While visiting flood damaged areas, Prime Minister Scott Morrison explained that the National Recovery and Resilience Agency and Emergency Management Australia had included only the “highest impacted areas” which they believe require more financial support.
“We’ll work closely with the NSW and Queensland governments to deliver further funding,” he said.
“The commonwealth disaster payments are not intended to solve every single economic need that people have.”
The government also promised to complete individual assessments for people in LGA’s outside of the “highest impacted areas”.
Federal MP for Richmond, Justine Elliot wrote in a Tweet that the Prime Minister’s decision to exclude areas like Tweed, Richmond and Byron is and “outrage”.
The extra disaster recovery payments will be automatically paid weekly to those who have already received financial assistance.
Adults are set to receive a total of $3,000 each, while children will receive $1,200.
The payments will be made between March 15 and March 22.
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