Council seeks support on disaster recovery and pension rates

MIDCOAST councillors have thrown their support behind issues of funding for disaster recovery and increased financial assistance for pensioners.

The issues will be raised at the Australian Local Government Association’s national conference to be held in Canberra in June.

Mayor Claire Pontin proposed two motions to take to what is the largest annual gathering of local government leaders in Australia.

These motions were supported at the February meeting of Council.

The first motion calls on the Federal Government to amend its disaster recovery funding arrangements to include betterment funding for roads and bridges and upfront payments for Councils when it comes to rebuilding after a disaster.

“At the moment most of the funding only allows for work to be done on a like-for-like basis,” Cr Pontin explained.

“So the next time there’s a flood chances are the same thing will happen again.

“I am asking for what is called betterment funding which means the designs can be improved to increase resilience to future events which allows for future cost savings instead of continuously having to rebuild.”

Following the May 2025 floods, which destroyed a number of roads and two significant community linking bridges in Tiri and The Bight, MidCoast Council has consistently raised the need for funding to be available for improving replacement structures to be more resilient in future flooding events.

The second motion proposed by the Mayor calls for the Federal Government to increase its financial assistance to pensioners.

“When you consider the pension rates have not increased for a long time and the State and Federal governments continue to cost shift onto local councils, we think there is more they can do to support our pensioners and we will be pushing for that.”