As a matter of fairness and equity landholders should be eligible to claim recovery grants on estimated value of loss and damage. This would avoid the current unfortunate situation where ineligible landholders see assistance made available to their neighbours who reside in the adjacent approved municipality. In doing so it would be consistent with the way eligibility criteria has been applied by the Commonwealth in previous emergency events including the Victorian floods of 2011 and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Are the ‘betterment’ provisions in the NDRRA effective in encouraging recovery that develops resilience and reduces the costs of future disasters? The concept of betterment is a sound one; however it has seldom been applied. Firstly betterment is poorly defined and the rules determining eligibility for betterment projects difficult to navigate. The Victorian Auditor-General’s 2013 report into Flood Relief and Recovery Office (VAGO) states: Recovery efforts were affected by interpretation and application of an NDRRA funding rule around betterment... Negotiating the rules and application processes was testing for local government, especially at a time when it was dealing with many other challenges arising from the floods. Councils needed assistance from DTF to identify and process betterment proposals. Evidence shows that DTF's advice and support to councils on betterment was not sufficiently timely. However, this was partly due to the need for ongoing discussions with the Commonwealth to clarify the interpretation of the betterment funding principle. As a consequence of DTF not being able to provide timely advice, some potential local government proposals may not have gone forward and the state and local government may have foregone Commonwealth funding. (pg.xi-xii) The report then concludes: Government did not clearly explain the complex rules attached to NDRRA funding, especially around the betterment issue and there may have been lost opportunities for councils to claim funds for necessary improvements. (pg. 28) Complex rules may be one factor that has prevented betterment projects from proceeding, another factor may be a lack of appetite at all levels of government to engage in this process given the potential costs involved. Alternatively some Victorian councils have reported that they have planned to rebuild to what they interpret as current standards only to find that the build is deemed to be betterment and costs for the project are not authorised. This does not provide a sound incentive for councils to attempt to rebuild to anything except the absolute base standard.
As a matter of fairness and equity landholders should be eligible to claim recovery grants on estimated value of loss and damage. This would avoid the current unfortunate situation where ineligible landholders see assistance made available to their neighbours who reside in the adjacent approved municipality. In doing so it would be consistent with the way eligibility criteria has been applied by the Commonwealth in previous emergency events including the Victorian floods of 2011 and the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. Are the ‘betterment’ provisions in the NDRRA effective in encouraging recovery that develops resilience and reduces the costs of future disasters? The concept of betterment is a sound one; however it has seldom been applied. Firstly betterment is poorly defined and the rules determining eligibility for betterment projects difficult to navigate. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) 2013 report into Flood Relief and Recovery states: Recovery efforts were affected by interpretation and application of an NDRRA funding rule around betterment... Negotiating the rules and application processes was testing for local government, especially at a time when it was dealing with many other challenges arising from the floods. Councils needed assistance from DTF to identify and process betterment proposals. Evidence shows that DTF's advice and support to councils on betterment was not sufficiently timely. However, this was partly due to the need for ongoing discussions with the Commonwealth to clarify the interpretation of the betterment funding principle. As a consequence of DTF not being able to provide timely advice, some potential local government proposals may not have gone forward and the state and local government may have foregone Commonwealth funding. (pg.xi-xii) The report then concludes: Government did not clearly explain the complex rules attached to NDRRA funding, especially around the betterment issue and there may have been lost opportunities for councils to claim funds for necessary improvements. (pg. 28) Complex rules may be one factor that has prevented betterment projects from proceeding, another factor may be a lack of appetite at all levels of government to engage in this process given the potential costs involved. Alternatively some Victorian councils have reported that they have planned to rebuild to what they interpret as current standards only to find that the build is deemed to be betterment and costs for the project are not authorised. This does not provide a sound incentive for councils to attempt to rebuild to anything except the absolute base standard.