Media Releases

Sam Farraway – Minister for Regional Transport and Roads
Steph Cooke – Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience, Minister for Flood Recovery
Wendy Tuckerman – Minister for Local Government

Tuesday, 15 March 2022

Councils hardest hit by the North Coast floods are set to receive $46 million in emergency funding that will be fast-tracked to kick start urgent road repairs and restore access to communities.

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway said flooding had caused millions of dollars of damage, including destroyed road surfaces, wrecked signage, landslips across roads, and damaged bridges and culverts.
“Our communities have been through a challenging couple of weeks, so we want to ensure councils have access to the cash they need to get work underway right now,” Mr Farraway said.

“The funding builds on the new specialised unit tasked with the repair of vital regional road and rail infrastructure damaged and destroyed by these floods.

“Councils will have direct access to this specialised, dedicated unit within Transport for NSW, which will provide expertise and extra resources to quickly assess the damage, fix it and continue to improve and make our roads and rail network more disaster resistant.

“Given the severity of damage across the North Coast, it was clear immediate funds were needed to ensure councils could start emergency works to get the network reopened.

“This is in addition to the work Transport for NSW is already undertaking on state roads to ensure we can get our network reopened, keep our communities connected and keep our state moving.”

Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience and Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said fixing roads is an important early task in the recovery process.

“Getting this funding in the hands of councils means work can begin as quickly as possible on the local roads most in need of repair,” Ms Cooke said.

“I want to assure natural disaster declared councils across Northern NSW they will still be able to submit Natural Disaster Recovery Funding claims once their damage assessments are completed.”

Minister for Local Government Wendy Tuckerman said the direct support for severely affected councils was essential to rebuilding and repairing critical infrastructure and support future recovery works.

“The NSW Government is directing these funds straight to councils, who know the local roads and the most urgent local problems in need of immediate repair,” Mrs Tuckerman said.

“Cleanup and rebuilding relies on useable roads, and I thank Ministers Farraway and Cooke for their collaboration in aiding Northern NSW Councils infrastructure needs.”

Through Australian Government Disaster Recovery Funding (Category B), the NSW Government is providing advance payment to severely impacted councils instead of the normal reimbursement process.

The advance funding will be administered by Transport for NSW in coordination with Resilience NSW and initially made available to the following councils; Ballina Shire, Bellingen Shire, Byron Shire, Clarence Valley, Glen Innes Severn Shire, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley, Tenterfield and Tweed Shire.

Additional councils may be eligible to receive advance funding and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

MEDIA:

• Luke O’Donnell | Minister Farraway | 0427 837 497
• Jack Douglas | Minister Cooke | 0457 751 406
• Damien Bolte | Minister Tuckerman | 0498 359 624