Mayors plead for community support

Published on 22 December 2022

The mayors of the Murray River, Edward River, Federation Councils and Berrigan Shire have pleaded for support from the NSW government to save their local communities.

Hundreds of millions in tourist dollars remains in jeopardy as furious communities north of the Murray River plead for financial assistance from the NSW government for crippled businesses following the devastation of the recent floods.

Whilst the Murray River is set to open for unrestricted recreational use, local tourism is still being impacted by government inaction and red tape in the opening of key tourist access points to the Murray River, such as the 5 Mile Boat Ramp, despite offers by the Murray River Council to provide engineering inspection, certification, barricading of the high-risk areas to NSW National Parks and Wildlife, an offer that has not been accepted.

For months the LGA’s of Murray River, Edward River, Federation Council’s and Berrigan Shire have been in consultation with NSW government authorities and departments outlining the significant financial damage to their respective local communities in the wake of the recent floods.

Whilst impacted businesses on the Victorian side of the Murray have been able to access financial assistance from both the Victorian and Federal government since October 06, 2022, that includes:

• Small business being able apply for disaster relief loans up to $250,000 (limited to $130,000 in NSW)

• Medium sized businesses directly impacted by the floods can obtain up to $200,000 in Business Recover Support (unavailable to NSW businesses)

• Access to additional support services including business recovery plans, mental health assistance and grant writing assistance (all unavailable to NSW businesses)

• Rural landholder grants to cover the costs of disaster impacts for small-scale producers of up to $25,000 (limited to $10,000 in NSW)

• Primary Producer Concessional Loans to restore or replace damaged equipment and infrastructure, or to cover the short-term business expenses (limited to $130,000 in NSW)

In addition, there is no current funding available for businesses who have been unable to trade due to isolation and heavily reduced levels of tourism but have been unaffected by inundation.

Whilst the Victorian government sought assistance on behalf of local communities from the federal government, which was provided back in October, no such request has been made from the NSW government.

Despite the Minister responsible Paul Toole and departmental heads from Regional NSW and Resilience NSW stating they empathise with the issues faced by flood impacted communities north of the Murray, they are yet to provide any clarity on when or if further financial assistance would be made available to these communities who are still attempting to recover from the financial devastation to their visitor economy following years of lockdown and border closures throughout the Covid pandemic. 

The LGA’s of Murray River, Edward River, Federation and Berrigan are calling upon the Minister responsible, Deputy Premier Paul Toole, to intercede and take immediate action to save our local communities through providing financial support that is at the least to the equal of that already available to Victorian businesses and to ensure that all red tape is cut to allow tourists to safely return to and access the Murray River.

“We seek immediate action by the NSW Government to provide substantive and timely relief to these devastated businesses and to request the release of Federal funds to ensure they do not continue to be victims of bureaucratic inertia. What we are seeing, or not seeing, is simply unconscionable,” said Cr Chris Bilkey, Mayor of the Murray River Council. 

“The impact on the affected businesses reverberates through our communities. As it stands, help from the federal Government is at least 3 months away, and businesses will go to the wall in that time,” said Cr Matt Hannan, Mayor of Berrigan Shire.

“Our region had suffered immense loss of agricultural product due to the flood, and this adds further stress on the economic health of our communities,” Mayor of Federation Council, Cr Pat Bourke said.

“Our local community should at the least be provided with the same level of compensation as has been made available to flood effected communities in Victoria,” said Edward River Mayor, Cr Peta Betts.