Northern
Rivers Resilient Lands Strategy –Summary Report: Helping provide a
safer, more sustainable and more resilient Northern Rivers,
1
June 2023:
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.
