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Elon Musk has become Twitter Inc's owner, firing top executives and providing little clarity over how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.

"The bird is freed," he tweeted, referencing Twitter's bird logo in an apparent nod to his desire to see the company have fewer limits on content that can be posted.

The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc has, however, also said he wants to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

Other goals include wanting to "defeat" spam bots on Twitter and make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available.

Yet Musk has not offered details on how he will achieve all this and who will run the company.

He has said he plans to cut jobs, leaving Twitter's approximately 7500 employees fretting about their future.

He also said on Thursday he did not buy Twitter to make more money but "to try to help humanity, whom I love."

Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. He accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform.

Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, sources said.

Before closing the $US44 billion ($A68 billion) acquisition Musk walked into Twitter's headquarters on Wednesday carrying a porcelain sink, subsequently tweeting "let that sink in." He changed his description in his Twitter profile to "Chief Twit."

He also tried to calm fears among employees that major layoffs are coming and assured advertisers that his past criticism of Twitter's content moderation rules would not harm its appeal.

Musk said in May he would reverse the ban on Donald Trump, who was removed after the attack on the US Capitol, although the former US president has said he won't return to the platform.

Musk has also indicated he sees Twitter as a foundation for creating a "super app" that offers everything from money transfers to shopping and ride-hailing.

The deal saga began on April 4, when Musk disclosed a 9.2 per cent stake in the company, making him its largest shareholder.

The world's richest person then agreed to join Twitter's board, only to baulk at the last minute and offer to buy the company instead for $US54.20 per share.

Over the course of just one weekend later in April, the two sides reached a deal at the price he suggested.

In the weeks that followed, Musk had second thoughts. He complained publicly that he believed Twitter's spam accounts were significantly higher than Twitter's estimate, published in regulatory filings, of less than 5 per cent of its monetisable daily active users.

The acrimony resulted in Musk giving notice to Twitter on July 8 that he was terminating their deal on the grounds that Twitter misled him about the bots and did not cooperate with him. Four days later, Twitter sued Musk in Delaware, where the company is incorporated, to force him to complete the deal.

Most legal analysts said Twitter had the strongest arguments and would likely prevail in court.

On October 4, just as Musk was set to be deposed by Twitter's lawyers ahead of the start of their trial later in the month, he performed another u-turn and offered to complete the deal as promised.

He managed to do that, just one day ahead of an October 28 deadline given by the Delaware judge to avoid going to trial.

© RAW 2022

Governments have called an end to housing developments on floodplains as a major buyback scheme is unveiled for people affected by catastrophic flooding in the NSW Northern Rivers.

The $520 million buyback scheme is the centrepiece of an $800 million package co-funded by the NSW and federal governments to give 2000 flood-impacted residents the opportunity to raise, repair or retrofit their houses.

For homes in the most at-risk areas of Lismore and the surrounding Northern Rivers region, governments will offer to buy the home and land from the owner.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the package offers a way forward for communities devastated by repeated flooding this year.

"This is the biggest agreement of its kind, ever, in response to a very significant event," he told reporters in Lismore on Friday.

But Mr Albanese said governments couldn't keep allowing homes to be built in harm's way as climate change fuelled an increase in natural disasters.

"We need to respond as governments, not political parties," he said while standing alongside NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

"We need to do better on planning, but we also need to do better than thinking we can just do the same thing over and over again."

The premier will lead discussion at a national cabinet meeting about improving planning to ensure floodplain developments didn't continue.

Mr Perrottet said rebuilding with resilience in mind would avoid past mistakes, adding the days of developing on floodplains in the state were over.

"I've already spoken to the planning minister in relation to this," he said.

"It makes absolutely no sense for us to make this announcement today and then still continue to develop on floodplains. It's not going to happen any more in NSW, I can tell you that."

Opposition Leader Chris Minns said the community needed the Commonwealth-state funded package.

"It's a tricky policy situation. I think everybody acknowledges it's not as simple as coming out with an announcement within days of a natural emergency ... I'm glad that we're now where we are at," he said.

