Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says government funding for the 'horrific' Hunter floods will begin flowing next week.
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The Hunter and Mid North Coast have been declared natural disaster zones by the state and federal governments, which will unlock a range of rapid relief for those affected from 2pm on Monday.
"These are horrific circumstances," Mr Albanese told Triple M Newcastle.
"The Disaster Recovery Allowance will be available from Monday afternoon, so people can log on to the MyGov site to access that.
"What that does is provide for 13 weeks of pay for employees, for sole traders, people who are self-employed and can't therefore undertake their work."
Mr Albanese drove through the Hunter this morning, catching a helicopter from Cessnock with Premier Chris Minns, to visit flood-ravaged Taree.
The flood death toll has now hit four and the Prime Minister begged people to stop driving through flood waters.
"It is just heartbreaking what has occurred... please do not drive through floodwaters - if it's flooded, forget it," he said
Mr Albanese said was hesitant to point the finger solely at climate change for the unusual weather pattern that dumped between 600mm and 700mm on the region, but acknowledged it may have played a role.
"Now, every weather event can't be traced down specifically to climate change because there's always been extreme weather events in Australia," he told ABC Newcastle.
"But what you can say is that the science told us they'd be more frequent and more intense and that's precisely what is happening, which is why my government is taking it so seriously."
The Prime Minister also said the government was conscious of the rising cost of insurance due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events, and was working to with Insurance Council Australia.
"We're continuing to make sure that we do what we can to make sure that insurance claims are dealt with in an expeditious way," he said.
"It's not easy to just solve all of the issues of rising insurance costs because the costs relate to the number of claims that are made."
Jamieson Murphy
Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@newcastleherald.com.au
