00:00The Premier, Chris Minns, is making good on his promise to demolish houses here in Lismore
00:07and across the region that were affected by the 2022 floods.
00:10The State Government has bought back over 700 houses across the region.
00:15When Chris Minns found out in recent times that squatters were living in some of the
00:19houses, he came out and said that it was not practical to move them.
00:24We bought those houses so that we could keep communities safe, so that no one would live
00:28there and to have squatters move in off the back of that is completely unacceptable.
00:33So I've made a decision in conjunction with the Reconstruction Authority that we are going
00:37to demolish those houses.
00:39So the State Government has already demolished 50 houses and we've found out recently that
00:44another 62 are going to be demolished by the middle of the year.
00:48This is playing out right here, right now in the streets of North Lismore.
00:53At least two people have been arrested here this morning as they gather here to try and
00:58fight to have the houses relocated rather than demolished.
01:02There's red tape, there's bureaucracy, there's roadblocks, there's everything.
01:06Everything you could imagine to the point where nearly everyone has given up hope of
01:10being able to move a house and when they do get some hope it's then taken away again.
01:15Decisions they're making now go against what they said last year.
01:20Are the houses suddenly unsafe or is the politics suddenly unsafe?
01:25The New South Wales Reconstruction Authority's stated aim has been to relocate, reuse and
01:30recycle as many of the buyback houses as possible.
01:35But people here today are questioning that commitment.
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