Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin organised a Business Forum at the Business NSW Hub at Southern Cross University on Tuesday that was eagerly attended by many of Lismore's business community both big and small.

Also in attendance was the man recently announced as the Northern NSW Flood Recovery Coordinator Mal Lanyon, who also is the NSW Deputy Police Commissioner, Minister for Flood Recovery Steph Cooke, the Attorney General Mark Speakman and Mayor Steve Krieg.

Mr Lanyon said his job was to coordinate agencies whether they be state government, NGO's or the range of services required to put the community back together and while he hadn't spoken to a lot of the people in the room he was there to listen to their stories and concerns. He is there to listen to what our community would like to see happen and convey that to the state government.

"There will be some questions that you will no doubt have for me that I won't be able to answer. I will be very honest with you about some of those and as you can see government policy and the way that they are supporting the community continues to evolve," My Lanyon said.

That is where Mal Lanyon started fielding questions or hearing statements from the audience who peppered him with many examples where the bureaucratic process was letting them down.

Joel Jensen from Joel Jensen Constructions said he lost $250,000 to $300,000 in building supplies and tools. He and his wife Britany made the call to keep paying their 21 staff at $25,000 per week, they thought the grant would cover their wages only to be told they would need receipts to claim the $50,000. "It's a load of sh&t, I don't have 50 grand sitting around in my back pocket," Joel said.

As well as looking after your employees which is what companies want to do, if they cannot afford to keep paying them they leave, move to other areas for work and don't come back. With a shortage of tradies in the Northern Rivers anyway, where do businesses like Joel's get more staff?

Another employer said she lost $600,000 worth of stock in her clothing importing business in South Lismore, once again she is continuing to pay her staff. On top of that in the last 6 weeks has seen $150,000 go out of her account with another $70,000 freight bill waiting to be paid. To make matters worse, she purchased the building 12 months ago so there is building damage as well as stock.

"I can't get insurance either, insurance is $200,000 a year and you expect me to go back to the same spot," she said.

So, we have two examples of employers wanting to keep their staff. When Joel Jensen rang for advice he was told "You should have laid them all off and they should have gone and got the Centrelink money."

(Northern NSW Flood Recovery Coordinator Mal Lanyon addressing the room with Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin)

Tracy Randall from Tracy Randall Legal mentioned she can reduce her wage bill by using the Disability Recovery amounts but then she is relying on the goodwill of her staff to volunteer their time at her practice to keep the business operating. If staff members decide to not give their time back to the business and take a break the business is then short on staff to operate.

On top of that, those staff members who do volunteer their time are not covered by workers comp so are exposed to claims through accidents.

The call was for a 'FloodKeeper' arrangement so the money goes to the businesses to keep them operating like normal.

Ken from the Lismore Skin Clinic lost about a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment and under the current grant criteria he is entitled to only $50,000. He is yet another example of a business falling between the cracks. Many have the double whammy if they also own the building as well.

Steve Robinson from Southside Trucks had losses in the millions. Steve applied for the $200,000 grant and was told "we'll get back to you", that was 3 weeks ago.

Another big Lismore business is Lickiss Fabrications. Troy Matthews said they built the Lickiss building 500 mm above the previous highest 1974 flood of 12.14 metres so his floor sits at 12.64 and has suffered losses in the seven-figure mark. They have thrown out 10 tonnes of aluminium and 250 cubic metres of glass, componentry and hardware. Troy has now measured 130 metres of shopfront to fix them up but can't complete the job because he is not operational yet. His first replacement machinery has arrived but it will take 2 weeks to put it together.

That is when the comment comes through "that it is not months, it is weeks before business start folding". When Lismore's largest businesses are talking this way, the state government needs to not only listen but action the points made by our business community because that is the future of our city in the CBD and surrounding industrial suburbs.

Mal Lanyon told the gathering he is hearing it is taking a long time for grants to come through, the eligibility is inflexible with only two options and many fall through the gap.

What sustainable products do people use in rebuilding their properties and what does the CBD look like in general?

Premier has said that the state government departments like the police, fire brigade and Director of Public Prosecutions will be staying in the CBD with Mr Lanyon saying the Premier is working on the banks to stay in the CBD to give some confidence going forward that the CBD will rebuild.

As for what resilient housing and factories look like and the materials they use plus where does storage go? "This is a bigger discussion and I don't have the answer for you at the moment," Mr Lanyon said.

What about insurance? How can Lismore and other parts of the Northern Rivers like Kyogle and Coraki get insurance that is affordable?

This is once again put in the "bigger discussion" basket and is a question to be answered in the future. It should be noted that insurance falls under Federal Government jurisdiction.

One can't help but think that a Northern Rivers Recovery & Reconstruction Commission is the only way forward.

Will it quicken the process for everything and will everyone be happy? No, but it does mean it has its own budget which cuts through the red tape and frustrating delays.