Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about something that I hear constantly in the emergency management space as I travel around the state and, indeed, the nation. I point to a joint media release from February this year from the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government, Catherine King, and the Minister for Emergency Management, Murray Watt. At the time, I was very comforted to read:

The Regional Road and Transport Recovery Package means roads can be not just rebuilt, but also improved to withstand future extreme natural weather events.

That message was welcomed across districts and local government areas that had suffered the tragedy of natural disasters, particularly over the last few years. Building back better is a constant theme that I hear from flood affected areas and from bushfire prone areas from councils and local governments. Local governments know only too well the difficulties they have in applying for grants, particularly when there is no scope to ensure that a certain bridge or road isn't better protected from future disaster.

In meetings with organisations such as the Australian Local Government Association after the introduction of the revamped Disaster Ready Fund, which I supported, and in hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Australia's Disaster Resilience, the build back better concept is an oft repeated phrase, one that goes to the heart of the need of communities to embrace disaster-resilience strategies.

A case in point about the necessity of building back better is the Nyrang bridge between Canowindra and Eugowra in the central west of New South Wales, which I visited in the last few weeks. I saw firsthand the folly of what happens when there is no opportunity to build back better. This bridge has been washed away a couple of times in recent years. The bridge that I saw was a central crossing surrounded by two massive gaping holes in the roadway. It was very lucky that no-one died in the most recent wash away. The ABC reported at the time:

People in two cars had lucky escapes when a bridge they were driving over collapsed in floodwaters in New South Wales.

The first, a utility, fell into the water as the Nyrang Creek Bridge gave out. The driver was taken to Orange hospital and a passenger managed to climb out. A second car following the ute had no time to stop. The driver was forced to think quickly and rev his car to try and jump the collapsing bridge, almost reminiscent of an Evel Knievel stunt or an action movie. This car, with a baby and a four-year-old in it, fortunately landed with only four flat tyres and, clearly, a car full of very scared passengers. Had there been capacity to build back better the first time this bridge collapsed, this accident might not have occurred.

We need to do better. We need to allow local governments to look at better reinforcement, better design and better construction. We need to allow them the capacity to design and build to what we are all now acknowledging will be an increase in extreme events into the future. This particular road carries a lot of traffic, including grain trucks going to the local GrainCorp depot. Currently, as the road is out of commission, those grain trucks have to take an extra one to two hours on their trip to deliver their grain.

I remind Minister King and Minister Watt of their February press release, and I remind them of their commitment to projects that will make a difference in the long term. I do acknowledge that Minister Watt has said all the right things in this area. I implore them to get the guidelines out to enable councils to commence building back better instead of just repairing roads. I implore them to get moving with those guidelines.