Funding boost for flood affected regions of northern NSW

ABC NEWS (Australia)

100-million dollars in Commonwealth funding has been announced for a series of long-awaited flood recovery projects in the northern rivers region of New South Wales.

Transcript

00:00 It's a picture perfect day here by the Richmond River near Corakay, but this area was smashed

00:07 in last year's floods.

00:09 The Emergency Services Minister Murray Watt has announced the latest $100 million for

00:15 flood mitigation and resilience projects for the region.

00:19 We want to see these communities come back even bigger, even better, even stronger in

00:24 the future.

00:25 This is a flood prone region of our country and we do need to do more.

00:28 All up, the Commonwealth Government has spent well over $1 billion on flood mitigation and

00:35 flood recovery support in this region and every single dollar of that is deserved.

00:39 $48 million will go to raising roads and evacuation routes in West Ballina and $14 million for

00:46 improving the drainage system in Byron Bay.

00:50 The CSIRO shortlisted more than 60 eligible projects and 36 of those have been funded

00:56 so far.

00:58 The CSIRO is still working on its flood modelling project to recommend big picture flood mitigation

01:04 solutions.

01:06 The solution for Lismore is not in Lismore, the solution for Ballina is not in Ballina.

01:11 Most of these flood solutions at a catchment scale are far upstream of where it's happening

01:16 and you need a model to do that.

01:19 So maybe to get the right solution and get it fixed for once and all, two years wait

01:25 is not much.

01:26 The solution is waiting for 50 years.

01:28 Until those major mitigation plans become a reality, people in this part of the world

01:33 will just have to hope history doesn't repeat.

01:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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