$5 million for Two Room Project

is a lot of people with sharp elbows and a lot of experience at the senior level of the NSW Government.

“I’ve written to the Prime Minister in relation to more funding,” he said.

“We want to sit down with the Commonwealth and talk about a joint arrangement.

“That’s what happened in the immediate aftermath of this natural disaster.

of homes.

“The need is as urgent today as it was 12 months ago.”

Pod villages that became a common sight after the food are also being looked into.

“We will be having a roundtable conversation about the future (of the pods) with the mayors, the minister and local members,” said Ms Saffn.

By Samantha Elley

A recent visit to Lismore by NSW Premier Chris Minns brought an announcement regarding the next step forward for the reconstruction of food-ravaged Lismore and its surrounds.

“Part of that announcement will be a $5 million package announced in the NSW budget for a two room renovation program for Lismore,” Mr Minns said.

“To ensure that at least two rooms in as many houses as possible we can get to, are liveable as we get through the process of either buybacks or restorations through the NSW Government and the Commonwealth Government investment in reconstruction in this part of the world.

“There is a long way to go and I am not pretending for a moment this $5 million investment will be everything this community needs or the end of the fnancial contribution from the NSW Government.

“It won’t be.”

Mr Minns said they will also go to the Commonwealth Government to ask them to partner with the state government for the next stage of the next tranche for home renovations and home buybacks.

“It is also important to acknowledge that of the $700 million pledged by the Commonwealth and NSW governments there is still $350 million left of tranche one,” he said.

“So putting those programs together, it all goes to a wonderful future for the Northern Rivers and Lismore.

“We are going to partner with this community to get it back on its feet.”

Minister for Emergency Services, Jihad Dib outlined a number of actions and changes taken since his last visit to the Northern Rivers with Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully.

“We have set a commitment to fund properly the Reconstruction Authority so we can actually have the planning process that goes from before the disaster right through to the end point,” he said.

“We also have a commitment for another instalment of funding to support money that’s already in there.

“Only earlier this month the (Reconstruction Authority) started going out and knocking on families’ doors and asking what more they could do to assist and letting them know what government assistance was there.”

The Premier reiterated this by saying they had made a lot of progress and learnt from the mistakes made due to non-transparent communication that wasn’t clear around timelines and money in the frst round.

“We’ve taken that lesson on board and done two things,” he said.

“The head of the Reconstruction Authority is now the head of the Premier’s department in NSW.

“There is no one more intimately aware of the challenges faced by this community than Simon (Draper).

“And secondly we’ve appointed Janelle as the Parliamentary Secretary, not just in the Northern Rivers but right across the state.”

Mr Minns said that

“There’s no reason why that can’t happen now, we’ve still got people out

“They can be let up to fve years, so all of that we are working through now.”