Energy Minister Angus Taylor has been pressed on why it’s taken the government so long to declare the floods as a national emergency.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison – who will visit flood-affected areas – is set to declare a national emergency.
“We are working our way through this. Of course, what’s happened is it has extended geographically in the last couple of days,” Mr Taylor told Sky News Australia.
“We are seeing now serious flooding down in my part of the world.
“So, it’s extended from being a much more localised event up in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales to being a much broader event.”