Tamara Smith MP, Member for Ballina welcomes the approved release of $52.5 million in additional disaster recovery funding for the desperately needed restoration of Byron Shires flood and landslide impacted roads from the State and Federal government. The restoration of landslips and culverts throughout the Byron Shire Hinterland has been much anticipated. 

Ms Smith said,  

“Many people in our community have been living without vehicle access to their homes and neighbourhoods for nearly 3 years so this funding is vital to restore their right to connectivity and cannot come soon enough.”   

“I get sent photos of holes in the road in areas like Upper Main Arm that are the size of semi-trailers even years on from the 2022 floods so frankly it is well overdue that the Federal government in particular have stumped up.” 

“Roads are social infrastructure in regional areas like ours where we have almost no public transport, and that is rarely factored in when large bureaucracies are deciding who gets resourcing.”  

“Both State and Federal Labor governments need to develop solid plans and quarantine resources to manage infrastructure repairs from disasters as we are now firmly trapped in cycles of climate change fuelled extreme weather events. To reel from one disaster crisis to the next will not deliver resilient communities”.