NSW’s flood recovery cost taxpayers billions. But how have they been spent?

The flooding catastrophe that struck NSW’s northern rivers area a year ago has so far cost taxpayers $4.6 billion in grants and recovery costs, Crikey can reveal. 

Most of that — $4.2 billion — has been earmarked for infrastructure improvement projects and for rebuilding things like roads and schools. The remainder — $400 million — has been paid out in grants to individuals and businesses.

State taxpayers footed most of the bill, $2.8 billion, and Commonwealth tax money paid for the rest. 

NSW Flood Recovery Minister Steph Cooke told Crikey: “From my perspective as a minister, I can honestly say that I’m never fully satisfied with the progress of how or how smoothly or efficiently things are running. I know that we can always do better, there’s no question of that.

“However, I think it’s important to balance that by saying I’m very grateful to everyone who has been involved in the flood recovery efforts over the past 12 months. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved.”

A year ago today, the Wilsons River in Lismore reached the record-breaking height of 14.4 metres, more than two metres higher than the previous record. About a month later, the levee that protects Lismore was breached again as flood waters rose to 11.4 metres. 

Between February and April 2022, 13 people died due to the floods, according to evidence to a state parliamentary inquiry last year. More than 4055 properties were destroyed to the point of being uninhabitable, a further 10,849 were damaged, and 8100 were “inundated with water”, according to the inquiry’s final report. In the northern rivers area, which includes Lismore, about 4000 people had to be evacuated. 

The NSW government said at the time it had committed $1.6 billion in state-funded support for flood-affected communities, but by May, less than 8% of that money had been paid. 

NSW Nationals Leader Paul Toole said at the time that grant payments had been delayed because of fears “fraudsters” would try to take advantage of the assistance, and because of the “unprecedented volume of applications”. 

Crikey asked the NSW government earlier this month about how much of the $1.6 billion had been paid out, but was told it wasn’t possible to say because of the number of funding packages that had since been announced. However, government officials said all lodged grant applications had been marked as completed by Service NSW as of this week. 

The official response to the 2022 floods was widely criticised for being too slow and ineffective. The parliamentary inquiry was especially harsh in its assessment of Resilience NSW, an agency set up after the Black Summer bushfires two years earlier, which the report said had “demonstrated some of the biggest failures of the NSW government’s response to the floods”.

The state government ended up scrapping Resilience NSW and replacing it with a new body, the NSW Reconstruction Authority. 

Before 2022 was over, several more floods had hit NSW, drenching communities in the Hunter region, the Central Coast and Sydney’s Nepean area, among other places. The total bill for the 2022 floods landed at about $6 billion, $3.7 billion of which was paid by the state government, and $2.4 billion by the federal government.

A NSW government spokesperson told Crikey the money had been committed to more than 30 support packages. 

“A significant proportion of this funding is in the form of reconstruction and repair projects, not individual grants, including clean-up, waste removal, emergency accommodation, road repairs, road betterment projects, critical infrastructure (sewerage and water) repairs, restoration of council-owned amenities and infrastructure, replacement of school infrastructure, council rate waivers, health initiatives and more,” the spokesperson said.

“To date, more than $850 million worth of grants have been approved and paid to households, primary producers, rural landholders, business owners and councils.”

Cooke said the funding and infrastructure upgrades, coupled with a new warning system run by the State Emergency Service, should make sure officials and residents are better prepared next time a flood hits. 

“Should we face something similar in the future — and I certainly hope we don’t — I think across the board, the response will be better and the move into recovery will be a lot quicker, and that can only benefit communities everywhere,” she said.