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From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones. This is 7am.

Whether it’s floods, or bushfires, climate disaster is something Australia is going to have to contend with more and more. But so far, we aren't recovering from the disaster. It’s one year since the Lismore floods, but the scheme to get people back into homes, and to move those homes away from the floodplain is taking far too long. And in the absence of real recovery, what’s happening in Lismore is being described as ‘Disaster Capitalism’ – with houses on the floodplain being sold to investors looking for a bargain.

Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper Royce Kurmelovs, on what happens when the government doesn’t step up, and the market steps in

It’s Tuesday March 7.

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RUBY:

So, Royce, you recently went to Lismore in New South Wales to visit the town one year on from the floods that destroyed so many lives and homes. How would you describe the situation there and what it was that you encountered when you arrived?

ROYCE:

Lismore is a very interesting place. It lies in the bottom of basin, so as you come in over the hill, you can kind of see the town as its position between two rivers and once you start to drive around some of the residential areas and started to get down some of the side streets and start looking, you can also see how much work has yet to be done to address the situation that many people still find themselves in.

Archival Tape – News Reporter:

“This is absolutely something to behold. The scale of what I’m seeing down beneath us now is just something else. There’s water as far as the eye can see. Now, in this part of Lismore…”

ROYCE:

Over the course of the trip, I was told that it was about 1700 homes were damaged in the catastrophic flood that swept through Lismore, about 1400 of them severely so.

Archival Tape – News Reporter:

“Simply put it, it seems like scenes as if a bomb has gone off. Everywhere you look, it's just pure destruction. And it's remarkable to think that this was all caused by water…”

ROYCE:

But as you drive around some of the residential areas, you can see the damage done to the buildings. You can see the parts of the roof of people have cut their way out of the ceiling to escape rising flood water, you can see where some houses have been swept from their foundations

Archival Tape – News Host:

“Flood victims across Lismore in northern New South Wales say they're still desperately waiting for support ten months after catastrophic floods ripped through the town. Thousands of residents remain in emergency and temporary accommodation…”

ROYCE:

All those scars are still evident.

Archival Tape – News Reporter:

“Following the disastrous floods, the state government promised 11 temporary housing sites. Four of them are still under construction - this means some people in this community are still sleeping in their cars…”

ROYCE:

It's now a year on since the flood. And as people are well aware, there's a housing crisis which makes it very hard for people to find alternative places to live. So people are doing what they can with whatever they've got around them.

RUBY:

And what does that look like Royce? The people you met - how and where are they living?

ROYCE:

For many people it's hard to find an alternative place to live. There is, you know, with so many homes damaged and unfit for human habitation, it is hard to find an alternative place. If people are lucky enough to rent, that rent is increasing and very high. If people own their own home, they have bought themselves caravans and stuck it beneath their houses where they've got their belongings kind of sprawled out around them. Some people are even living inside the buildings themselves, despite the risks from things like mould or other damage or even if the building might be open to the elements. There is still a core group of people who have sold up and walked away from all this because a year on after the flood, it's just too much.

You can see signs of what's happening in the advertisement real estate agents place in their front windows. One we found had a heading that said: “Opportunity Awaits.” It described the property as “a flood affected diamond in the rough that is ready for you to take it to the next level. This classic high-set hardwood three bedroom home has incredible potential for a first home or is an amazing investment, promising solid rental yields for years to come.”

The price of this property was around $225,000, which compared to the Sydney rental market… the housing market is a steal. And if you look around at the other windows, you can find many similar advertisements of people who are just trying to sell up as quickly as they can because they've had enough. And, you know, and they're actively selling it to people who may not otherwise be able to afford a home elsewhere and who are willing to take a risk by living in the floodplain.

RUBY:

Hmm. And also, I thought that the whole idea after the flooding a year ago was to really try and move Lismore away from the worst part of the flood zone. But you're saying that what's happening now - one year on from the floods - is that people are buying and intentionally moving into flood zones?

