You can sign up to be kept in the loop about the work the NSW Greens are doing on emergency services here.

Climate change means that communities across NSW will continue to face floods and storms with increased intensity and frequency into the future.

We can’t take a business-as-usual approach to flood prevention and response.

In just the first few months of 2024, the Illawarra, Nepean and Hawkesbury regions have been impacted by flooding.

We have heard loud and clear from impacted communities that recovery support is fragmented, short-sighted, under-funded and difficult to navigate.

We only need to look to the Northern Rivers, where years on from the devastating 2022 floods, residents are still living in damaged homes or temporary housing because of unsustained government support.

As the threat of the next flood looms, it’s never been more urgent for the NSW government to take climate change seriously by fully and sustainably funding disaster recovery and resilience programs, as well as caring for and support workers and volunteers on the front lines.

Residents in disaster-impacted communities are bearing the cost of disasters four-fold: clean-up and rebuilding, huge insurance premiums, contributing to the emergency services levy through council rates, and serving as emergency services volunteers themselves, often sacrificing income to do so. This financial model is inequitable, unsustainable and unfairly penalises those most in need of support.

The NSW Greens:

• call for land use planning that accounts for climate change, including a moratorium on development on flood plains, and the development of infrastructure that can withstand extreme weather events;
• call for long-term funding for neighbourhood centres and local government to lead local, place-based recovery and resilience initiatives on an ongoing basis - not just for a short time after a single major incident;
• will continue advocating for broad housing reform to support communities in disaster-affected areas;
• support the current review of the Emergency Services Levy and will continue to advocate for emergency services to be funded in a way that is both equitable and sustainable;
• support community calls for additional funding for the Resilient Homes Program, as thousands of survivors continue to go without buybacks, retrofits and raises after two years;
• urge the Government to prioritise disaster preparedness by bolstering volunteer numbers in disaster-prone regions and planning with local communities, rather than for them;
• Recognise that both formal and informal emergency service volunteers need targeted post-trauma mental health support;
• Call for NSW Health to manage the allocation of temporary health workers in-house, instead of contracting inefficient and expensive private recruitment agencies, so that disaster-impacted health workers can have time for their own recovery.

You can sign up to be kept in the loop about the work the NSW Greens are doing on emergency services here.