Residents in flood-affected areas of northern NSW will be able to receive more financial support, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison intends to declare the disaster as a national emergency.
Two extra weekly payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child will be made to residents in the catastrophe zones of Lismore, Richmond Valley and Clarence Valley local councils.
The payments for affected residents will be made in successive weeks later this month.
Mr Morrison announced the payments during a visit to Lismore on Wednesday, where he was met with protesters criticising the government's response time to dealing with the floods.
"The sheer scale and impact to these areas in northern NSW highlights the need for extra support right now," Mr Morrison said in a statement.
"While people in northern NSW aren't able to work, are still clearing out their homes and businesses, the extra two lots of $1000 payments we're rolling out to eligible families and individuals will give them some certainty as they start to rebuild their lives."
A further $25 million will be spent on emergency relief and food relief, as well as financial counselling services.
Almost $7 million in support payments will be made to early childhood centres affected by the floods where they were closed for more than one week.
Mental health support for school children in the region will also be bolstered with a $10 million support package.
It comes as Mr Morrison said he intended to recommend to Governor-General David Hurley to declare the floods in NSW and Queensland as a national emergency.
The declaration will allow for red tape to be cut between government agencies and allow for supplies and support to be deployed to affected areas faster.
"The feedback we've had from communities, state governments and my own ministers who have visited the impacted areas has helped us identify where the gaps are right now," Mr Morrison said.
The declaration was one of the recommendations made for how governments can respond to natural disasters, following the Black Summer bushfires.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce earlier warned Mr Morrison would not receive a warm welcome from locals during his visit.
"People are incredibly vulnerable, and it's understandable that they want to express that and the pain that they're going through," Mr Joyce told Sky News.
"I would be incredibly surprised if people got a happy reception, because they're not in a happy place, and they want to be heard."
Mr Morrison visited a farm affected by the floods, where he met with Paul Weir who had around 150 cows swept away in floodwaters.
He told AAP the politicians were "compassionate" and listened to his concerns around insurance.
"I need surety that in the rebuilding process that I can ...get flood insurance and can afford flood insurance and if we can't get that we won't rebuild, and I made that very clear."
Residents in Lismore and surrounding areas have criticised the government's handling of the crisis, calling the response too slow to help deal with the clean-up efforts.
There are 1800 ADF personnel on the ground in northern NSW assisting flood recovery efforts, with that number set to grow to 2500 by the end of the day.
Brigadier Robert Lording, who is in Lismore, told Sydney radio station 2GB that figure would increase to 4000 by week's end.
"The scale of this incident has been far bigger than anything we've potentially experienced in this area before," he said.
"It's a large logistics effort to get people up here, and importantly, it's a big logistics effort for us to get the money here and to be able to support them."
As of Wednesday morning, more than $385 million in federal disaster payments have been made to more than 330,000 affected by the floods.
© AAP 2022