ROYCE:

This is where things get complicated because the people who are buying these properties aren't to blame for this, the people who are selling aren’t to blame for this; they are doing the best they can with what they have around them. You know, people need a place to live, and people who have lived through the catastrophe dealing with incredible amounts of trauma, their mental health is suffering and they want closure, they want to move on with their lives rather than living in stasis.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“So where you see that we've actually done really well in our recovery, it's all locally, community driven. It's Resilient Lismore, it's the Koori kitchen…”

ROYCE:

One of those people we spoke to was Vicki, a 63 year old woman whose family have been living on the outskirts of Lismore, right near a wetland which floods regularly.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“So this water was just rushing in and rising just unbelievably quickly. I've never seen anything like it in all the time I’ve lived here…”

ROYCE:

For the 26 years she and her family have lived in this place, they've had to build their life around managing floods. But even they were surprised by the scale of what happened in February 2022 when the flood came, they were forced to retreat into the roof cavity of their property and they were eventually rescued by a neighbour with a boat.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“In the time I've been here, which is 26 years, we have looked after ourselves and supported each other. So we haven't really asked government for anything, particularly in the past…”

ROYCE:

As we spoke, one of the things she mentioned was that there are properties coming up for rent right now in the flood zone and people are coming in selling the houses in the market to either renters or investors, who are coming in and cleaning up those houses and putting them back on the market.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“We're just starting up the same process over again and young people are coming in and buying a lot of those properties because they can't get into the market. So you know, they're coming in and buying these cheap properties in the hope that it won't happen. And I hope it doesn't too. But it could.”

ROYCE:

The cost of renting elsewhere is going up, which makes Lismore an increasingly attractive prospect for people who are looking to find somewhere to live. It's cheap to live in Lismore and the reason why it's cheap is that it's now been shown to be at risk of catastrophic flooding. And for many people who haven't lived through that kind of disaster, the concept of that may be dangerous to them and their families, to their belongings, that they might lose their lives or even their livelihood…is abstract.

It's a gamble they're willing to take for the opportunity to have a place of their own, to have a place to live. And as Vicki said, there are many properties coming up or coming up for rent in the flood zone because people are simply desperate.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“I don't blame people for selling their houses. People want to move on. They’re traumatised, they want to sell the house and get out. And there’s houses that have been sold right on the river…”

ROYCE:

What this means is that with investors moving in to flip these properties and rent them back to people who are desperate for housing. And so there's a sense that the whole cycle may just simply repeat.

RUBY:

Ok. So you have desperate people selling their houses in flood zones and other desperate people buying or renting them... but there was a plan wasn’t there? For the government to actually buy back the worst affected homes, so that they could be taken off the market, and people could use those funds to move elsewhere?

ROYCE:

As far as the buyback scheme goes, I think that this crisis has exposed how the machinery of government has been whittled away over a period of decades. So far the government has promised that it will buy back the properties of some of those living in the flood zone. This scheme that it is currently operating has taken a year to set up, and it’s now at the stage where they’re starting to act upon the promises they’ve made. But the key thing is that this big buyback scheme that the government has been promising is just simply taking too long. People don't know what is going on. And despite their efforts to ask questions for concrete details around eligibility requirements around flood zones and the relevant maps in a way that they can share that with the rest of the community, they've got no answers. And so what you find is a growing sense of frustration and confusion about what is taking place.

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Royce, Can we talk a little bit more about the buyback scheme? Because that was really, I suppose, the centrepiece of the response to the floods, But it sounds like people are struggling to get information and many people are going to miss out on being eligible anyway. So tell me what's behind the delays.

ROYCE:

Well, $700 million has been made available as part of the recovery fund to help reconstruct the Northern Rivers region. And we should be clear that Lismore is not the only town that was affected. There are a whole series of others Wardell, Woodburn, Broadwater, Karaka, Casino, Mullumbimby have also been promised a share in this money. And there are a lot of people who have already applied and registered and registered their interest in this program. Now it's a question of whether they'll all be included. 2000 people will have the opportunity to have their house physically raised, so raised above the possible height of any floodwaters that may come through. And another 2000 will have their home retrofit so that they can be prepared for future floods as they come. To date, there have been about 6200 people who have registered their interest in this program. That figure was made public in January, so it's likely increased since then. But what it means is that there will be people that will miss out on this process. And there are already people that have walked away because the wait is too long.

Archival Tape – Vicki:

“Nobody knows what's happened. You know, you register and you hear nothing. There's nothing. You can send the corporation an email, you'll get an auto email back saying will contact you in ten days. You never hear from them again…”

ROYCE:

The big issue really is transparency, they don't know what is going and the authorities who have been responsible for organising this recovery have been very tight lipped about the details.

