Coalition considering extending extra payments to flood victims in northern NSW after backlash
Scott Morrison continues to defend flood response as Queensland premier says offer to declare a national emergency in the state’s south-east is ‘too late’
Scott Morrison is “looking at” extending eligibility for extra payments to more flood victims on the New South Wales north coast, in response to anger over the decision to leave some of the hardest-hit disaster areas out.The prime minister made the comments in Brisbane where he was planning to declare an emergency two weeks after major floods that killed 13 people and damaged thousand of homes and businesses in the south-east.
But the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, rejected the offer, saying it’s too late.
“The time for that national emergency [declaration] was probably a week ago,” Palaszczuk told reporters on Thursday.
“So we’ve actually gone past that. The flood waters have gone down, they’ve subsided.”
The federal government is also facing a backlash over its decision to extend by two weeks a $1,000 Australian government disaster recovery payment for people in the Lismore, Richmond and Clarence Valley local government areas, but not nearby Byron, Ballina and Tweed local government areas.
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has denied the decision was because Byron, Ballina and Tweed LGAs are not represented by a Coalition member.
‘It’s really insulting’: NSW flood victims excluded from extra disaster payments lash out at Coalition
The LGAs where residents will be given extra payments are in the electorate of Page, which is held by the Nationals, while Ballina, Byron and Tweed are in the neighbouring Labor seat of Richmond.
The federal Labor MP for Richmond, Justine Elliot, said she was “disgusted” that residents left homeless by flooding in her electorate had not been given the same $2,000 payments as those in neighbouring towns.
“People up here desperately need it,” she said.
Morrison said the three listed LGAs chosen were “the highest impacted areas” and “facing catastrophic conditions”, saying the National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Emergency Management Australia had assessed them as needing additional support.
But Elliot was angry her area wasn’t included.
“It’s astounding ... it’s just more rolling incompetence,” she told Guardian Australia.
“The rest of the package goes nowhere near what we need.”
She said the town of Mullumbimby, in the Byron LGA, had been devastated by flooding and deserved more support. Elliot also said Ballina, Murwillumbah and Chinderah had been hit hard, leaving “thousands” of people homeless – including many who had been living in caravan parks.
“We have emergency housing needs, thousands of people have nowhere to live. The level of incompetence is overwhelming. Where will these people live in the short and long term?” she asked.
Chris Cherry, mayor of Tweed council, also hoped the payments would be extended to her community.
“When you are standing there in this sludge and smelling the smells and feeling the devastation, it’s hard to see an announcement like this, and I certainly don’t accept it,” Cherry told the ABC.
In Lismore, it’s getting harder to tolerate climate inaction – and Morrison’s cowardly silence spoke volumes
“I’m sure that the prime minister’s office will realise that the devastation here, the catastrophe that we have endured is very much on the same scale as those other shires and I’m sure we will qualify for those other payments.
“I am hopeful and sure that no-one can look at the devastation we have endured here and think that we would not qualify.”
Speaking in Brisbane on Thursday morning, Morrison flagged extending the extra payments to more LGAs.
“Down in the Northern Rivers, where the flood is not just a flood event, this is a natural disaster … in those three local government areas in particular, and we’re looking at other impacted areas in those districts to see how we might extend some of that support,” the PM said.
“I spoke to the mayor of Ballina yesterday, last night, about those issues and just like in any natural disaster, like we have seen here in Queensland, you define a couple of LGAs early on, the most impacted, and as the damage assessments come in, you will add others to that list when you go through the proper process.”
Guardian Australia has contacted the National Recovery and Resilience Agency, and Emergency Management Australia, for comment on how LGAs were assessed as needing extra support.
Joyce bristled at questions on the ABC’s 7.30 program about whether the extra payments were allocated based on the seat they were in.
“We make sure we look after all Australians in an equivalent form. Obviously Lismore, from media reports alone, has been an epicentre, not just for the area, but for the nation,” the deputy PM said.
“I completely disagree that areas are not covered because they’re in a Labor seat … just the suggestion that we would do something like that is, to be quite frank, it’s offensive because it’s so wrong.”
On Wednesday, Morrison had stressed that the disaster payments “are not intended to solve every single economic need that people have” and were aimed at “the most immediate of needs”.
“A night’s accommodation here or travel to an area where they can get where they can find accommodation. The accommodation requirements here are going to be significant,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the package of supports and measures that will come from the state government … and we will be financially supporting those initiatives that are put in place.”
www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/10/government-considering-extending-extra-payments-to-flood-victims-in-northern-nsw-after-backlash
