Review of the operations of the NSW Reconstruction Authority

Review of the operations of the NSW Reconstruction Authority

Communication and community engagement

26

3.47 Hunter Joint Organisation provided a case study of the experience of the

MidCoast Council during the May 2025 East Coast severe weather event. The

Council’s CRO was funded under a short-term grant, and this funding ceased in

the months immediately before the disaster.

This resulted in a staff member with

well-established community connections being unable to assist with recovery

when most needed. 163 This demonstrates how the current dependence on

temporary, short-term competitive grants for community-focused roles can

adversely impact the capacity and timeliness of community recovery.

3.48 The Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance (NRCRA) further illustrated

the importance of an ongoing CRO-like role by making the comparison between

Byron Shire Council – which has maintained a self-funded Resilience Officer since

2019 – and Lismore City Council, whose Community Resilience Network had not

been maintained and required significant work to make functional again. The

Alliance strongly recommended the Authority provide permanent funding to

councils to engage specific Resilience Officers, particularly in LGAs with high

disaster risk.

164

3.49 Ms Jill Samuels, RSS Team Manager, Mid Richmond Neighbourhood Centre

similarly argued that CRO roles must be permanent, rather than event-based, due

to the cyclical nature of disasters.165 Several stakeholders provided similar

suggestions and called for CRO roles to be permanently embedded within

individual councils, in order to support recovery coordination and provide

continuous expertise at the local level.

166

3.50 The Committee heard that CROs were best placed within individual local councils,

rather than at the Joint Organisation (JO) level where a single officer serves

multiple LGAs across a broader geographic region.

167

3.51 Following the May 2025 East Coast severe weather event, the Authority

proposed splitting funding for a 12-month regional CRO position into two six-

month roles at the JO level. Both the Hunter and Mid North Coast Joint

Organisations declined this proposal. The Hunter Joint Organisation cited

practical issues relating to the short timeframe, lack of meaningful engagement

at the regional scale, and funding limitations as reasons for declining this offer.

168

After both JOs declined, the Authority offered the single available CRO role to the

MidCoast Council, as the LGA with the highest identified level of impact.

169

163 Submission 33, p 14.

164 Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance, Answers to supplementary questions, 16 January 2026, p 2; Elly

Bird, Transcript of evidence, 3 November 2025, p 30.

165 Jill Samuels, Transcript of evidence, 3 November 2025, p 30.

166 Submission 31, p 2; Deborah Stafford, Transcript of evidence, 20 February 2026, p 9; Elly Bird, Transcript of

evidence, 3 November 2025, p 30; Submission 33, p 15; Submission 35, pp 8, 12; Institute of Public Works

Engineering Australasia, Answers to supplementary questions, 3 December 2025, p 2.

167 Hunter Joint Organisation, Answers to supplementary questions, 26 March 2026, p 4; Submission 33, p 11;

Submission 35, pp 8, 12; David Reynolds, Transcript of evidence, 20 February 2026, p 15; Submission 24, p 5.

168 Submission 33, p 12; Submission 24, p 5; Anna Flack, Transcript of evidence, 17 February 2026, p 14; Submission

45, p 2; Submission 26, p 4; Hunter Joint Organisation, Answers to supplementary questions, 26 March 2026, pp 4-5.

169 NSW Reconstruction Authority, Answers to supplementary questions, 30 March 2026, p 4-5.