State Member for Lismore, Minister for Recovery, Minister for Small Business and Minister for the North Coast, Janelle Saffin, sat down for a Talking Lismore podcast this week to discuss Lismore's flood recovery.While talking up business activity in the CBD and South Lismore, Ms Saffin moved to North Lismore, where the future lies with what is created on the vacant land once the Resilient Homes Program buyback houses are removed or demolished."The Living Lab will be doing some work, I think they've done some, and I've said that I'd like to see the community asked, What do you think? I remember there was one radio program on ABC where everybody was asked what they thought, lots of ideas, but in a serious way, what do you think can happen with this land?"Remember, I got that money for Lismore City Council. It's about $800,000 odd to do walkways from North Lismore. So we've got that, we've got the school, the Showgrounds, you know. And I know the Showgrounds want to do more there, and I still want the Richmond River High area to be a car boot market, but that's me.While the options for what will be a lot of vacant land, mainly in North Lismore and the CBD, will be pondered for the next couple of years, the flood mitigation modelling options are being discussed next week when the CSIRO and NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency) arrive in the Northern Rivers for community consultation."We've got hydrodynamic modelling that can be laid across a number of scenarios. We've got Kevin talking about the one to two metres; he and I have had those discussions. Of course, we've all had those discussions, and it would be fantastic if that could happen. It depends on the science and not us MPs."And this means we'll have that broad view. So we'll be looking at, can we do this here? What will that impact there? Can we protect them there? And that will be the conversation. But clearly, we're all hoping that we can have a situation, a scenario where we can do that reduction of the water, slow it down, divert it, hold it, all those sorts of things."Not being a hydrologist, but everything I know about what they've done, what I know about hydrology in general and floods, indicates that that could be possible. So we're hopeful."A question that the Lismore App asks every level of government is the level of confidence they have in the federal and state government handing over $2 billion to fund a CSIRO flood mitigation modelling scenario, where it can take 1 - 2 metres off a flood?"None of us know how much it would cost, so there's guesstimates about it, but we know things are expensive, so yeah, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful because I've been in public life for quite a few years, and I've seen many good things happen, and I've seen the impossible happen. So I'm forever hopeful. I'm the optimist."Another flood project making some progress is the Disaster Adaptation Plan, or DAP, which is being created by the NSW Reconstruction Authority."What do we do to adapt to the weather events we experience? What would be best practice? What are the things we do? It may also include some mitigation, but it's basically a disaster adaptation plan. It doesn't mean it has to exclude mitigation; it can be there. One of the things that I've been discussing is the difference between forecasting and early warning."The BoM does forecasting. They have all the information. They have all the models. They look at a variety of models, and they forecast what might happen on this day, on that day, etc, etc. And then, at a more local level, or another level, we can say, okay, if that's the forecast, this might happen. But early warning is saying, Well, what will that mean here in this area? What will it mean in your locality? What will it mean in your street? What will it mean for a CBD? What will it mean for the farming area? And SES have increasingly done that more."And this involves locals. And I say to locals, like we often say, Oh, well, we relied on Farmer Joe up country. I used to listen to the Tabulam guys up above the Clarence. I know who they are. I'd always listen and go, Oh, okay, they're saying that we better go. And I think we have to reclaim some of that ourselves, not just say everyone's got to do it for us. It's that shared sense of responsibility. And yes, it's inconvenient packing up, but it's the price we pay to live in paradise."Since the 2022 floods, one of the statistics we often hear is that 97% of funding is spent on recovery, while only 3% is spent on prevention. The state government has said it wants to change that ratio, thereby spending more on prevention. The CSIRO flood mitigation modelling is expected to be the main driving force in the Northern Rivers, and the DAP will also play a part in lowering flood risk in the Richmond River catchment."Can I just say that Andrew Colvin, when he did the Colvin review on disaster funding relief arrangements, or recovery arrangements, he said, then it had changed to 87/13, so the 97/3 has flipped to 87/13. That's in his report, and is a step in the right direction."Adaptation is identifying the hazards you experience in your area, in your region and your locality. So what are they? What are the risks from those hazards, and what are our vulnerabilities? Are they physical? Are they socio-economic? Are they this? Are they that? And mapping that out, and looking at that, and then we get a clear sense of what we need to do across the region."Here, with seven local government areas, and then what each local government area needs to do in that. So, in essence, that's what the disaster adaptation planning is about, and we haven't done it before. It's quite, I can't think of the word, rather groundbreaking, but we don't kind of see it like that yet, but it is."And then for me, remember, there's adaptation plans being done for climate, for the climate challenges. And I said, Well, we're doing it for climate, for weather, natural hazards, natural disasters, natural events. I want to see us have a plan out to 2050 because there's a net-zero 2050. But I want to see us in sort of parallel, have up to 2050 risk reduction, because that's what it's all about; it's about reducing risk. That's the key thing."So a DAP is about reducing risk, building resilience, stronger, safer communities."Ms Saffin said a completed Northern Rivers DAP document should be released in 2026."The Disaster Adaptation Plan guidelines, they're for the state, they should be released quite soon. I've signed off on them."Another project that is close to release, and also one of Lismore's worst-kept secrets, is the change of ownership of the Southern Cross University development site on Military Road. The 400-site development, which includes 50 Build-To-Rent properties, is officially owned by the NSWRA. But when is the announcement?"Oh, I think we might do that Monday. Monday looks like a good day," Ms Saffin said with a grin."It means that we'll start to see the plan fleshed out to end up with 400 dwellings on that site, 50 Build to Rent with Landcom, and then the other 350. So, we'll start to see that there, and that's a good thing for Lismore.""Any housing is a good thing. So I'm quite excited about that. I also would like to make sure that we do some real affordable homes there as well, because we often talk about affordable, but I want to still see real affordable."Any new housing development will lead to an increased load on the East Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant. Recently, Lismore City Council has said its estimated $108 million funding to fix the South Lismore ($20-25 million) and East Lismore ($70-80 million) has been reduced to $38 million. This was Lismore's share of a $145 million announcement by Minister for Lands and Water Kevin Anderson in May 2022.The dispute with the state government on the decrease in funding leaves Lismore City Council unable to fix the East Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant to the level it was before the 2022 flood, let alone to build back better, as was the catchphrase used at the time.Ms Saffin says she is across the issue."I'm trawling through all the documents and figures of that at the moment, because I have a different memory of it. And I was at the announcement with Minister Kevin Anderson when that was announced. I can remember we were in our overcoats and stuff that day."Because it was recovery money, it wasn't intended to give it to anyone for future growth. Future growth comes through councils working at that themselves, putting forward, then for grants and things. So it wasn't about future growth. But if we've taken, say, 660 houses so far, out, and we're adding 400 in, I don't see the issue. Maybe there's something technical I don't understand."The East Lismore Sewage Treatment Plant is shaping up to be the first big dispute between Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin and Lismore City Council Mayor Steve Krieg. In the end, Lismore needs a fully functioning sewage treatment plant with its critical components out of flood, or we could well be having the same discussion when the next big flood hits the catchment.The complete conversation with Janelle Saffin, including a part on insurance, can be heard on the Talking Lismore podcast via the Lismore App or through the Lismore App website.