Housing , especially social housing: That, to ease housing stress in flood prone areas and ensure new development is resilient and community-centred, Government pursue a multi-pronged, decadal strategy through:
• ensuring flood-displaced residents in emergency housing who have no safe return to home options are re-homed in more permanent settlements where community can be re-established, and that emergency housing clusters do not take on de facto permanency
• providing authoritative advice on how to reclaim and restore flood damaged houses affected by mould. This includes providing detailed advice on who is at risk from living in mould-infected houses (the immunocompromised and those with lung damage plus certain other groups) and what constitutes safe living conditions for this group
• ensuring building standards are adopted for build back after floods so that new housing stock is as flood proof and flood recoverable as possible
• investing additional state, Commonwealth and private sector monies to grow the stock of social and affordable housing
• accelerating investment by the community housing and private sectors in new social and affordable housing projects through a Government run co-contribution grant funding program
• planning for and encouraging collaborative public and private sector investment in innovative mixed-use developments in flood prone regional cities and towns that are built above ground level to be flood
• resilient, are centrally located, and increase housing diversity by providing smaller social, affordable and market dwellings
• the Government’s Expert Housing Advisory Panel providing advice on additional market interventions to improve rental affordability and ease vacancy shortages to reverse homelessness and take pressure off social housing waitlists
• fast-tracking the approval and servicing of new village developments beyond the current footprint of Lismore and other Northern Rivers towns on existing cleared agricultural land above the re-calculated flood planning level, ensuring all infrastructure including transport, retail, schools, public space and other community facilities are in situ prior to occupation
• fast-tracking planning approvals and the provision of enabling infrastructure to accelerate delivery of Aboriginal housing on Local Aboriginal Land Council land and lands owned by Native Title corporations that respects culture and kinship and supports stable accommodation pathways
• partnering with the development and community housing sectors to relocate flood prone social and affordable housing on the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain to new and attractive multi-use, medium density developments within the CBDs of Mount Druitt, Blacktown and other Western Sydney city centres
• under the leadership of the NSW Building Commissioner, developing a code for flood resilient, environmentally sustainable building that accounts for current and likely future supply chain disruptions and extends to modular and manufactured homes
• working with the Greater Cities Commission and regional councils to ensure future local housing strategies factor in the need for natural disaster emergency housing and promote resilient housing systems
• encouraging financial institutions and insurance companies to use pricing structures to incentivise the construction of more safely situated and resilient buildings
• supporting building industry skills growth and making building material supply chains more robust to insulate the economy from future natural disaster and other exogenous shocks
• ensuring building industry occupational health and safety regulations are enforced in the flood-affected areas rebuilding programs.

Transition initiatives: That, to improve the community’s experience during immediate disaster recovery phase, Government through the SEOCON, NSWRA, DCS/Service NSW and other state agencies as required provide greater support (financial, health [including mental health], temporary accommodation, administrative and other support services) to affected communities by:
• minimising the number of times a person is required to relive their trauma by providing evidence or narrative of their disaster impact (for the purposes of accessing relief and support services). This includes consistent and effective referral pathways and follow up mechanisms
• looking at information sharing arrangements with the Australian Government to streamline grant identification and delivery
• partnering with affected communities and individuals to navigate and access support as soon as possible during or immediately following disaster events
• where possible, merging evacuation and recovery centres for the first 30 days post disaster. Where co location is not possible, DCS/Service NSW must have a representative present at both evacuation and recovery centres.
The Inquiry notes that clear transition initiatives are required dependent on the phase of recovery and lead agency associated – for example, the transition between the SEOCON (including DCS/Service NSW) in the immediate recovery phase to the NSWRA for the longer-term recovery. Functions that may require transition include, but are not limited to, administering grants and funding, and managing infrastructure and housing projects.

That the NSW Government provide an increased level of targeted support to flood affected communities contending with widespread mould. 

That the NSW Government address the mental health needs of local communities following the February-March 2022 floods by: • embedding within state emergency and recovery plans a strategy that provides surge capacity for mental health and social workers by: • prioritising funding for community groups that are currently providing social and mental health support to their local communities • ensuring all flood-impacted communities receive the mental health support they need to fully recover. 

That the NSW Government ensure that all emergency and recovery plans, including state plans, local emergency management plans and functional area plans, are reviewed and updated regularly and provide clarity on the role of non-government partners.

That Service NSW establish teams of assessors that can be on the ground to assess and approve grant applications. 

That the NSW Government overhaul the way in which it conducts its grants process as it frustrated applicants and further traumatised them by repeatedly re-interviewing them and making them prove that they were flooded. 

That the NSW Government develop a more proactive, rapid response to manage animal welfare following natural disasters which includes improved collaboration and communication with local veterinarians and animal welfare organisations.

Review the adequacy of current arrangements for infrastructure reconstruction following a major flood event in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

Develop a Hawkesbury-Nepean Flood Recovery Plan, which identifies strategies and arrangement for recovery from severe floods in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

The data and information management system should be compatible with any data and information management system established by the ATSB for the designated interstate rail network, provided that the establishment of a compatible system does not reduce the amount or quality of the information obtained by ITSRR below the optimum levels which it needs to conduct trend analysis, and otherwise properly manage the safety of rail operations in New South Wales.

The ITSRR should establish a data and information management system, containing all data and information that it requires, to continually monitor the safety of the New South Wales rail system.