The reasons for this are complicated. The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation, which is overseeing their recovery program, says that it doesn't want to release flood maps, it doesn't want to release eligibility criteria because it does want people to feel like they're going to miss out and so get up and leave prematurely.

Another woman I spoke to was Crystal. She's a 39 year old mother of two living in a caravan beneath the shell of her house. She told us how she loves her home and that just you know, the family had just bought it and were in the process of renovating when the flood came.

Archival Tape – Crystal:

“I think what this event has taught us is that we're not prepared for major catastrophes. You know, the scariest thing that I remember is calling the police and it not answering, and like calling SES and it going to voicemail. Like, no one was answering…”

ROYCE:

They were always told that they were safe there, that the property would never flood. But when the water came in, they had to evacuate. It was heartbreaking for them. Now, a year on, they find themselves living with a lot of their possessions exposed to the air and wondering what's going to happen for them next.

Archival Tape – Crystal:

“You’ve kind of gotta plan, but we don't know what we're planning for. We don't know if we're relocating or we don't know where what we're eligible for. So yeah, the buyback, yeah, it's been pretty disappointing how that's been rolled out…”

ROYCE:

And so many people find themselves confronted with a situation where the big government project to move them off the floodplain as part of reconstruction is just simply taking too long and the lack of information is leaving them hopeless.

Archival Tape – Crystal:

“If they had rolled out the buyback thing, maybe people wouldn't be selling. They'd be waiting to see if they got the buyback and then more homes will be relocated out of here…”

RUBY:

And so what do you think is underpinning that, then, in terms of, I suppose, how fit for purpose this buyback scheme is it all for the problem that it's really trying to solve here?

ROYCE:

I don't think the state of New South Wales was prepared for a disaster of this scale, and especially on the back of the bushfires that tore along the east coast. The idea of multiple compounding crises is a lot to process for a lot of people and the ability to respond has just not been there. Before The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation was created, there was another body that had to be disbanded because it was just ineffective. And that was after a significant campaign by residents and their local MP, Janelle Saffin, to demand better, to demand that community participation in their recovery effort. And a lot of work has been done to try and involve the community to this day. There have been many information sessions. However, there is still frustration amongst residents who say that these sessions, these talks have been very light on detail and very heavy on aspiration.

RUBY:

So it's clear that in Lismore and the surrounding areas, people are feeling let down by the government response and that kind of hollowed out public service is not really capable of responding in the way that might have been hoped. And at the same time, the markets are perhaps responding in a way that's exacerbating the problem for people. We know that when it comes to natural disasters, it's not going to just be Lismore. When we look to the future, whether that is flooding or bushfires in other towns in Australia. Is there a warning here in what's unfolding in Lismore right now?

ROYCE:

The thing about Lismore and what's taking place now in the aftermath is that really no one should have been surprised by this in one sense because we knew climate change was going to be an issue. We understood that it was going to make weather events more extreme, and not just more extreme, but also more frequent. The inevitable consequence of climate change means that we are going to have more of these disasters over the long run. According to one national body, there are 48,900 people who have been internally displaced by extreme climate events in Australia. And Australia is a country that doesn't like to think of itself as a place with internally displaced people. When I was in Lismore, we also spoke with the Greens candidate for Lismore at the upcoming state election Adam Guise, he described the situation as disaster capitalism, which is the situation where government either does not respond or take so long to respond to a crisis that the private sector starts taking advantage of circumstances on the ground. With more people moving into the floodplain who have never experienced anything like what we've seen in February 2022, if it happens again, they're going to be exposed.

RUBY:

Royce, thank you so much for your time.

ROYCE:

Thank you.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said that it didn’t occur to him to assess the legality of the robodebt scheme that was expanded under his leadership.

Turnbull is the latest politician to stand before the robodebt Royal Commission, where he was asked about WhatsApp messages between himself and former Minister Alan Tudge. Turnbull said he raised concerns about the scheme in 2017, but ultimately relied on his ministers to comply with the law.

AND

A new bill has been introduced that would put a stop to cushy jobs for federal politicians.

The ‘End Jobs for Mates’ bill was introduced by Independent MP Sophie Scamps and follows a string of controversies around appointments to high-powered roles, such as John Barilaro’s appointment to a senior UK trade role last year.

The bill aims to establish a transparent and independent process for major government appointments.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you tomorrow.

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