The federal government has announced residents in 35 flood-affected areas across Queensland and NSW can start applying for Commonwealth financial support.

Senator Linda Reynolds, the Minister for Government Services, said there are two payments available.

“The quickest way to get help, if you’ve got access to the internet, go onto mygov and you can make a claim there pretty easily,” she told Scott Emerson.

“If you don’t have access to the internet but you do have access to a phone, you can ring Services Australia and claim on the phone.”

She said Services Australia staff will also be placed at evacuation centres, to help deal with those in crisis.

There’s a disaster recovery payment of $1000 available, to help people buy emergency goods.

The other payment is the disaster recovery allowance, for those eligible who have lost income, up to 13 weeks.

Senator Reynolds said people shouldn’t worry if they don’t have ID or paperwork to claim.

145,000 claims have already been lodged.

Press PLAY below to hear more about the payments

But Shadow Minister for Education and Women, Tanya Plibersek, raised some questions on 4BC Drive.

“I am a little bit disappointed that there seems to be a mis-match of people on the ground,” she said.

“We’ve heard at the beginning from Linda Reynolds that everybody was going to do it all on the internet, and now we we’ve got Services Australia centres at various locations.

“We’ve got three in Longman, which is an electorate held by the government, and none in Griffith, Moreton, Oxley and Rankin, all Labor electorates.

“I would really hate to think the government is making political decisions about this.”

At Yeronga this morning, she said people were told they could go more than 20 kilometres away to a Services Australia centre, if they needed face-to-face help.

Press PLAY below to hear more about her experience in flood-hit SEQ

Image: Laura Anderson, 4BC reporter