That the NSW Government review the need for legislation amending the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 or a state environmental planning policy to consider climate change within the planning system alongside the need to deliver development outcomes, including housing diversity, supply of industrial land and critical infrastructure.

That the NSW Government:
- implement statutory planning controls to mitigate the urban heat island effect, either through legislation, changes to the Sustainable Buildings SEPP, and/or any other relevant instruments
- advocate for changes to the National Construction Code, through the Australian Building Codes Board, to help ensure that infrastructure is resilient to climate change impacts.

That the NSW Government consider implementing:
- all of the recommendations of the statutory review of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016
- planning instruments that provide for the retention and creation of deep soil, native tree cover and habitat in urban areas
- guidelines for a clear and transparent process for when the Minister for Planning will refer a development to the Federal Minister for the Environment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth).

That the NSW Government introduce a formalised governance structure at the State level to provide leadership and better assist local coastal councils with the management of catchments, funding and administrative constraints in relation to their Coastal Management Plans.

That the NSW Government consider amending the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 to make the powers to consent authorities to modify or revoke development consents in the public interest, and that if a consent authority exercises the power to revoke a development consent, that no compensation is to be paid by the consent authority to the aggrieved person.

That the NSW Government look into strengthening Development Control Plans so that provisions within Development Control Plans bear greater weight when considered in the Land and Environment Court and so that they can be enforced.

That the NSW Government in partnership with local Aboriginal land councils and other Aboriginal land holders, in land claims processes to identify and activate land suitable for development and progress any necessary rezonings to enable that development and where parties agree, consider land swaps where lands are not suitable for development due to biodiversity and climate change constraints.

That the NSW Government seek to amend provisions of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 relating to historical developments to:
- increase the threshold required for developers to have undertaken action in commencing physical works in order to prevent their development consent from lapsing after 5 years
- consider a mechanism with appropriate thresholds for consent authorities to assess whether a historical development consent should be reassessed, and
- consider giving power to consent authorities to revoke or modify historical development consents, where it can be demonstrated that the development will have significant social, environmental or cultural impact not previously identified or that has been changed from the time of approval.

That the NSW Government review deemed refusal appeals under section 8.17 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and consider the impacts that deemed refusal appeals have on local councils, particularly in relation to the costs incurred in defending these appeals and the strain that this has on council resources.

That the NSW Government give effect to the right of First Nations people to self-determination and the principle of free, prior, informed and ongoing consent in the New South Wales planning system, including in relation to:
- development applications and planning proposals
- culturally appropriate consultation and
- protection of cultural heritage and connection to Country.

That the NSW Government consider implementing a system for when the Minister for Planning may request the Independent Planning Commission to conduct a public hearing for any development.

That the NSW Government consider ways to improve the independence of the assessment of planning proposals and development applications, without increasing the time taken to assess such proposals.

That the NSW Government enhance land use planning processes to take into account climate change risks, including the development of clear guidelines about where homes and infrastructure should and should not be located.

That the NSW Reconstruction Authority consider issuing guidelines which clarify the scope of its powers to make planning decisions under the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022 and how the Authority will consider existing planning controls, environmental standards, and Aboriginal cultural heritage protections under the state's existing planning framework.

That the NSW Reconstruction Authority continue to work with the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, NSW Treasury, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the emergency services organisations under the State Emergency and Rescue Management Act 1989 to minimise any duplication and improve efficiency between the work of the Authority and these agencies, particularly with respect to disaster preparedness and mitigation activities, data, modelling and information sharing.

By August 2024, the NSW Reconstruction Authority should determine a timeline for demobilising the temporary housing villages and transitioning tenants out of temporary housing

By August 2024, the NSW Reconstruction Authority should review the temporary housing waitlist to determine the current extent of unmet need

By December 2024, all audited agencies should develop internal plans for implementing whole-of-government responsibilities under the Welfare Functional Area Supporting Plan and any plan developed as a result of recommendation one. This may include, as appropriate, the agency's:
- role in whole-of-government governance arrangements, including key interactions with other agencies
- procurement process, including analysis of appropriate options
- process for identifying appropriate sites for temporary housing
- relevant communication activities, including engagement with Aboriginal communities.

