Timing of flood support payment questioned

Andrew Brown | March 17, 2022

The timing of expanding financial assistance to flood victims in northern NSW has come under fire, with Labor saying the measures took too long to come through.

It comes as flood-affected residents in four more local council areas will be able to receive additional financial support from next week.

Two more weekly disaster payments will be made from Monday to residents in the Ballina, Byron, Kyogle and Tweed local government areas.

The payments will be $1000 per adult and $400 per child, and will be available from March 22.

It comes a week after extra flood assistance was given to residents in the Lismore, Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley council areas.

Locals and MPs in flood-affected areas further north had questioned why their support payments had taken longer to be approved.

Labor’s disaster management spokesman Murray Watt said the financial support should have been rolled out sooner.

“Why was it that Scott Morrison was in a position nearly a week ago … to announce additional support for some of those communities … but people in other areas, particularly in Labor-held seats had to wait?” Senator Watt told Sky News on Thursday.

“It’s really unclear why it is that we only ever seem to be able to get ministers to announce disaster assistance when they’re actually on the ground with TV cameras on them.”

Senator Watt said Queensland residents who had been affected by the floods had also been forgotten by the government for flood support.

“If you’re a flood victim who’s lost everything they own in Lismore, you’re in the exact same situation as a flood victim who loses everything they own in one of the Brisbane suburbs,” he said.

“There are homes and businesses in the suburbs and towns of Queensland and other parts of northern NSW who have experienced that damage as well.”

The decision to expand the disaster support to four northern NSW councils came following flood assessments carried out by the National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Emergency Management Australia.

Emergency Management Minster Bridget McKenzie said support was being rolled out as quickly as possible.

“While people in northern NSW aren’t able to work, are still clearing out their homes and businesses, the extra two $1000 payments we’re rolling out to eligible families and individuals will support our communities as they start to rebuild their lives,” she said.

Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds said the payments would help provide additional relief to those who had been impacted by the natural disaster.

“The catastrophic scale and impact of what we’re seeing in this region of northern NSW is exactly why this extra support is needed,” she said.

So far, more than $862 million in disaster recovery payments have been made to more than one million people in NSW and Queensland.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier on Thursday denied flood support measures were being delayed until he returned from a trip to Perth.

“When you’re talking about the investments of hundreds of millions of dollars – and indeed billions now – then people would expect this to go through the proper assessment of the proposals which we did yesterday,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Perth.

Earlier on Thursday, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston announced the government would provide an additional $9 million to 83 emergency and food relief services supporting flood victims in northern NSW and Queensland.

The funding will help local services provide food, grocery vouchers, clothes, household items and petrol for people who have been impacted by the floods.