Site for NSW flood victims approved as only their ‘feet would get wet’ in a future disaster

Parts of a Mullumbimby site approved for temporary housing for flood victims have been raised by up to 1.5 metres to make it suitable, an inquiry has heard. Photograph: Natalie Grono/The Guardian

A block of land in New South Wales’s northern rivers that flooded earlier this year was deemed suitable for house victims of the same disaster so long as only their “feet would get wet” if another deluge swamped the site.

The state’s Department of Planning and Environment’s deputy secretary, Brett Whitworth, on Monday told a parliamentary hearing the Mullumbimby site was taken “outside the planning system” in a bid to get the site secured and temporary housing built more quickly.