Community input and local knowledge will be crucial to guiding a new state government corporation established to rebuild the NSW Northern Rivers region following months of devastating floods.
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The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation will work with councils to rebuild transport and communications infrastructure as well as push the economic recovery, including providing jobs in the region.
Premier Dominic Perrottet announced the new body in Lismore, saying it would reduce the bureaucracy that had delayed recovery efforts, as well as prepare for inevitable floods in future.
Lismore was hit with repeated flooding as relentless rain drenched the region throughout February and March.
"We can't go through such a substantive event and do things the way we've done things in the past," Mr Perrottet said on Tuesday.
"Areas of government can operate in silos and not in co-ordination."
Regional NSW deputy secretary of commercial and corporate services David Witherdin will lead the new corporation.
The flood recovery effort was progressing in the Northern Rivers but there was still a long way to go, Mr Perrottet said.
"We've had people lose their lives. Many people have had their homes destroyed, businesses lost. It has been a very difficult time."
The corporation, which will officially form on July 1, will consider the need for communities to adapt for future events.
It is complementary to the immediate focus of Resilience NSW and the work of Northern Rivers recovery co-ordinator Mal Lanyon, with a view to the medium and long-term response and preparation.
Mr Perrottet said he did not want to see "bloated bureaucracy".
Lismore MP Janelle Saffin has been calling for a single government body to lead the rebuilding effort.
Opposition Leader Chris Minns said he hoped the government stuck to its promise to listen to and work with councils and communities.
"One of the problems with previous flood recovery responses (is) we haven't been listening to the people directly affected,' he said.
The new corporation needed specific goals and objectives to avoid becoming another layer of the bureaucracy.
It would also be subject to oversight in the parliament to make sure the work was followed through, given what Mr Minns described as a mixed record of NSW government state owned corporations in recent years.
The Insurance Council of Australia welcomed the move, saying there was a need for an overarching plan for the rebuild process, as well as the establishment of a high-level cross-sector leadership group.
"Beyond the immediate clean-up and community recovery, it is clear there are complex issues to work through if we are to ensure the Lismore community is made more resilient to future flood events, ICA CEO Andrew Hall said.
"These issues include the construction of community resilience infrastructure such as levees, the future insurability and lendability of homes and businesses, land use planning, land use decisions by major commercial residents, and building codes and standards."
Multiple inquiries are being conducted into the disastrous floods, which killed at least 10 people across the Northern Rivers and western Sydney.
The new corporation will play a role in responding and implementing relevant outcomes from those inquiries and reviews as well as focusing on long term strategy in the flood prone Northern Rivers.
Some 2000 temporary modular homes that can accommodate up to four people are due to be installed at Wollongbar, west of Ballina, but installing them will take about a month.
Other temporary housing options include motorhomes, accommodation at recreation camps, and 16 weeks' rental support.
Australian Associated Press
