Many Central Coast businesses and residents are still struggling to recover due to the poor handling of recovery funding in the wake of the 2019-20 bushfires, say the region’s State Labor MPs.
The NSW Auditor General has slammed the State Government for its handling of the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) program, which saw all Labor-held seats, including those on the Central Coast, completely miss out on funding under the initial fast-track stream of the program.
While seven Central Coast projects received funding under subsequent rounds (totalling more than $5.3M), the Auditor General’s report on the handling of BLER, released this week, confirms that all shortlisted projects located in Labor Party-held electorates were excluded from the fast-track round “without a rationale being documented at the time”.
The report found that the Department of Regional NSW did not effectively administer the fast-track stream with the administration process lacking integrity and the assessment process short on transparency and consistency.
“There were significant gaps in the documentation of decision-making throughout this funding stream,” the report said.
“The assessment process … deviated from the guidelines.
“For example, the guidelines did not set out a role for the then Deputy Premier (John Barilaro) or his office … but the Deputy Premier’s office played a key role in project selection.”
The report said a $1M threshold set by the Deputy Premier’s office saw a number of shortlisted projects in areas highly impacted by the bushfires, including all shortlisted projects located in Labor Party-held electorates, excluded.
The Coast’s Labor MPs gathered on the Gosford waterfront on February 3 to discuss the ramifications of the report.
MPs Liesl Tesch (Gosford), David Harris (Wyong), David Mehan (The Entrance) and Yasmin Catley (Swansea) and Labor candidate for the seat of Terrigal Sam Boughton said the fund had been established to support communities like ours, which were devastated by the bushfires.
“During the Black Summer Bushfires, our community suffered $163.3M in damage,” they said.
“In response, the NSW Government gave our community $0 in the first round of funding.”
Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch was evicted from Parliament when she raised the issue during Question Time in 2021.
“The NSW Cabinet’s willingness to tick off a scheme which left our community high and dry after one of the most devastating events in our history was shameful,” the MPs said.
“After all this time some of our rural communities still haven’t fully recovered.
“Instead of rebuilding from the rubble, some of our residents were forced to simply pack up and leave.
“When our community needed support, the NSW Government turned its back on our community.”
Member for Wyong David Harris said the Central Coast having to wait for secondary rounds of funding was “not good enough”.
“On the Central Coast we had massive amounts of infrastructure affected and we had to wait months and months until the second round of funding to effect repairs,” he said.
“There is no justification for this – allocating funds has to be done on merit case by case to give the best outcomes for the whole of the state.
“We saw a whole lot of applications which met the criteria wiped out because the Deputy Premier raised the bar to $1M.”
Harris said Premier Dominic Perrottet had to take some responsibility for the decision as he was Treasurer at the time and signed off on it.
Among unsuccessful applicants for fast-track funding was the Walkabout Wildlife Sanctuary at Calga.
General manager Tassin Barnard said the sanctuary was closed for five weeks only to receive zero government assistance.
“We not only incurred the cost of sustaining animals off site for five weeks but we also had no income for that time,” she said.
“We had amazing support from the community which formed a fire defence army (on the site).
“When we applied for the funding, even $10,000 would have made a difference.
“It was heartbreaking (to miss out).”
Barnard said she avoids asking for financial help from the government with a history of knock-backs.
“We just keep going it alone,” she said.
Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch said the region had been “betrayed” by the State Government.
“This is taxpayers’ money and peoples’ lives and livelihoods were at stake,” she said.
Candidate for Terrigal Sam Boughton, who is a firefighter, said he was “disappointed, shocked and really angry” at the situation.
“It’s hard to believe an area like the Central Coast was overlooked (in the fast-track funding),” he said.
“I was on the ridgelines -they were impressive, scary fires.”
The BLER comprised three rounds: early co-funding which included 22 projects fast-tracked at a cost of $107.8M; sector development grants of $73.2M; and a $283M open round.
The report found that the sector development stream had a detailed and transparent assessment process, although conflicts of interest were not effectively managed and the department did not effectively engage with stakeholders during the grants process.
“The department’s administration of the open round included a clearly documented, detailed and transparent assessment framework that it followed throughout,” the report said.
While the report says the department improved its management of conflicts of interest in the open round compared to the fast-tracked and SDG streams, the MPs said much of the damage had already been done.
A spokesperson for the Department of Regional NSW said thefast-tracked stream of the BLER Fund was developed to get bushfire funding to affected communities as quickly as possible.
“Many projects that were not funded in that fast-tracked round were subsequently funded under other programs that were better suited to those types of projects,” the spokesperson said.
“All projects funded under the fast-track round of funding were rigorously assessed and endorsed by the Commonwealth Government as meeting the national Local Economic Recovery Fund requirements.
“In September last year, the NSW Grants Administration Guide came into effect, helping to directly address the findings and recommendation of the Auditor-General’s report.”
Terry Collins