Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said Lismore and the Northern Rivers flood-affected people waiting for information on the Resilient Lands Program may get an early or late Christmas present as an announcement looks likely to be made very soon.

The Resilient Lands Program, on the surface, has moved at a glacial pace. This is compounded by the lack of communication surrounding the program.

It has been nearly fourteen months since the government announced the Resilient Homes and Land Programs and while the Homes Program has made progress on House Buybacks, House Raisings and Retrofits, the Lands Program has been deathly silent.

"It's coming" has been the most heard line, almost like a Monty Python scene from the Holy Grail when Sir Lancelot attacks the wedding castle. It takes him forever to get there before storming the castle.

With the due diligence and negotiations completed, our early or belated Christmas gift is the announcement of over 400 new blocks of land in flood-free areas of Lismore.

"Hopefully before Christmas, if not early New Year, and because I am briefed on them, they are really close. It's seriously close and they're good," Ms Saffin told the Lismore App.

"In some local government areas where the land already exists, it's a case of needing resources for infrastructure. So, it's a mixture of things that are happening."

"I don't know the exact amount of houses but I would expect that we could get up to over 400 houses in Lismore alone or blocks for houses in Lismore, which would be fantastic."

"The question I get asked is will who will get first dibs at buying or relocating? And it will be those owner-occupiers who were flood-affected."

Following on from the announcement, another question asked frequently is "How long will it take before the infrastructure is complete and people can relocate homes or new homes can start to be built?"

"I don't know. The Landcom development on Cynthia Wilson Drive for 64 places was determined before the flood and announced after the flood in 2022. They've told me that the keys will be in the door will be at the end of 2024. That's not bad, just to give you an idea of one development."

As for Resilient Homes, the number of House Buybacks increases each week. The latest statistics are below.

Another question for the Lismore LGA is "Will the Resilient Lands Program announcement of 400+ blocks of land be enough for flood-affected people?" At this stage, there are 488 Buyback Offers that have been approved and 363 of those have been accepted with 347 contracts issued. The government's revised estimation of buybacks was just over 1,000, from the initial NRRC figures of 2,000, so there should be some more buybacks to come.

Ms Saffin said the first $700 million, being Tranche 1 for the Resilient Homes Program is close to being spent.

"We're not there yet but we're close," Ms Saffin said, "I said for the rest of Tranche 1 funding we need to import good criteria and for Tranche 2 have this (other) criteria. One of them we got through early were people doing appeals and that was generally people who were the most vulnerable. That means psychologically and physically."

"There's flexibility in the program now. It's not a hard and fast rule for buyback, raisings and retrofits, we need to look at it in context. For some people, it has to be a buyback because it is dangerous for them and for others, it should be looked at in the context of community."

"With Tranche 2, all of the community leaders agreed there needed to be equity with that $100 million because this is a program for the Northern Rivers and that each area should be catered for. An example that comes to mind is Mullumbimby. That would mean there would be more house raises, which would be good because they will be out of harm's way."

"There are four State MPs, two Federal MPs, seven Mayors and GMs and it really really pleased me that all of us were saying equity. It says something about our community."

It still appears we have a long way to go as the statistics suggest for buybacks, raisings and retrofits so is there more money, a Tranche 3, on the way?

"We're certainly going to ask for more and we've made that clear. But I think a lot of people were watching how this money will be spent. Will it be done well? and particularly now with the RA (Reconstruction Authority) people having taken over and with our input and listening to the community, it will be done well. It's never easy to ask for more money but that makes it easier. All of us have committed to ask for more."

Flood-affected people would have received their first NSWRA 'Recovery Update' in the last two weeks.

The glossy booklet gives information on the flood recovery, however, people will not read anything they don't already know.

For Lismore, all we want for Christmas is to know where the Resilient Lands Program will be and how many homes will it create, plus more funding for the Resilient Homes Program. After all, we have been nice.