Prime Minister backflips on QLD flood emergency

The Prime Minister has performed a major backflip after being met with resistance from the Queensland Premier over flood emergency declarations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not include Queensland in a State of Emergency declaration following a backlash from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

The Prime Minister’s office confirmed he would approach the Governor General on Friday evening to apply the emergency declaration to NSW.

Following Cabinet deliberations, the Government decided not to pursue the same for Queensland.

On Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk rejected the Prime Minister’s move to include her state in the declaration on Thursday morning, saying it was needed earlier.

“There’s been a bit of a misunderstanding about what the state of emergency declaration entails,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Queensland.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will not include Queensland in a State of Emergency declaration following a backlash from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Patrick Woods.

“It does not impact on the flow of funding support of defence force assistance or any of those things; that is all flowing.

“What it does is it assists the Commonwealth government in managing the regulatory issues in a more streamlined way, which particularly becomes more relevant as you move through the recovery phase.”

The Prime Minister said the federal government had deployed almost 6000 ADF personnel across Queensland and NSW to assist with the flood disaster recovery – four times the number deployed in the 2011 Brisbane floods.

Mr Morrison said the Queensland Premier had “every opportunity” to call for an emergency declaration and additional support a week ago but she chose not to do that.

A spokesperson for the Queensland Premier said it was a decision for the Commonwealth.

Originally published as Prime Minister backflips on QLD flood emergency