Rodney Stevens
The building industry, Insurers, planners, and the Australian Local Government Association have joined forces to call on state governments to overhaul their planning laws so no more homes are built on floodplains.
The Clarence Valley has seen community calls to end development on floodplains at West Yamba, as thousands of tonnes of fill trucked in for development has exacerbated flooding on existing properties.
In response to the 2022 flood emergency, the Insurance Council of Australia ICA, Master Builders Australia MBA and the Planning Institute of Australia PIA, supported by the Australian Local Government Association ALGA, convened the inaugural National Industry Roundtable: Land Use Planning and Resilience last Thursday.
The roundtable saw 60 experts from government, financial services, property, and community join the discussion, and call on state and territory governments when thinking about future housing challenges, to urgently rethink planning rules so no more homes are built in high-risk flood-prone locations.
Andrew Hall, ICA CEO said the flood events of 2022, with almost 300,000 disaster-related claims costing around $7 billion, has driven up premiums and has resulted in affordability constraints for those at highest risk.
“Without insurance, homeowners likely can’t access a mortgage, and that is the wrong direction for our country,” he said.
“Today’s roundtable set out the actions governments must take to ensure future financial losses to homeowners, businesses and the community are avoided, and better government planning and investment is taken seriously.”
MBA CEO Denita Wawn said with a housing crisis at the forefront for many communities and a growing population, we must ensure that our planning laws are fit for the future and take an appropriate risk-management approach.
“Without fit for purpose planning laws, technical building regulation will always fail,” she said.
“The housing industry needs clear and concise rules, that allow the industry to function and the community to have confidence.”
ALGA President, Cr Linda Scott said Australia’s 537 councils play a vital role in building resilient communities to ensure to ensure our communities can better prepare for, respond to and recover from increasing natural disasters.
“It’s crucial we rebuild damaged local infrastructure to a more resilient standard,” she said.
“Councils will continue to strongly advocate for ‘building back better’ to be a core value and overriding principle of joint state/federal Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.”
Cr Scott said she looked forward to attending the Planning Ministers’ meeting.