'People literally were dying while publicly funded boats sat in sheds...' 9News
Key government bodies fronted the inquiry into theThe inquiry heard Maritime NSW refused to deploy taxpayer-funded boats to rescue residents in Lismore while the town was submerged by water because of OH&S rules."From my point of view, we can't put our staff into that circumstance unless they are trained," NSW Maritime Executive Director Mark Hutchings told the inquiry.
Today she questioned why the state resources weren't deployed while instead locals with tinnies and surfboards saved lives. The flood inquiry also heard about a school in Ballina that opened as an evacuation centre only for the principal to be told by a public servant to shut it down because it wasn't officially approved."She told me because we weren't officially approved, we had to disperse the families to properly certified locations," Principal at Xavier Catholic College Ballina Kevin Lewis said.