Submission: NSW Independent Flood Inquiry
NCOSS has made a submission to the NSW Independent Flood Inquiry amidst ongoing consultations with the NGOs in the Northern Rivers impacted by, and supporting communities through, the recent floods.
In the context of recurring natural disasters, rising disadvantage and an increasingly over-burdened social services sector, our submission calls for the NSW Government to:
- Embed social service NGOs and community-led responses in the NSW emergency management system
- Address the chronic under-funding of social service NGOs in the Northern Rivers and the need to respond to increased demand in the aftermath of the floods
- Undertake a rapid ‘Social Housing Repair, Rebuild and Construct’ program in collaboration with Community Housing Providers (CHPs), guided by an overarching Masterplan to ensure resilience to future disasters
- Develop a Northern Rivers NGO workforce strategy.
Read the full submission here.
NCOSS has also made a submission to the NSW Parliament inquiry on the response to major flooding across New South Wales in 2022 highlighting these same issues and recommendations.