The Northern Rivers Resilient Lands Strategy is part of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC)’s $100 million Resilient Lands Program.
The Resilient Lands Program is part of a suite of measures the NRRC is coordinating to deliver a sustainable supply of land and housing for flood
impacted residents in high risk areas in the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed Local Government Areas.
The Resilient Lands Program has been designed to complement, not replace, business-as-usual land release and housing development in the region. The Resilient Land Strategy identifies land that will be accelerated for delivery with funding support provided under the Program.
The Resilient Lands Program is being delivered in conjunction with the NRRC’s $700 million Resilient Homes Program that focuses on raising, retrofitting and voluntary purchase of homes impacted by the 2022 floods.
After the Acknowledgement Of Country the aforementioned four short paragraphs are the NSW Government, Dept. of Regional NSW & Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC)’s introduction to its long awaited draft resilient lands strategy.
It goes on in the Foreword to state:
The Strategy identifies 22 sites that could support
climate resilient residential development across each
of the Northern Rivers Local Government Areas. Fifteen
sites have been earmarked for immediate on-ground
investigations, to enable flood impacted residents to
move out of areas severely impacted by the 2022 floods.
The Strategy also identifies a further seven sites of
strategic significance for long-term resilience. These
sites that are identified as potentially suitable for
development in the longer term may help reduce the
need to undertake a similar region-wide land suitability
assessment should future natural disasters occur in
the Northern Rivers.
The authors of this draft document end the eight paragraph Foreword with a nausea inducing bout of self-congratulation:
The Resilient Lands Expert Panel, who has assisted in
the preparation of the document, is thankful that our
skills and professional expertise have been able to
contribute to the recovery initiative but humbled by the
experience of people who lived through the flood event,
many of whom remain impacted. We hope that this
document will assist in ensuring that safe and secure
accommodation can be made available for all affected
going forward.
That last paragraph on Page 5 completed setting the tone for what is essentially a twenty-four page collection of pious wishes, vaguely-worded ‘plans’ and the carefully worded announcement of a funding feeding frenzy by land speculators and both private & corporate property developers.
Given the political influence of the development & construction industry lobbies, it is easy to suspect that ‘affordable housing’ will be taking a back seat in the NSW Minns Labor Government’s specific plans for north-east New South Wales – albeit these plans were inherited from the Berejiklian-Perrottet Coalition Government which preceded it.
At Pages 7 & 8 the draft document states:
Land identified in the Strategy was also reviewed by the Resilient Lands Expert Panel (the Panel), an independent panel of experts with backgrounds in urban planning, environmental management, community development, Indigenous knowledge and climate resilience.
The Panel’s recommendations identified 22 short, medium and long-term development sites across the seven Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed with potential capacity for up to 10,300 dwellings.
Work has now commenced on the planning and delivery of the 15 short-term sites identified within the Strategy. This will ensure residents impacted by the 2022 floods can relocate to new housing as soon as possible.
The Strategy also identifies a further seven medium and long-term sites for broader regional planning efforts to support longer term community resilience.
What does the Resilient Lands Strategy mean for
residents impacted by the floods?
The Strategy identifies a total of 22 potential development sites across the Northern Rivers on both private and public land. Fifteen sites are for immediate investigation for flood impacted residents with capacity for approximately 7,800 dwellings. Seven further sites with capacity for approximately 2,500 dwellings have been identified as sites of strategic significance for longer term resilience…..
Why doesn’t the NRRC just acquire and develop land?
In some instances, acquisition and development of land by government will have a role to play under the Program. However, using a range of approaches that aim to remove barriers and encourage the delivery of land and housing by the development sector and government will maximise housing supply outcomes across the region.
For example, using the entire $100 million available under the Resilient Lands Program to acquire land and develop housing could be expected to deliver approximately 200–300 dwellings to the market over the next three to four years.
On the other hand, a modest, up-front investment by government to deliver important water and sewer infrastructure upgrades that are preventing the release of land can unlock significant housing supply and better support the feasibility and delivery of residential development areas.
Taking an approach that is tailored to the characteristics of each individual site will ensure the Program delivers the most housing in the right locations as possible.
Where any financial support is provided to the development sector through the Resilient Lands Program, it will be conditional on prioritising access to any new housing for flood affected residents.
I think that the Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin put it best when she told ABC News on Friday, 2 May 2023:
Ms Saffin said the corporation's communication skills left many questions unanswered.
"We are desperate for detail, our community that has been physically and psychologically battered, and this doesn't give us any more detail about when, time frames, how, who," Ms Saffin said.
"I've been a very vocal critic of the NRRC's inability to communicate and this release just highlights it even more."….
"We've all watched the series Utopia [and] the idea of comms management is not to do anything," Ms Saffin said.
While Greens MLA For Ballina Tamara Smith was quoted in The Guardian on the same day:
The MP for Ballina, Tamara Smith, called on the government to release better maps that provide more detail.
“How can we as a community make informed submissions about what will be huge new residential developments when we don’t actually know where they are?” she said.
“Our community deserves utter transparency and I am disappointed that we are not getting more information in order to make meaningful submissions to the draft.”
In another section of that article these succinct quotes also mirrored the feelings of more than a few locals:
A mayor who spoke to Guardian Australia on condition of anonymity said they believed the government was being “very optimistic” with its goals, calling the lack of detail so far provided to councils and the community “really crap”.
This is an example of mapping used in the draft document at Pages 15 to 22:
It would appear that the state government and its agencies are determined to play those land strategy cards close to their chest and at the same time minimise whatever negative media reports may emerge.
It is doing this by treating the entire Northern Rivers regional population of est. 312,747 men, women and children (.idcommunity, 2022) as so many mushrooms which need to be kept in the dark. At the same time holding a media briefing in which the Draft Resilient Lands Strategy was explained in some detail (accompanied by visual aids) and all journalists questions answered—under a total ban on dissemination of said information by said journalists.
This Northern Rivers resident’s assessment of the state of play in June 2023?
The NSW Government, Dept. of Regional NSW and Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation have provided local government and communities with:
no genuine time frame;
broad statements but no real details;
an incorrect assessment of some land being shovel ready for development in 2024;
maps so ill-defined that they are all but useless in identifying which land is to be developed;
no outline of the type/number/provisional costings of tenders that might be required for land preparation and supporting infrastructure or tenders which have already been approved; and
an unrealistic expectation that this particular Resilient Lands Strategy can deliver what has been promised to the people of the Northern Rivers region.
