The government's bushfire cleanup response has "lacked urgency" according to a Labor Senator, who condemned the six-month wait for the start of the job.
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The cleanup is currently underway in Wytaliba and Torrington, which were both smashed head-on by bushfires on October 8 last year.
Residents of both communities have been living among the ruins of their villages ever since the devastating blaze. Village residents can't start reconstruction work until the ruins have been cleared away.
Senator Tim Ayres, who leads the upper house inquiry into the bushfire emergency, said it isn't good enough.
"It's six months after some of these fires have concluded," he said.
"There's no sense of urgency, no sense of follow-through. It's always about the press conference and the announcement, never about the hard work of the delivery.
"That's completely unacceptable for communities in the New England and the Clarence."
He said the task has taken "months and months and months longer than anyone imagined".
"It's a complicated job on an unprecedented scale, but there should be a sense of urgency about delivery," Mr Ayres said.
"Some people are living in caravans, some people have been sleeping in their cars.
"People have experienced emotional catastrophe of the bushfires but then the anguish of trying to work out how they are going to finance, how they are going to work through the reconstruction of their own home but also the community around them."
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Senator Ayres grew up in Glen Innes, a community that faced some of the state's worst and earliest fires and where months of blazes wrecked farmland and outlying villages.
He flagged the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration inquiry will look closely at making sure there's "accountability" and to understand the reason for the "failure to deliver"
The Senate probe is one of a number of formal inquiries into the Black Summer fires, including a Royal Commission.
A spokesperson for Resilience NSW said the government and lead contractor Laing O'Rourke have responded as quickly as possible to get the job done.
Clean-up began in Torrington on March 11, they said.
"Unfortunately Wytaliba clean-up works were impacted by March flooding which washed away the road access to the community," the spokesperson said.
"Public Works Advisory commenced clean-up works as soon as the access was reinstated and has been actively working with the Wytaliba community since the start of the program."
A number of factors have added further challenges to the clean-up in the north, including property access and weather-related issues, the spokesperson said.
Cleanup works started in Wytaliba late last week, according to local residents.
The clean-up is set to be completed by the end of June.
More than 4000 structures including thousands of homes have been wrecked and will need to be cleaned up by then, in a mammoth task that will be paid for by state and federal government.
Senator Ayres said the Finance and Public Affairs committee inquiry will be much broader and longer than other inquiries, with the final report due in 2021.
He said the inquiry will likely hold hearings in the New England area when it is safe to do so.
