Minns moves to demolish flood buy-backs

THE New South Wales Government has announced it will demolish flood-prone homes purchased in the Lismore buy-back scheme.

In a media conference on Tuesday during an update on former Tropical Cyclone Alfred, a frustrated Premier Chris Minns said he was concerned about squatters moving into properties that the NSW Government had reclaimed.

“The Government has spent $900 million of taxpayer funds to remove people from very flood-prone areas of the Lismore region,” Minns said.

“These are flood-prone, low-lying areas where the household elected to move out, to move to higher ground, and the house would effectively be condemned so that the community could be safe, and we could reduce the exposure of affected communities and families in the event of a natural disaster.”

The government is currently engaged in court proceedings to execute eviction notices on people residing in several condemned properties.

“This is a completely unacceptable set of circumstances. It’s not tolerable that so many people are located in flood-prone land and still in danger, and SES personnel volunteers have to check on those households and check on those communities to keep them safe.

“We bought those houses so that we could keep communities safe so that no one would live there, and to have squatters move in off the back of that is completely unacceptable.”

In conjunction with the Reconstruction Authority the government plans to demolish the houses in a move Minns claimed was necessary.

“We’re not trying to exacerbate the housing issues in the Northern Rivers,” he said.

“Indeed, we’ve spent millions and millions of dollars on homelessness services in the Northern Rivers as well as emergency accommodation and social housing as part of the New South Wales Government’s budget.

“But the housing problems are not going to be solved by moving people into flood-prone land.

“We have to draw a line in the sand here, and that means demolishing those houses and ensuring that we can get on with life on the Northern Rivers,” he said.