PM Scott Morrison has toured Lismore, the regional city that was hit by catastrophic flooding last week, and declared a national emergency in northern NSW and into Queensland. That gives the Federal Government the ability to deploy money and resources like Defence personnel faster. He also announced an aid package totalling $91 million for emergency accommodation and food relief, business and legal support, and mental health programs. Residents of the worst affected parts of the Richmond Valley, Lismore and Clarence Valley local government areas will also be able to access disaster support payments of $2,000 for adults and $800 for kids. All in all, Morrison says “Australia is becoming a harder country to live in due to these natural disasters.”

HOW DID THAT GO DOWN?

Look, it was a tense trip… Morrison met privately with locals, but he was accused of hyper stage management in an attempt to avoid a repeat of past totes awks moments. But to the nub of local’s concerns, and Morrison said he got that some locals felt abandoned, but he said that’s a common reaction. “This happens in every national disaster. I feel deeply and empathise absolutely with how people feel when they find themselves in this situation,” he said. And the flood’s severity (it was 2m over the previous record) and damage to 3,000 of the city’s 19,000 homes was a nasty surprise, he added. Morrison also wouldn’t allow criticism of the Defence Force’s response saying it was “unrealistic” to expect they could help out in disaster zones immediately when they occur. Labor’s disaster spokesman Murray Watt responded: “No one is blaming the ADF, Mr Prime Minister. Lismore locals are blaming you.” So, yeah, things are tense…

AND WHAT’S THE LATEST WITH THE FLOODS?

Things remain serious in parts of NSW and yesterday police found the body of 50yo delivery driver Xianbin Liu who’d been missing in Sydney’s west. The torrential rain has now stopped but gosh did it bucket down… Sydney’s rain gauge is already sitting at 70% of the average annual rainfall, and we’re not 25% through the year. Of particular concern now are the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers which are sitting at flood levels equal or greater to last March’s big floods. And Queensland’s not out of the woods yet with severe thunderstorms hitting the state’s sodden southeast late yesterday, with the heaviest falls of about 100mm recorded near Cairns in the far north.