Auditor-general’s flood report finds NSW had ‘no plan’ to house 2022 Lismore survivors

ABC NEWS (Australia)

People who lost their homes in the Northern Rivers floods two years ago have been told there is no long-term plan to get them out of temporary housing. The auditor general has also found that the number of pods and caravans made available was only half of what was needed.

Transcript

00:00 Lismore and many other parts of the northern rivers continue to be in a state of flux.

00:09 Catastrophic flooding in 2022 has left the region with a major housing shortage.

00:14 And according to the Auditor-General, the state government should have been better prepared.

00:19 It was really difficult to read how there was so much confusion and so many different

00:24 agencies in the mix when our community was suffering and had such a desperate need for housing.

00:30 The Auditor-General found there was no plan to guide the temporary housing response at

00:35 the time of the floods.

00:37 The number of temporary dwellings built in the northern rivers didn't meet demand.

00:42 And there's no long-term plan to transition people out of temporary housing.

00:47 Beth Webster is among those living at a pod village in Lismore.

00:51 It's easy to look at numbers and groups and say, yeah, well this many people are now staying

00:54 there somewhere and this many people.

00:56 But it's not that, it's people's lives.

00:59 The report also touched on the response to major flooding in the state's central west

01:04 later that year.

01:06 It found lessons from the northern rivers were applied and caravans and later pods were

01:11 mostly installed on people's properties.

01:14 Among the recommendations is a new temporary housing plan for future emergencies.

01:20 And a strategy for transitioning people into long-term accommodation.

01:24 The Premier says he'll consider the findings.

01:27 I just haven't had a chance to read that report and I want to take some time to read it before

01:31 I comment.

01:32 For those living with uncertainty, change can't come soon enough.

01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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