The emergency management minister has admitted a buyback scheme for houses damaged in last year’s Lismore floods should have been moving faster.
As the federal government announced new multi-million dollar disaster recovery funding one year on from the devastating deluge, Senator Murray Watt said he wanted to see more houses being taken up in the buyback scheme.
The scheme was announced late last year, with the program expected to offer as many as 2000 buybacks, but few offers have been made since.
The first formal offer was made in mid-February this year.
Senator Watt said subsequent floods in New South Wales (NSW) had led to delays in the implementation of the buyback program….