More and more are falling through the net......
Mike Kelly MP posts:
"I am receiving more and more feedback along the lines of the below email. This is just not good enough and I will be putting more pressure on the government to get this fixed this week."
Dear Mr Kelly,
I’m a Bega resident, thankfully my property was never threatened, but my partner lost hers, along with her parents, and most of their Upper Brogo ‘family’.
I applaud you on your communication and voice during all of this, and I just wanted to share my concerns if I may.
My work was shutdown for 2 weeks and even the small process for income assistance has been a nightmare, let alone if I had to repeat this rigmarole through all the various agencies for my: income, insurance, livestock losses or feed, business, and utility services. This is the reality for nearly every individual of Cobargo, Quaama, Upper Brogo, Wandella, Yowrie, the list goes on, and that is only the tiny part of your electorate I’m familiar with.
Next would be my biggest concern - these houses that have been destroyed were built before BAL ratings - whether the insurance would even cover the costs of building to a new specification or council would allow rebuilding in these locations. Now this is the concern for the ‘lucky ones’, let alone all the uninsured or non-compliant dwellings people called home.
I know the government’s assistance offered isn’t being delivered. In one case there’s a business grant that’s application form doesn’t exist yet, or an acquaintance in Upper Brogo who has lost everything yet was denied a recovery grant because her income was over a certain threshold, she is a special needs teacher at a local school not an investment banker.
Many of these people in these communities are the pillars and lifeblood of it. They’re builders, carpenters, electricians, teachers, farmers, and RFS members for decades. The list of people I know who’ve gone to extraordinary lengths out of their own physical and mental health, and pockets is endless. They have lost everything, they’re without worksheds/tools, yet still working tirelessly for free in tasks the government should've responded to, and now they’re asking for a little help to rebuild their own lives and livelihoods and can’t even navigate the bureaucracy to begin with.
I am fearful if this process continues any longer, and these communities aren’t given the agency and allowance to lead their own recovery they won’t exist. We’re already bleeding from a loss of visitors and external income to the area, the last thing we need is to lose our residents too!
Thank you for your time and your voice, especially your solutions to the bigger issues and root causes of climate change and sustainability.
Sincerely,
Hans
