Geoff Helisma|
Adam Searle is the leader of the opposition in the NSW Legislative Council and NSW Labor’s shadow minister for the north coast – on Thursday February 20, he visited the Nymboida Canoe Centre on a fact-finding mission regarding how the local community was faring after the bushfires; he spoke with the Independent.
Mr Searle said he was really “impressed with the work of the local coordinators … with the way they rallied their community, the way they’re using the canoeing centre as a community hub and the work they are doing trying to get the community back on its feet in very difficult circumstances.
“Obviously … we’re not in government, but it’s useful to hear first-hand … what is working and what can be done better in terms of employment and resources to support the local community,” he said.
Independent: What can you achieve from opposition?
Adam Searle: Two things: I think the community rightly expects all levels of government and all sides of politics to work positively to address the consequences of the fire and floods and situations like that.
“Where I feel [Labor] can be of value, is to make sure that government is doing all it can to support communities to get back on their feet.
“We have the ability to go to the ground and hear from the grassroots up about what is working and what is not working – we can feed that into the process and, hopefully, where [there are problems], pass that up to government.
“…and make some constructive suggestions to government and the relevant agencies, so they can do better where possible.”
However, Mr Searle was unable to provide any specific examples, as the process is still at the information gathering stage.
“We are coordinating the information we have received [from each of the bushfire–affected areas across the state] and we’ll put that into a practical program for changes to be made,” he said.
I: How will the data be presented and to whom?
AS: We’ll put it to government and … hopefully the current state government will take that on board as constructive contributions rather than a political attack.
“In this situation, I think we should all be trying to lift the standard of what is possible.
“Our next opportunity will be in March via the budget estimates process, where ministers are queried on money spent in their portfolios, in the current financial year – the bushfires will be a significant issue – we’ll use the process to query what the government has done and why … and interrogate the government about what it could do better.”
Nymboida volunteer coordinator Georgia Foster-Eyles said she appreciated that Mr Searle listened to what they had to say.
She said that he “had followed up on some of the things we told him” by asking for some thoughts in writing.
“He emailed us and got us to write it down and pass it on to him,” Ms Foster-Eyles said.
She said passing on experiences and what has been learned while coordinating the Nymboida recovery could “help other places trying to set up a community recovery”.
“Things like what services could be provided – we had to make up everything up on the fly,” she said, “a package that could be sourced out to help people who are setting up – it’s about what we thought could be beneficial in that package.”