‘Urgent priority’: Annastacia Palaszczuk grills Scott Morrison over flood ‘equality’

The Queensland Premier has blasted the federal government over flood inequality, declaring the state’s disaster relief an ‘urgent priority’.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has slammed the Prime Minister over his response to the flood disaster recovery, labelling the relief an “urgent priority”.

The Premier bit back at Scott Morrison, who arrived in the state 10 days after the disaster, for not providing equal support to Queenslanders impacted by the floods in a press conference on Friday.

“You know, whether you live in Queensland or NSW, natural disasters impact on people the same.” she said.

“It would be nice if there was equality. People have lost everything … everything.”

The state vs federal roast follows the Prime Minister funding just three of the 20 flood mitigation measures he had proposed in November 2020.

Prime Minster Scott Morrison arrived in Queensland on Thursday after devastating floods destroyed thousands of homes and killed 13 Queenslanders over a week ago. Picture: Patrick Woods

Ms Palaszczuk criticised the government for not reaching deep enough into its $5 billion emergency response fund in a press conference on Thursday.

“Now there is a $5 billion fund there, sitting there from the federal government,” she said.

“The money needs to get out the door,”

“We have to rebuild from the ground up.”

In a press conference on Thursday, Mr Morrison said to ensure the fund lasts a long time, the Government can only spend $200 million on flood mitigation per year.

“I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding about what the state of emergency declaration entails,” he said.

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

Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended his actions and said NSW and Qld had only just been declared a natural disaster. Picture: Darren England – Pool/Getty Images

Mr Morrison made a “National Emergency Declaration” covering NSW and Queensland on Wednesday and splashed cash payments at victims in areas around Lismore.

Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles accused the PM of making the national emergency declaration in the name of good publicity.

“Our disaster was 10 days ago. We’re in the recovery stage now,” he said.

Mr Miles also said the PM was waiting to release cash payments just so he had something to announce in Lismore.