear a garden that was “all grass” required a $5000 ecologist test and a koala report at a price yet to be determined.

The state government introduced the koala test ­requirement in March, which has resulted in private residents being asked to pay to look for koalas which simply are not there.

Batemans Bay couple Bev and Denis Wallis, who lost her home of 35 years, are living in a caravan on the site.

Malua Bay ablaze on New Year’s Eve. Picture: Alex Coppel

They had to spend $1500 for an ecological assessment and expect to spend up to $20,000 to have trees removed. They were initially told she would need to pay $5000 for a koala check, before realising they were exempt due to the ­smaller size of her land.

“We didn’t have to pay it, but simply the anxiety of when we were told about the koala thing, my husband and I were about to jump off a cliff,” Mrs Wallis said.

A second major south coast building industry identity, Seacoast Homes director Darren Phillips, said bureaucracy was strangling the ­rebuild process, with state government bodies, councils and the RFS often having different views on requirements.

“The goalposts seem to be constantly moving,” he said

Responding yesterday, Mr Stokes said exemptions for bushfire residents for koala checks were “being considered by government”. He said planning exemptions had been expanded.

Mr Kean conceded there was more to be done, including fast-tracking exemptions for rebuilds. He pointed to an email sent by his department in May which told councils that rebuilds would not need a biodiversity report if there were no threatened species or complex ecology on the land.

But no one in Eurobodalla Council was aware of the email until The Daily Telegraph forwarded it yesterday.

Ms Innes said the email was nothing more than ­“bureaucratic weasel words”.

“If the government is serious about this then simply turn the provisions off for bushfire addresses,” she said.

Mr Dolphin said the government’s “exemption” effectively required someone to have an “ecologist’s degree to prove they don’t need an ecologist’s report”.

Originally published as Green regulations are stopping bushfires victims rebuilding