Disaster payments of up to $1000 a person will be available for those hit by the latest floods through NSW.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced disaster payments will be available from 2pm Thursday for 23 impacted government areas, as about 85,000 people across NSW are under evacuation orders or warnings.
The payments will be $1000 for adults and $400 for each eligible child. Disaster Recovery Allowance will also be made available to help employees and sole traders who lose income. It is payable for up to 13 weeks. Equivalent financial assistance will also be available for New Zealand citizens.
The payments will be available through Services Australia.
"This still remains a dangerous situation and we need to respond appropriately. I am very pleased that the commonwealth is cooperating so well with the New South Wales government," Mr Albanese said.
"It is a seamless relationship that we have, which is what people want to see at a time like this.
""This is, I believe, the quickest that these payments have ever been approved. This is on top of the joint arrangements that are being made available through New South Wales and the commonwealth."
One hundred and eight evacuation orders are in place and there are 56 evacuation warnings. To provide boots on the ground, the government also announced an additional 150 defence force personnel will be deployed on Thursday. A third helicopter will also operate out of the Hunter region.
The Prime Minister will tour areas devastated by floods with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Wednesday as authorities warn further parts of the state must brace for extreme weather.
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Bureau of Meteorology manager Jane Golding said the Mid North Coast would be the focus of flooding on Wednesday.
"The coastal trough that's been producing the widespread rain over New South Wales is now located off the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. And so that's very much where we're expecting the focus of the rainfall to be today.
"Over the last 24 hours, we have seen numerous sites from Coffs Harbour down through the Manning, into the Hunter district. So rainfall totals above 100mm. And some have seen close to 170mm, 180mm, particularly up on the northern part of the Mid North Coast. So that's an indication of some of the numbers that we could see fall over the Mid North Coast today. ... And those are very real flash flood risk, continuing for that district."
Mr Albanese said that the Labor government was looking at long-term solutions for disaster mitigation.
"My government has changed Australia's position on climate change from day one. For example, what we know is that Australia has always been subject to floods, bushfires, but we know that the science told us that if we continued to not take action, globally on climate change, then these events, extreme weather events, would be more often and more intense. And what we're seeing, unfortunately, is that play out.
"The people of the Hawkesbury-Richmond area have now had four flooding events in the last 18 months. Prior to that, they were impacting by bushfires."