"But we can't allow those communities to be forgotten, there's still a long way to go to make them whole and to ensure that they've got a strong and viable future," he said.

Funding from the program will be open to residents affected by the floods in February and March in the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed local government areas.

The voluntary buyback scheme will be offered from Monday to homeowners in the most vulnerable parts of the Northern Rivers, where renewed flooding continues to pose a serious risk.

They will be offered money to raise, repair or retrofit their property, or sell it to the government, based on expert assessments of the damage, its safety risks and potential future flood levels.

"Almost everyone who has been significantly affected and would qualify for this program would have already had an assessment," Mr Perrottet said.

Those eligible will be given a payment based on a valuation of the home and land.

Up to $100,000 will be available to raise homes and up to $50,000 for retrofitting in cases where flood risk can be mitigated by better building.

The state government will also spend $100 million buying new land in flood-safe locations for new developments with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation.

© AAP 2022

Flood victims in northern NSW have described the government's $520 million buyback scheme as a "cookie cutter" package designed without adequate community consultation.

The $520 million buyback scheme is the centrepiece of an $800 million package co-funded by the NSW and federal governments, to give 2000 flood-impacted residents of the Northern Rivers region the opportunity to raise, repair or retrofit their houses.

For homes in the areas most at risk - Lismore and the surrounding Northern Rivers region - governments will offer to buy the home and land from the owner.

But victims of the Lismore floods criticised the scheme on Friday, saying it lacks detail and was developed without their input, nearly eight months after the town was devastated.

"Nobody's actually spoken to us about what our community's needs are prior to determining the package," flood victim and domestic violence worker Vicky Findlay told AAP.

"I feel like it's a bit of a cookie-cutter approach."

Ms Findlay's North Lismore home was inundated during flooding earlier this year, destroying bedrooms and leaving her without a kitchen.

Her son, 27, has a disability and is on a waitlist for social housing, meanwhile living in a caravan on their property.

"I imagine we will get a buyback, but the problem for us is that we can't leave unless our son is given social housing," she said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the package offers a way forward for communities devastated by repeated flooding this year, adding governments could not continue to allow homes to be built on floodplains.

"This is the biggest agreement of its kind, ever, in response to a very significant event," he told reporters in Lismore on Friday.

"We need to do better on planning, but we also need to do better than thinking we can just do the same thing over and over again."

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet will lead discussion at a national cabinet meeting about improving planning to ensure floodplain developments didn't continue.

Mr Perrottet said rebuilding with resilience in mind would avoid past mistakes, adding the days of developing on floodplains in the state were over.

"I've already spoken to the planning minister in relation to this," he said.

Criminal lawyer and Lismore local Eddie Lloyd, who was rescued from a roof during floods earlier this year, said residents living on floodplains remained unsure about which support packages they would be eligible for.

"We hoped that this would be a community-led recovery and rebuild," Ms Lloyd told AAP.

"The really disappointing factor for us is that the community haven't been consulted."

Labor leader Chris Minns welcomed the Commonwealth-state funded package but said it was vital the Northern Rivers were not forgotten.

"It's a tricky policy situation. I think everybody acknowledges it's not as simple as coming out with an announcement within days of a natural emergency ... I'm glad that we're now where we are at," he said.

The program will be open to residents in the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed local government areas.

The voluntary buyback scheme will be offered from Monday to home owners in the most vulnerable parts of the Northern Rivers, where renewed flooding continues to pose a serious risk.

They will be offered money to raise, repair or retrofit their property, or sell it to the government, based on expert assessments of the damage, its safety risks and potential future flood levels.

Many assessments will have already taken place, Mr Perrottet said.

Those eligible will be given a payment based on a valuation of the home and land.

Up to $100,000 will be available to raise homes and up to $50,000 for retrofitting in cases where flood risk can be mitigated by better building.

The state government will also spend $100 million buying new land in flood-safe locations for new developments with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation.

© AAP 2022