A political fight has broken out between local councils, the NSW government and the Commonwealth over the allocation of federal disaster funding in flood-affected areas.
The mayor of a flood-devastated community on the Northern Rivers says the prime minister's office hasn't contacted her.
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry says she is reassuring herself the neglect from Prime Minister Scott Morrison is because he isn't aware of the scale of destruction.
"The only way I can get through this, basically, is to believe that the prime minister's office doesn't have our numbers yet and as soon as he is made aware of the devastation (and) the human toll that we've had (he will)," Ms Cherry told the ABC on Thursday.
"I'm just hoping that that message gets through very quickly."
It comes after NSW Liberal MLC Catherine Cusack, who is from the Northern Rivers, said she would quit the party over what she believed was a decision to allocate Commonwealth disaster payments on partisan lines.
Liberal MP Catherine Cusack, pictured here in October, 2021, says she will quit the party over its allocation of flood funding. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett
"The idea that being a flood victim in a National Party-held seat makes you more worthy than a flood victim who is in the Richmond electorate ... is probably the most unethical approach I have ever seen," Ms Cusack said.
"The whole Northern Rivers should have been given funding according to their need, not according to their LGA. It's unprecedented," she said.
Geoff Provest, the Nationals member for Tweed, also voiced his displeasure, saying he had lost faith in the prime minister's ability to lead.
NSW Treasurer Matt Kean also acknowledged concerns over the allocation of disaster funds, but said he didn't think they were being handed out on a partisan basis.
The NSW government has been working on an additional flood response package valued up to $1 billion, to be jointly funded with the federal governments.
The funding is targeted at people whose homes were damaged in the floods after assessors found some 95,000 homes in northern NSW were damaged or destroyed.
Mr Kean told the ABC discussions between the NSW and federal government to allocate further funding were ongoing after reports Mr Morrison's trip to Western Australia had delayed the funding announcement.
Opposition Leader Chris Minns has called for an upper house parliamentary inquiry into what happened during the Northern Rivers flood disaster to ensure a similar catastrophe is never repeated
"We want to find out what has gone poorly and make sure mistakes are corrected," he said.
SES infrastructure needed to be in place in local communities, and the government needed to ensure the emergency response teams were properly resourced, he said.