By August 2024, the NSW Reconstruction Authority should develop a whole of government plan for temporary housing to coordinate future temporary housing responses to emergency events

By December 2024, all audited agencies should: finalise evaluations of their role in the provision of emergency accommodation and temporary housing for the Northern Rivers and Central West flood events, and incorporate lessons learned into future planning and continuous improvement. These evaluations should be undertaken in conjunction with other agencies where appropriate.

By August 2024, the NSW Reconstruction Authority should develop a process for a state-wide recovery lessons learned process and facilitate this being completed each year in coordination with the State Recovery Committee.

By August 2024, the NSW Reconstruction Authority should develop a strategy to manage the transition of people into long-term accommodation, taking into account recommendations from relevant reviews

That NSW develop and prosecute with the Commonwealth Government a platform of priority initiatives and reforms the Commonwealth should pursue to better support emergency volunteering and build community capability, in partnership with other States and Territories.

The Minister for Emergency Services establish a new state-based emergency volunteering award, to improve recognition of emergency volunteers.

To promote integrity and transparency, the Department of Regional NSW should ensure that for all future grant programs it: documents all key decisions and approvals in line with record keeping obligations. 

To promote integrity and transparency, the Department of Regional NSW should ensure that for all future grant programs it: ensures regular monitoring is in place as part of funding deeds.

To promote integrity and transparency, the Department of Regional NSW should ensure that for all future grant programs it: ensures staff declare conflicts of interest prior to the commencement of a grants stream, and that these conflicts of interest are recorded and managed.

To promote integrity and transparency, the Department of Regional NSW should ensure that for all future grant programs it: ensures a communications plan is in place, including the communication of guidelines to potential applicants.

To promote integrity and transparency, the Department of Regional NSW should ensure that for all future grant programs it: establishes and follows guidelines that align with relevant good practice guidance including accountabilities, key assessment steps and clear assessment criteria.

Simplify the planning system disaster provisions: That, to simplify and improve the state planning processes especially when anticipating and recovering from a disaster, Government:
• ensure there is a clear line of sight directing councils and planning authorities to include disaster response and resilient settlement outcomes in long term strategic plans (Regional and District Plans as well as Local Strategic Planning Statements). This may require more prominence to be given to Planning for a more resilient NSW: A strategic guide to planning for natural hazards (Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment) as well as a clear link to the risk-based approach to hazard identification and the disaster adaptation plans
• ensure the NSWRA provides the necessary tools and advice to enable planning authorities to incorporate cumulative impacts of potential natural disasters into strategic plans. These tools should ensure the disaster adaptation plans can be given real effect in strategic plans for settlement and local planning controls
• ensure that Ministerial Directions on hazard and natural disasters (directions 4.1 and 4.6 inclusive) are updated to reflect the new risk-based approach to flood planning levels and deliver the disaster adaptation plans to the zoning process
• create specific flood planning provisions as a new chapter in the SEPP (Resilience and Hazards). These provisions would draw the existing flood planning clauses (5.21 and 5.22 in the standard instrument) up into the SEPP
• put the natural disaster clause (5.9 in the standard instrument) into a new chapter in the SEPP Resilience and Hazards, along with objectives to assist councils to use the clause to build back to more resilient standards
• update planning guidance so that wherever possible community facilities, such as might be used for evacuation centres, are located above the probable maximum flood and essential services are located above the flood planning level
• ensure that the strategic land use frameworks and related controls permit new developments only in line with the evacuation capacity both individually and cumulatively
• ensure that the strategic land use frameworks enable higher density flood resilient precincts to locate more development at or above the PMF and use a higher flood planning level to avoid catastrophic costs from extreme flooding, as well as deliver cost-effective controls for individual structures.

Landholders can access information on previous disasters: That, to ensure there is a single source of ground truth to prepare for and respond to emergencies, and to provide people with a better understanding of their individual property and community risk exposure, an online visualisation tool be developed to display, for all land parcels (land titles) in NSW, the extent of known disasters that have affected each piece of land in NSW in the past. This information should be made available through the Planning Portal and, particularly in light of climate change, the data involved should be revised and updated at least every two years and after each major natural disaster.

