Geoff Helisma, Clarence Valley Independent
Reacting to NSW Government’s Flood Inquiry report released on Wednesday August 16, Page MP Kevin Hogan put out a media release – “Too slow, too slow, too slow.”
Mr Hogan’s displeasure garnered the attention of ABC News Breakfast – on Thursday, host Michael Rowland interviewed Mr Hogan for six-minutes and tweeted a copy of Mr Hogan’s media release prior to the interview.
Specifically, Mr Hogan is critical of the government’s reliance on the report’s findings and the time it has taken for the report’s release.
“It is coming up to six months since the disaster,” he said in the media release.
“…our community is no clearer on the details for voluntary land swaps, buy backs and house raising.
“This process should have started months ago.
“The criteria should have already been set.
“Applications should already be getting processed.”
Mr Hogan praised the Queensland Labor government’s superior reaction to the flooding disaster. “Queensland had the same disaster event,” he told Mr Rowland. “It [the flood disaster] wasn’t as bad as ours; [but] they announced a buy-back program within weeks of the disaster.
“We have people who are literally, and I’m not exaggerating this, who are literally camping in their own houses. “They need to make decisions about their homes: are they going to invest back into their homes?
What are the options that they have?
“All we’ve done after six months is simply say we need to look at those three issues.
“It’s not quick enough.”
Michael Rowland: Has Mr Perrottet let the people of Lismore and surrounds down?
Mr Hogan said the state and federal governments “had done a lot of good work and put a lot of good money out there in disaster payments, to start with, and there’s a lot of business grants out there as well”, but said his “specific issue [is] what the [are] going to do about people who had metres and metres of water in their homes; who’s going to qualify for a buyback”?
Mr Rowland pointed out that it’ll be Christmas before the government starts “handing out money and bringing in these buybacks; what, in your view, would be the impact on the mental health of so many people in Lismore”?
Mr Hogan did not provide a clear answer, however, he said: “We’re not in a good place, that’s not the government’s fault, necessarily … we had decisions to make, and we need to be able to make those decisions, especially when you’re talking about your family home … and options about your rebuild … again, I say it has been too slow”.
Michael Rowland: “Have you personally asked Dominic Perrottet to get his skates on?”
Kevin Hogan: “Look, I’ve been communicating with the government, my state government colleagues, all of the time; I was just communicating with them last week…”
The Queensland Government announced on May 12 that it was taking registrations for its $741 million Resilient Homes Fund, last week the ABC reported that “4,259 people across the state have registered their interest”, and on July 27 the Qld Gov said, “Of the almost 8,600 assessments undertaken on homes and commercial buildings almost 3400, or 40 per cent, are no longer showing signs of damage.
“However, there are still many properties where work is still needed, with more than 1,300 assessed as still having severe levels of damage, more than 1,900 with moderate damage and more than 1,900 with minor levels of damage.”
This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 24 August 2022.
