Andrew Gee (Calare, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Many months after being hit by storm, flood and fire disasters, residents of our region are being held back from moving on because they're locked out of key disaster recovery funding programs. Successive state governments have failed to activate this joint state and federal support.

I call on the New South Wales and Australian governments to answer these questions: Why does the Northern Rivers area have access to the Home Buyback and Home Retrofit schemes, but not the storm- and flood-hit areas of the Central West? Why is it that other local government areas have access to the Community Assets Program to help rebuild their towns and villages, but councils in our region do not? Why hasn't a grant program, similar to the Northern Rivers Commercial Property Return to Business Support Grant program, been announced for our storm- and flood-hit areas? Why is travelling on our bridges and roads still like a war zone? The Nyrang Creek Bridge and the road between Wellington and Dunedoo are still closed. How can it be that, in 2023, we are closing roads rather than fixing them? Why are residents of the Hill End region still excluded from the $75,000 special disaster grants to help the area bounce back from the recent devastating bushfires? It is deeply shocking that these grants have not been made available to our farmers.

There is a fundamental injustice and inequality going on here with respect to disaster assistance. The people of Central Western New South Wales have been through more than their fair share of hardship in recent times. Our residents pay their taxes like everyone else, yet they're being treated like second-class citizens. This is as appalling as it is inexcusable.