Caravan parks and manufactured home estates: That, to ensure that permanent residents of caravan parks and mobile housing estates are protected from flood, Government: • prohibit permanent residency in caravan parks and mobile housing estates situated below the risk-based flood planning level. Caravan parks for holiday makers could still be on the floodplain with the provision that, if a flood is imminent, they need to be evacuated • address the issues raised in the 2015 Discussion Paper (Improving the regulation of manufactured homes, caravan parks, manufactured home estates and camping grounds).

Relocating communities most at risk with good homes and amenities: That, to empower vulnerable people and communities to relocate, Government through the NSWRA:
• identify and prioritise those communities most at risk from future disasters, and for whom relocation may be appropriate or necessary
• leverage the work done through Government’s homes, cities, manufacturing and skills policies, to collaborate and work with these communities in examining, designing, building and installing affordable, attractive and insurable housing options (e.g. locally fabricated high quality modular homes, or utilising local builders to retrofit and/or relocate existing homes to safer ground) and to enable small housing developments with capacity to grow organically over time
• utilise best-practice policy for rapid urbanism and community-building to establish new settlements. This should include:
— an enquiry-by-design or charrette process led by the Government Architect to ensure that new settlements reflect the aspirations and vernacular of the local community, whilst meeting the technical needs of establishing settlements and delivering infrastructure at low cost. This should also include considering how to repurpose floodplains for community use and benefit, i.e. recreation, sports and energy production as part of the process of returning land below the flood planning level to Government ownership. It should also consider the role of locally manufactured, well-designed and regulated modular housing solutions
— promoting a sense of community by ensuring appropriate amenity (e.g. schools, shops, and services) is available to relocating people and communities at the time of moving to their new settlements
— working with the financial and philanthropic sectors to investigate a special purpose fund to provide continuing support for these communities as they transit through re-establishment.

Relief and recovery capability: The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that Emergency Management Victoria and the entity referred to in Recommendation 13, or otherwise responsible government department – in collaboration with the relevant relief and recovery organisations:
(a) identify the core capabilities required for operational relief and recovery roles at state, regional and incident levels
(b) coordinate capability development opportunities to develop a consistent level of capability in relief and recovery for relevant agencies at the state, regional and incident levels.

That the NSW Government work with local government, industry and sustainable planning experts, including the Government Architect, on policy initiatives in the New South Wales planning system that will help deliver more resilient and sustainable homes, buildings and places. 

That the NSW Government review the provision of temporary and long term housing options provided to those affected by the February-March 2022 floods, with a view to: • ensuring a range of options are identified and embedded within emergency and recovery plans, so that solutions can be implemented as soon as possible after a natural disaster • ensuring that housing options meet individual and community needs • removing planning impediments that prevent those from accessing more safe and secure housing in times of crisis. 

That the NSW Government consider investing in supporting relocations, land swaps and providing fair and adequate compensation for landowners who wish to relocate from severely flood-impacted areas. 

That, to ensure updated resource-sharing arrangements are in place, the NSW and Victorian Governments progress and finalise a multi-agency Memorandum of Understanding before the 2020-21 fire season commences.

That, in order to prioritise early suppression and keep fires small:
a) Government set a KPI for NPWS regarding the percentage of fires that start on-park and are contained within 10 hectares, and consider whether 70% is an appropriate KPI for the NSW RFS and NPWS
b) NSW fire authorities deploy remote area fire fighting resources based on enhanced research and predictive modelling. In some circumstances, this may require prioritising the deployment of RART to enable rapid initial attack of new remote area ignitions over ongoing suppression operations, where supported by a relative risk assessment.

That Government commit to shifting to a strategic approach to planning for bush fire, and develop a new NSW Bush Fire Policy similar to the NSW Flood Prone Land Policy in order to accommodate changing climate conditions and the increasing likelihood of catastrophic bush fire conditions; to build greater resilience into both existing and future communities; and to decrease costs associated with recovery and rebuilding.

