Our State MP Janelle Saffin hosted visiting Labor leaders today to meet staff, union officials and media for a tour of the beleaguered Norco factory.

Adrian Kings, Norco’s General Manager of Manufacturing, led the visitors through the many large, quiet and mostly clean spaces that hold the currently non-operational machinery.

Janelle Saffin welcomed Chris Minns, NSW Labor Leader, Walt Secord, Shadow Minister for the North Coast and colleagues from the AMWU, AMIEU and the ETU – unions that represent the workers of Norco.

“It’s great to have everybody here and great to have the cooperation of Norco so we could do a tour of the site to see not only what’s happened but what is going to happen. It was exciting to hear plans for future development. That’s what we want to hear in Lismore and the Northern Rivers,” Ms Saffin said.

Corey Wright, State Secretary of the AMWU made mention of the federal government funding injection whilst acknowledging the value of the employees.

“It recognises that the infrastructure is important for Norco, the skills are equally important and we need to retain those skills for the area if businesses here are going to be able to rebuild,” Mr Wright said.

“We’ll be calling on all the local businesses to come together with representatives from both the state and federal government. We need them all in a room to work out what’s possible. We need to look at measures beyond this initial funding about what is going to support the region, including support for insurance and looking at flood mitigation in a consistent manner,’ he added.

Shadow Minister for the North Coast Walt Secord inspects the flood line marked on factory wall

Chris Minns expressed his gladness to be here visiting and described the impact of the flood disaster and the preceding two years of covid impact on our region.

“Lismore has really been on its knees but when you look at Norco and you see the unions and management and the community coming together and plodding their way through with government, you look at hope. And hope is what we need for a town like Lismore."

"I believe that we can have jobs and investment and growth in the Northern Rivers but it does require heavy lifting from the NSW government and the Commonwealth government – all sides coming together, putting politics to one side and focussing on solutions that mean we have good, well-paid jobs deep into the future,” Minns said.

Minns said he had spoken to some local businesses who had not yet received flood support funding from the NSW government despite the Premier’s pledge to assist.

inspecting damage in the cold room

“They’ve been told repeatedly to put in applications for that flood support…but it’s not been seen on the ground for many small and medium-size enterprises. I looked at the statistics this morning – just 28% of grants have actually been approved and the money been pushed out the door by the NSW government."

"So many businesses in the main streets of Lismore are still not open, so much industry that hasn’t returned. We’re calling on the NSW Premier to do everything he possibly can to make sure that these requests for help from local businesses and communities are in fact processed so that money can circulate in the local economy,” Minns explained.

Mr Minns also explained that he believes the government is delaying delivery of funding by repeating requests for information already supplied by applicants.

“The government keeps saying ‘we need more information from you’, whether it’s P&L statements, last year's tax return – most of that information has already been supplied by these small and medium sized businesses - so my concern is rather than giving them a hard no, there’s a bit of a stringing along effect in the hope that people will stop applying,” Minns added.

“I don’t want to throw stones at the NSW Premier – we’d much rather an outcome than a media release here – but he has to know what’s going on right up here in Lismore,” Minns said.

L to R: Corey Wright, State Secretary AMWU, State MP Janelle Saffin, Walt Secord, Chris Minns, Adrian Kings

Shadow Minister for the North Coast Walt Secord was also present at this morning’s gathering. Mr Secord is also the Chair of the Independent Parliamentary Inquiry into the floods.

“We’ll be delivering our final report on August 4th. This has been my fourth visit to the North Coast and something has become crystal clear to me. I want to send a direct message to the Premier", Mr Secord said, "Almost six months have passed since the floods – please do not forget about the North Coast. Norco has been here for 100 years, it's deep in the community, we want to make sure it’s here for another hundred years.”