Bushfire recovery groups blindsided by reports Resilience NSW might be axed

Zena Armstrong, president of the Cobargo Community Bushfire Recovery Fund, says the town is now better prepared for bushfires and Resilience NSW has encouraged this progress. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Community groups from a bushfire-ravaged village in the hinterland of the New South Wales south coast fear they will be abandoned amid reports the new government agency established to coordinate disaster recovery might be axed.

But critics of the organisation, created in response to the Black Summer bushfires in May 2020, say Resilience NSW is an ineffectual layer of bureaucracy whose funds would be better spent on frontline services.