SHOCKED and grieving, she laid her ruined wedding dress on the muddied, mangled pile of treasured belongings.
Emergency volunteers bore witness, absorbing her heartbreak while valiantly hosing stinking mud and river slime from her waterlogged home.
Unforgiving torrents of floodwaters, fuelled by ‘atmospheric rivers’, left mountains of precious possessions disintegrating in landfill.
Tragically, lives and livelihoods were lost, creating enormous distress and devastation.
Fragile environments, farmland and livestock were annihilated.
In June 2025, Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean said, “Our homes are our sanctuaries – and the biggest financial investment most Australians will ever make.
“Millions of Australian homes now face escalating risks from climate change.
“Devastating flooding on the NSW Mid-North Coast is the latest example, but won’t be the last.
“Back to back disasters have cost the Australian economy $2.2 billion in the first half of 2025 alone.
“Disasters like Cyclone Alfred and record flooding on the NSW Mid-North Coast have recently seen tens of thousands of Australians forced from their homes and burdened with major clean-up costs.”
Rural and regional communities, exposed to natural disasters increasing in severity and number, struggle to afford appropriate insurance.
The Insurance Council of Australia stated, “In the past five years alone, insured costs from extreme weather reached a record $22.5 billion, up 67 percent from the previous five years.”
A recent State Government $50m flood support package pales in comparison to massive taxpayer subsidies gifted to fossil fuel corporations, spotlighting the egregious power the Minerals Council and mining lobbyists enjoy in our Parliament.
Even worse, the government still refuses to include climate change and public health in their Social Impacts Assessment (SIA) process for coal and gas projects.
The Social Impacts Alliance (SIA NSW) formed in 2019 after the Rocky Hill coal mine refusal.
Social Impacts experts, community members Bev Smiles (Wollar), Sally Hunter (Narrabri), Special Council Belinda Rayment (EDO) and others produced a harrowing human rights document that was launched at University of Newcastle and in NSW Parliament in November 2024.
Titled “Social Impacts Alliance – Communities Sacrificed for Coal and Gas” (author Dr Hedda Askland, Assoc Professor in Anthropology, UoN), it can be downloaded at lockthegate.org.au.
On 7 August 2025, the Alliance, accompanied by Sydney Knitting Nannas, Nic Clyde (LTG) and Manjot Kaur (Nature Conservation Council), met with MPs in Parliament, insisting that climate change and public health be included in the Government’s Social Impact Assessment (SIA) Guidelines.
At lunchtime, the Department of Planning held a webinar on their ‘updated’ SIA Guidelines.
Astoundingly, social and health impacts of climate change caused by fossil fuel developments are again not mentioned in the guideline.
This is seriously relevant to all local communities facing escalating climate risks.
Disturbingly, the department’s invited Social Impacts expert on their webinar panel was previously an expert witness for a coal company.
A just, liveable future for our planet, without the reliance on fossil fuels, is worth fighting for.
In Dr Richard Parsons’ independent peer review of the SIA for Maules Creek Continuation Project, he states, “Furthermore, prolonging an industry in decline is inconsistent with the notion of a just transition, because delaying transitional planning and action places a disproportionate burden on future generations to act and adapt more quickly at a later date.”
The good news!
Organised communities continue to take on multi national giants and win.
A recent NSW Supreme Court landmark ruling, overturning approval for Mt Pleasant, NSW’s largest coal mine expansion, confirms climate impacts and harms on local communities must be fully considered when assessing impacts of coal mines.
This win has huge implications for other coal mine expansion applications.
They should not be approved.
Climate action is gaining urgent momentum, building on deep legacies gifted from First Nations communities and environmental change-makers.
Politicians are wilfully and culpably ignoring our major human rights issues, unfolding in real time.
The ‘tide is rising’. You are needed.
By Julie LYFORD OAM, Social Impacts Alliance NSW
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