Continuing floods in Queensland and New South Wales are on track to become Aussie’s worst natural disaster.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia ‘is becoming a more difficult to habitate nation because of natural disasters such as disastrous flooding that devastated communities in northern NSW and southeast Queensland’.

The declared emergency – introduced after the devastating bushfires that devastated Australia in 2019 – will help cut red tape and speed assistance while criticising a slow response to the floods that have killed at least 21 people.

Frustrated residents, missing access to electricity and the internet for several days, blamed the authorities for the slow pace and scale of the assistance effort.

Morrison, who is languishing behind in the polls ahead of the May national elections, kept the media away from his meetings with flood victims, who he thought should have safeguarded their privacy.

Television pictures showed people gathering outside a disaster response centre where Morrison was visiting and shouting out “the water is rising, no more compromising” and “fossil fuel floods”

Australia was one of the last wealthy nations to set a goal of zero emissions although it has been repeatedly hit by extreme weather events, causing disastrous fires, droughts and widespread flooding.

Talking to reporters, Morrison linked the devastation to climate change, which has caused previous bushfires, but the bigger challenge was to reduce emissions from other nations.


Scott Morrison

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Scott John Morrison is an Australian politician serving as the 30th and current prime minister of Australia. (wikipedia)


Queensland

Queensland is a state situated in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous Australian state. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia, (wikipedia)