Byron Shire Council calls on big polluters to pay for climate damage
Byron Shire Council has passed a motion calling on the Federal Government to establish a National Climate Compensation Fund, funded through a levy on major coal, oil and gas corporations, to cover the soaring costs of worsening climate disasters being borne by local councils and communities across Australia.
Councillor Elia Hauge, who tabled the motion, said “Byron Shire has lived through the 2019–20 bushfires, the catastrophic 2022 floods—when Mullumbimby recorded 520 millimetres of rain in a single day, the highest on record—Cyclone Alfred, and ongoing coastal erosion at Belongil and New Brighton. That is not a run of bad luck. That is a pattern. The climate crisis means more frequent and more intense extreme events. The funding systems we have are not built for the worsening climate impacts we are experiencing, they are built on old expectations that no longer apply.”
Nationally, fires, floods and cyclones cost Australia $38 billion per year, equivalent to $3,800 per household; with 434 of Australia’s 537 councils impacted by climate-fuelled disasters between 2019 and 2023. The Australia Institute has found that insured losses from climate-related disasters have risen more than twelve times in twenty years, while local government revenues have grown only three times over the same period.
“The 2022 floods alone prompted 41 Essential Public Asset Restoration applications and a $52.5 million package of disaster recovery funding, with repair works continuing into 2027. After Cyclone Alfred, we submitted applications for a further $40 million. Big polluters are making billions in profit while communities like ours are left to clean up the mess. That is not fair, and it has to change.” said Cr. Hauge.
The motion calls on the Federal Government to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into the adequacy of the 2025 National Adaptation Plan, create a dedicated funding stream for local governments commensurate with the scale of financial risks identified in the 2025 National Climate Risk Assessment, and introduce a Climate Pollution Levy on coal, gas and oil export corporations. Byron Shire Council also supports the City of Sydney’s motion to the Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly in June 2026 calling for national climate adaptation funding and accountability.
Mayor Sarah Ndiaye, a former journalist and local high school teacher who has served on Byron Shire Council since 2016, said “Four years on from the 2022 floods, people in this community are still in temporary accommodation. We never recovered the housing stock we lost, let alone built more. Every time a disaster hits, we are starting from behind. Recovery funding designed for once-a-generation events does not work when the events stop being once-a-generation. Without more secure federal funding, councils' only way to continue to repair infrastructure and future proof our community is by raising rates and continuing to apply for insecure grants. We don't think this is right.
“Every time, it is taxpayers and council budgets absorbing costs that the corporations responsible for driving these disasters are not contributing to. That has to change” Mayor Ndiaye said.
Noelle, a Mullumbimby resident who has been unable to return to her home since the 2022 floods, said “I support this motion and I want to see councils and residents get the funding they need to make our properties, our livelihoods and our communities more resilient. The burden of this crisis is falling on the people. The corporations whose pollution is driving it should be helping to fix it.”
"The impacts of these disasters are still being felt years later—I’m still not living in my home and still paying rates on it. The process of trying to access disaster recovery support has been the most painful experience. We need to support councils and residents by getting the Climate Compensation Fund, paid for by polluters.” said Noelle.
The motion makes Byron Shire one of a growing number of councils across Australia to formally back the Climate Compensation Fund- a call to the Federal government to make big polluters contribute to fixing the harm their pollution causes, rather than leaving councils, ratepayers and households to foot the bill.
