The federal government has agreed to extend disaster funding to flood-hit parts of the New South Wales north coast after state government MPs and local mayors lined up to blast the commonwealth over its initial decision to exclude some areas from the extra payments.
On Thursday the federal minister for emergency management, Bridget McKenzie, said the government would extend extra financial support to communities in Ballina, Byron and Tweed after the towns were initially excluded from the $2,000 payments.
McKenzie said that after assessment by the National Recovery and Resilience Agency, the government had agreed to supply the payments.
“As the full scale and impact to these areas in northern NSW is being realised, the Liberal and Nationals government is implementing this extra support as quickly as possible,” she said.
The two additional disaster payments of $1,000 per adult and $400 per child would be automatically paid to people who had already claimed the original funds and will be available from 22 March, she said.
The delay in extending the funding prompted an outpouring of criticism from Liberal and National MPs in NSW, with one upper house Liberal party MP, Catherine Cusack, announcing her intention to resign from politics altogether, telling Guardian Australia her decision was not a protest but “me not wanting to fight the machine any more”.
Scott Morrison last week announced extra financial support would be available for people in Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley local areas.
Those regions all sit in the federal seat of Page, held by the Nationals. But other local government areas including Ballina, Byron and Tweed – all located in the electorate of Richmond, held by Labor – were initially excluded from receiving the extra funds.
That prompted outrage from Liberal and National MPs in the NSW government.
Cusack, an outspoken upper house MP who represents the north coast, said she had informed the party’s state director of her intention to resign as soon as the party was able to hold a preselection for her position.
“I am so tired of it,” she said. “I don’t want to spend all day attacking and sounding bitter. I am not bitter – I just don’t fit into the new Liberal party culture and it drained all my energy trying.
“It’s an enormous relief to step away from it.”
While initial reports suggested Cusack would immediately quit, she told Guardian Australia she would wait until local branch members were able to vote for her replacement, both out of respect for her colleagues and to ensure “a constitutional preselection”.
“You may have noticed the Liberal Party finding it difficult to have a constitutional preselection even for federal seats,” she said.
The NSW Nationals MP for Tweed, Geoff Provest, told local ABC radio he had lost faith in Morrison, saying he was “disgusted with the prime minister”.
“I just think the federal government has really messed this up … I can put it no other way, they’ve lost the faith of the people,” he said.
“Whether in the caravan parks or one of the little villages, there’s a real venom out there directed at the prime minister that he doesn’t understand what’s occurring on the ground. This is like a remake of the bushfires some two years ago.”
He said the decision to exclude residents in his seat and neighbouring Ballina was “deplorable”.
“You just have to drive around the area to talk to the people to see they’ve lost everything,” he said.
“The federal government is disconnected with the good people of Australia and we’re paying the price for it here … I think they should hang their heads in shame.”
There were also reports on Wednesday of frustration inside the NSW government over the delay in federal sign-off for an additional $1.4bn in flood support because of the prime minister’s campaigning trip to Western Australia.
Morrison said the NSW flood package request was going through the “normal process” after the request had come to the federal government, and had been assessed by the national security committee of cabinet on Wednesday.
Morrison said more than $1bn had already been paid to people in flood-affected areas of NSW and Queensland to more than a million people.
On Thursday, the NSW treasurer, Matt Kean,
the “existing framework” for disaster relief needed to be worked around.
“This is unique, this event, [because] some of the people that have been hit do not meet the existing criteria in place, which is why we need to tailor additional financial support packages to help those people that have been left out,” he said.