Implement a fully integrated civilianised single call and dispatch centre, that includes a redundancy option outside the Sydney CBD, which will adopt an agnostic approach to deploy the quickest most suitable resource to an emergency. Such a centre should be managed by either a non uniformed public servant staffed organisation like the Office for Emergency Management, or the NSW Police Force

I recommend that the New South Wales Police Force, in conjunction with NSW Health, establish a Fixated Threat Assessment Centre to identify and gather information about fixated persons, assess the risks they pose, and attempt to mitigate such risks through early intervention.

I recommend that the Premier of New South Wales consider whether the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 should be amended to ensure that there is appropriate access to health related information available to ASIO (consistent with recommendation 12 of the report of the Martin Place Siege Joint Commonwealth—New South Wales review)

That the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service:
-ensure that where a park is adjacent to a rural land holding, its side of the boundary fence is cleared to the same legislative requirement as the land holding, that is, six metres
-examine the fairness of the policy whereby, in the event of a fire originating on national park land, the Service provides the fencing materials to construct or replace boundary fences, while the neighbour erects the fences.

That the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service consider the feasibility, on a case by case basis, of closing public roads through national parks on days with catastrophic fire danger rating, to mitigate the risk of bush fire ignition in national parks.

That the NSW Government improve the protection of media and telecommunications towers around New South Wales by:
-increasing the asset protection zone around the towers on Mt Cenn Cruaich and other comparable sites to a radius of at least 100 metres
-conducting an audit of all New South Wales media and telecommunications sites to examine their fire safety in respect of land clearance, fire trails and fuel loads
-implementing a strategy to ensure that licensees of these sites fulfil all their hazard reduction obligations.

That the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service remove from its boundary fencing policy and standard contract the condition that requires adjoining land owners to maintain a fence that has been damaged by trees falling from national park land.

Government Communications Coordination
In future events, a more coordinated communications structure across Government, where
planned Government announcements relevant to the region in recovery are developed in
conjunction with the recovery team, would be beneficial to ensure recovery teams are aware
of, and can plan for, decisions that impact on the work of the recovery team.

That the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service adopt an interim fencing agreement in the immediate aftermath of a fire. This will enable emergency and interim works to commence, but features such as length, fencing components and site of the fence line are not binding. A final fencing agreement would be negotiated no earlier than six months following a major national park fire.

That the NSW Government consider enabling the default position during catastrophic and extreme fire danger periods to be the same as for section 44 fires, so that fire control centres have the same systems and resources ready to deploy should a fire break out.

Improve regional transport infrastructure to address current and projected flood evacuation capacity constraints and timelines.

Ensure appropriate consideration of flood risk in regional and subregional planning

Provide improved land use planning tools for managing flood prone land.

Develop a NSW Planning Policy and Guideline to improve land use planning practices on flood prone land.

Ensure future road infrastructure planning considers flood evacuation requirements throughout the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain.

Establish a dedicated group or body within an existing agency to provide a more integrated, coordinated and regional approach to land use, infrastructure and evacuation planning and flood modelling in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

That the NSW Rural Fire Service hold discussions with the Department of Planning and Infrastructure and Local Government NSW on ways to improve compliance with development consents under section 76A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

That the Department of Primary Industries address the forthcoming potential shortage of veterinary pathologists and agronomists within its testing facilities by positive recruitment actions over the next five years such as offering scholarships or training existing professional staff to develop skills in pathology.
The Committee encourages the Department to continue with these efforts to use the skills of private sector vets to strengthen the emergency response in the Australian Veterinary Reserve and the Accreditation Program for Australian Veterinarians.

All accredited rail organisations should be required to re-apply every three years to ITSRR for accreditation.

The ITSRR should ensure that OTSI, as a division of ITSRR, co-operates and assists the ATSB in the conduct of any independent investigation by the ATSB of any rail accident or incident in New South Wales.

The New South Wales Government should make the necessary arrangements with the Australian Government, including any necessary legislation, for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) to have the power to investigate all rail accidents occurring on the New South Wales rail network the investigation of which may advance the knowledge of the causes of rail accidents in Australia.

To link up fallow paddocks and natural fire breaks by ploughing or burning breaks through private or public property, roads, &c.