Two new agencies will be established in the wake of NSW’s flood inquiry report. 

A report into the NSW floods published this week makes 28 recommendations for how the state government’s disaster management should operate.

One of its biggest calls is to dismantle Resilience NSW and replace it with a “more agile” agency named Recovery NSW.

It also calls for the creation of a separate agency called the NSW Reconstruction Agency (NSWRA), dedicated to long-term goals such as prevention and the rebuilding of infrastructure, modelled on the Queensland Reconstruction Agency (QRA). 

The NSWRA should be appointed to a senior portfolio, the report says, and be led by a statutory-appointed CEO with an advisory board of a maximum of seven members. 

Speaking at a press conference on the matter, report co-author and former police commissioner Michael Fuller said the new agencies would focus on cutting “red tape”.

“I think Resilience had an enormous remit. A very challenging one. We’ve tried to break that up into smaller pieces that are achievable by agencies that will have the ability to break through the red tape to break through all of those barriers,” he said.

The report also calls for a new deputy commissioner of the NSW police force in the state emergency-management operations coordinator (SEOCON) role, who would also be responsible for Recovery NSW. 

Among the recommendations is a call to amalgamate the back offices of the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) and the NSW Rural Fire Services (RFS). 

Public Service Association of NSW general secretary Stewart Little says such a merger would see two poorly resourced organisations that were designed to be separate pushed together. 

“Once again, the government has stomped in with an expedient plan without bothering to consult with public sector workers or the communities affected. We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t end well,” Mr Little said in a statement. 

The report also mentioned the reliance on state resources by local governments in times of a disaster.

It recommends the new agency NSWRA support councils in training and disaster preparedness. 

The NSW government has agreed to the recommendations, but warns that some will take time to implement.