Anthony Albanese Announces $1000 Disaster Recovery Payment To Flood Victims From Tomorrow

Soon after returning from his NATO trip, and before visiting flood-affected regions, the Prime Minister announced this morning that stricken families will be able to access to relief payments from Thursday.

“I can say the Australian government has made a decision already that the disaster recovery payment will be available from tomorrow. That will be $1,000 for every eligible adult who has been impacted here. $400 for every child will be available across the 23 local government areas that have been impacted so far,” he told ABC TV.

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The announcement is addition to the initial assistance flagged by the federal and New South Wales governments a couple of days ago.

Disaster assistance was announced on Monday for flood effected residents across 23 local government areas (LGAs) following severe storms and flooding from 27 June 2022, which continue to impact large areas of Sydney and the New South Wales coast.

The LGAs are Blacktown, Blue Mountains, Camden, Canterbury Bankstown, Campbelltown, Central Coast, Cessnock, Fairfield, Georges River, Hawkesbury, Hornsby, Kiama, Lithgow, Liverpool, Northern Beaches, Penrith, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Sutherland, The Hills, Wingecarribee, Wollondilly and Wollongong.

Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Albanese said working alongside state governments was paramount, particularly at a point when “People have conflict fatigue.”

“They don’t want to see governments arguing. They don’t want to see governments acting with the sort of childish comments we’ve seen, with some of new federal counterparts in the last day, criticising me for not making a phone call while I was in the Ukraine, on radio silence, without any radio equipment, where I travelled from Saturday.

"Premier Perrottet has been extremely responsible with the way he has acted," Albanese said. "I’m very pleased that my government...have worked closely in partnership. That’s what people want. People want governments to work together in the interests of the population, not to engage in politics.

The prime minister confirmed that every adult resident across the 23 local government areas, which were declared natural disaster zones on Monday, will be eligible for the payment.

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