We recently made a submission to the NSW Parliament’s Review of the Reconstruction Authority following the severe weather events of May 2025, which had significant impacts on our Member Councils.
The submission identifies the strong need for funding support, given the constrained financial position of local government, which has been recognised by both State and Federal Government in recent Inquiries into disaster funding arrangements.
Our recommendations to the Inquiry included:
- Stronger, more consistent, and transparent leadership that fosters collaboration across all levels of government
- Sustainable and recurrent funding arrangements to support preparedness, resilience and long-term adaptation
- Genuine partnerships between state agencies, councils and communities to ensure recovery is fair, effective and community-led
- Enabling betterment funding through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) to rebuild public infrastructure to higher standards to withstand future disasters
- Revising the existing DRFA criteria to ensure council-owned water and sewer assets are included in disaster recovery funding, as these services are fundamental to public health, safety, and liveability
As we experience increasingly frequent and severe natural disaster events, reform of disaster funding arrangements will be key to significantly improving the preparedness and resilience of local councils and their communities.
Visit the Inquiry’s website for more information on our submission and the Inquiry more broadly.