BCCM gives evidence to The Joint Select Committee on the NSW Reconstruction Authority

16 August 2024

The Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals has appeared today before a parliamentary hearing into New South Wales’s disaster preparedness.

In response to the major floods of 2022, the NSW parliament established the NSW Reconstruction Authority, a state-wide agency dedicated to disaster preparedness, recovery and reconstruction.

A Joint Select Committee review of the establishing Act is now being undertaken to make sure the legislation and the Authority are fit for purpose.

CEO Melina Morrison fronted the Committee this morning to take questions on the BCCM’s submission (below) and press the case for an amendment to the Act that more strongly embeds an ethos of working ‘with and by’ community.

Download the opening statement submission.

Opening Statement to The Joint Select Committee on the NSW Reconstruction Authority statutory review of the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022

Melina Morrison
Chief Executive Officer, Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals

On behalf of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM), I thank the Joint Select Committee for the opportunity to appear at today’s hearing of the Review of the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022.

The BCCM is the national peak body representing the co-operative and mutual movement across all industries.

Co-operatives and mutuals are vital to the social and economic life of New South Wales. 760 co-ops and mutuals are based in the State. They have a combined turnover of $13 billion and 7.5 million memberships.

In the Northern Rivers region where flood recovery efforts are ongoing, the leading 7 co-ops and mutuals alone have a turnover of $1.34 billion, directly employ more than 2,500 people and serve more than 28,000 members, including 1,100 farm and fishing businesses.

Co-ops and mutuals are member-based businesses that exist to deliver economic, social and cultural benefits to their members and their communities. It is their dual economic and social orientation that makes them ideal partners in reconstruction.

As businesses, they have economic infrastructure to deploy in crises and they can contribute to sustainable local economic recovery.

As membership organisations, they are the centre of trusted social networks and social capital. They share this with other member-based organisations such as clubs, unions and business chambers.

During the immediate aftermath of the floods in the Northern Rivers, mutual banks demonstrated these strengths when they collaborated to quickly bring back banking services in Lismore through the Community Banking Hub at Southern Cross University. They had the economic resources and the local social connections to move quickly, underpinned by a clear-sighted mutual purpose.

It is this type of community-driven approach that must be baked into the reconstruction legislation as a priority.

The result will be a reconstruction effort that leverages local networks, is based in locally identified priorities and builds social capital and resilience.

The BCCM therefore recommends that section 10 of the Act is amended to more clearly express an ethos of working ‘with and by’ community, especially though local member-based businesses and organisations.

Read previous research and submissions about the role of co-ops in disaster prevention and recovery

• Read the BCCM’s submission to the Independent Review of Commonwealth Disaster Funding
• Read the BCCM’s Review of the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022
• Read about Community Banking Hub opens in Lismore
• Leadership during a crisis: putting community before profits
• Read the BCCM’s media release Co-operative and Mutual Sector says NSW flood inquiry recommendations a step in the right direction
• Read the Co-operatives have their say as NSW Parliament’s Select Committee Flood Inquiry releases final report
• Read the BCCM’s media release Depleted workforce and housing impact to remain severe challenges, BCCM tells 2022 NSW Floods Inquiry
• Read the BCCM’s joint submission to the Select Committee on the response to major flooding across NSW
• Read the BCCM’s joint submission to the 2022 NSW Flood Inquiry
• Read Melina Morrison’s comments on ABC Radio in Norco to rebuild ice cream factory
• Listen to Casino Food Co-op CEO, Simon Stahl, recalling how the co-operative became the beating heart of the community response to the floods in their area of the Northern Rivers in the latest episode of our podcast Meet the Co-op Farmers
• Read how co-operatives and mutuals have supported flood recovery efforts
• Read the BCCM’s Primary producer co-operatives: The beating heart of community resilience and recovery report