In the midst of flooding, evacuations, and isolations up through the Hunter and the Mid North Coast region, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Maitland to tell people "you are not alone".
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"Our thoughts are with communities that are cut off at this point in time," Mr Albanese said.
"The federal government, state government, local government, and the whole people of NSW and the people of Australia are with you at this time," he said.
Along with NSW Premier Chris Minns and NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing, the Prime Minister stopped by Maitland after attempting to travel to the flood-affected Taree area earlier in the day. Dangerous weather conditions forced the PM to cancel the trip.
"Tragically, we are seeing more extreme weather events and they're occurring more frequently and they're more intense," Mr Albanese said.
"A shout out to the SES and the wonderful volunteers, these people are heroes, they are helping their neighbours, they're helping their community but they're also helping people from other parts of NSW," he said.
The Prime Minister urged people in flooded areas to follow the warnings and advice given from the SES and police and other emergency services.
"If it's flooded, forget it," he said.
In addition to the 16 local government areas that had been approved for disaster assistance, Mr Albanese said three extra local government areas were added to the list, one being Muswellbrook.
"Disaster recovery will commence as soon as possible," Mr Albanese said.
"At the worst of times we see the best of the Australian character and just a shout out to all those who are providing incredible support and assistance," he said.
"We know this is an incredibly tough time, and the heart of Australians goes out to those people who are going through this difficult period."
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he wanted to thank people for their resilience during a difficult period.
"We're very grateful for the incidents of heroism and courage that we have seen over the last three days," he said.
Mr Minns said personal hardship assistant grants of $180 per individual or $900 per family would be available as soon as possible.
Community recovery grants of $1 million will also be available to the affected councils soon.
Earlier today, Mr Albanese revealed government funding for the 'horrific' Hunter floods would begin flowing 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 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."
