The Prime Minister has made additional funding available to support people in communities on the New South Wales Mid North Coast as many tackle the mammoth clean-up.
00:00The Prime Minister is in Tari today, one of the worst affected areas on NSW's mid-north coast.
00:10He's announced an expansion of the supports available to those who've been affected by this flood emergency.
00:17It includes disaster recovery payments that will be available in nine local government areas.
00:23Those payments are $1,000 per eligible adult and $400 per eligible child.
00:31These grants will be for those people who have suffered property damage.
00:36There's also been an expansion of income support too.
00:40Yesterday, 13 weeks of income support was only available in four local government areas, but that has now been expanded as well.
00:49This is all on top of personal hardship grants too.
00:53And there's also a $1 million pool available to councils who are responding to this event.
00:59The Prime Minister has also been visiting dairy farmers in and about Tari today.
01:05Some of them have been hit by two floods within four years.
01:10Certainly the government understands that this isn't something that will go away in a matter of days or weeks or even months.
01:17This will take some time, the recovery.
01:20But Australians are resilient.
01:21They're tough.
01:22And we will come through this and we'll come through it together.
01:26I want to say that we are activating the Australian government disaster recovery payment in nine local government areas.
01:36This payment helps people who have suffered the most serious impacts including major damage to their home or serious injury or loss of a loved one as a result of severe weather.
01:48Also on the ground in Tari today are 70 Australian Defence Force personnel.
01:54Their task will be to help remove debris but also to perform welfare checks on people.
02:01As the reality of this situation becomes more clear, Tari also is now home to a disaster recovery centre where residents can get support to navigate their insurance claims but also for mental health.
02:16The Insurance Council of Australia says there's already been 4,900 insurance claims lodged so far in relation to this event.
02:26As far as rapid damage assessments go, there are 10,000 properties believed to be flood affected.
02:32500 of those that have been assessed so far have been deemed uninhabitable.
