Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin hosted a roundtable on housing and small business yesterday at the new Business NSW hub location at Sothern Cross University.

Among the invited guests was Federal Minister for Small Business, Housing & Homelessness Julie Collins, Special Envoy for Disaster Recovery Tony Sheldon and Jane Laverty Business NSW Regional Director Northern Rivers as well as locals like Joel Jensen, Philip Sutcliffe, Michael Were and Jillian Knight-Smith representing their respective sectors.

The two forums were organised so the Federal Government can hear first-hand what issues Lismore has right now and what the future could look like.

Ms Saffin told the media that we would need about 18,600 houses or dwellings here to address the housing shortfall that we have.

(Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin shares a joke at yesterday's media event at the new Business NSW hub at SCU)

Minister Collins said she was pleased to be in Lismore to "Listen to locals, to listen to small businesses and to listen to individuals, to listen to homelessness service providers about how we work better with the other tier of government, state government, but also with them about providing services on the ground and the supports that are needed."

"We need to make sure that when we build back, we build back better and then we have a more resilient community in the future."

Senator Sheldon mentioned the more than $1 billion spent on the Northern Rivers has been spent correctly so listening to local business and the community and about the learning from our experiences.

"It's when we get these challenges with these natural disasters that are happening, there's natural hazards that occur that turn into humanitarian disasters. The lessons that we'll learn again today, we'll make sure that we're more resilient and more prepared for the next time."

Senator Sheldon went on to say that there's been a real pull together from all levels of government to make sure that "we get this right". He also mentioned about "unsticking bureaucratic problems" but bureaucracy is an issue that the people of Lismore and the Northern Rivers know well as they continually wait for progress reports through the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation or the soon to be released interim CSIRO report, which was released to NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency) in mid-December then two weeks ago Senator Murray Watt said it would be released very soon and Senator Sheldon said it is with the State Government.

One of the most difficult tasks to achieve will be unsticking the bureaucratic problems because there are so many layers of government.

Ms Saffin did say that the CSIRO report should be released by mid-February at the latest.

Business NSW Regional Director Northern Rivers Jane Laverty spoke about what sort of issues were facing some of our small businesses, "There's a lot of challenges ahead. The cost of business is crippling for many of them, and so they will need further support."

"Many of our businesses lost very critical equipment, or they're currently doing what we call a MacGyver. They've got gaffa tape and string holding things together, many of them without warranties on their equipment."

"We're concerned that if any of that key equipment to their businesses start to fail this year, that they will be in a lot of trouble and they don't have the cash flow to go spending $20,000 or $100,000 or $200,000 on critical equipment. If they lose their equipment and they have to knock back contracts or not take jobs that means we have job losses and we don't want to see that."

"From retail through to manufacturing, all gamut of representatives to help provide the Minister and the Senator and our Local Member with some insights around what is working and what we could do to improve the year ahead for business and industry in the Northern Rivers."

The Lismore App then spoke to Janelle Saffin post roundtable to get an insight into what issues were raised by the local people in the room on small business and homelessness.

"For housing everyone acknowledged the need, however, there was concern of the inability to separate the preflood housing crisis from the flood housing crisis."

"There were concerns about lack of allocation to the regions so programs for social and affordable housing did not have regional targets"

"For small business there were concerns over infrastructure. The Federal Government had a program for various sectors with unused funds that have been freed up."

"Planning was another issue with one unnamed uncontroversial housing development went before a council and is still waiting for approval 18 months later."

"Alot of business owners said we know what we need to do so governments should get out of the way so we can get it done. They just need some funding."

As Lismore and the Northern Rivers 'Rebuilds Back Better', there is clear support from all levels of government. Of course, residents would like the pace to be faster so we can see signs of the rebuild in action and the communication more transparent and more regular so we know and understand the timetable piece by piece rather than waiting to be fed chunks of information when everything is lined up neatly.

The one point we, as a community, have learnt is patience. After all, as much as we would like, you can't take the bureaucracy out of government. At the end of the day, we do need the rebuild to be right.