ScoMo doubles down on Qld call
SCOTT Morrison says Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk should have written to him a week ago if she wanted him to pursue a state of emergency declaration earlier.
The Prime Minister’s office on Friday evening confirmed Mr Morrison would approach the Governor-general to sign off on an emergency declaration of the flooding crisis to NSW.
The Morrison government decided not to seek the same for Queensland after national cabinet met earlier that afternoon.
A spokesman for Ms Palaszczuk said it was a decision for the commonwealth government.
The widespread floods that have devastated parts of both states began in southeast Queensland in midFebruary and then inundated northern NSW the following week.
On Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk rejected Mr Morrison’s move to include her state in the declaration, arguing it was needed “probably a week” earlier.
“We’ve actually gone past that. The floodwaters have gone down, they’ve subsided, and … those (state) disaster declarations will be lifted on Sunday,” she said.
Mr Morrison said Ms Palaszczuk had “every opportunity” to call for an emergency declaration and additional support a week ago but she had chosen not to do that.
Asked about the matter on Saturday morning, Mr Morrison doubled down.
“Well, if they – if she thought it was necessary a week ago, she could have written to me, but she didn’t,” he told reporters.
He didn’t say why it had taken until Friday to pursue an emergency declaration for NSW.
Mr Morrison said the federal government had paid $631m in disaster and recovery allowance payments to 766,000 flood-affected people in the past two weeks, with $423m of claims made by NSW residents.