RELIEF payments of hundreds of millions of dollars will flow to flood victims, Julia Gillard promised today.
Paying tribute to the way communities were coping with the deluge, the Prime Minister said the government would do all it could to help them recover.
"All in all, with commonwealth government assistance flowing, it will be in the order of many hundreds of millions of dollars," Ms Gillard said.
"This is very, very severe, affecting communities that are very geographically dispersed."
Grants of up to $25,000 for small business and more than $1000 for every adult with immediate needs have been made available as part of a flood relief package announced today.
Ms Gillard's comments came as Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced today in Rockhampton that she had called an emergency cabinet meeting to help deal with state's flood crisis.
"Given the scale and size of this disaster and the prospect that we'll see waters sitting for potentially a couple of weeks ... we will continue to have major issues to deal with throughout January," Ms Bligh said.
Rockhampton residents are bracing for the Fitzroy River to hit its expected peak of 9.4m in coming days.
The regional city is virtually cut off, and the military is being used to send in supplies as residents prepare to evacuate.
Ms Gillard hopes military assistance will help speed up the recovery process in flood-ravaged towns in Queensland.
A defence joint taskforce is organising food drops and evacuations and three army Black Hawk helicopters are being prepared to assist the relief effort in Rockhampton.
A C-130 Hercules aircraft will help move 50 tonnes of food in coming days to Rockhampton.
The Black Hawks would most likely be used to conduct food drops in outlying areas of Rockhampton, medical drops and evacuations if necessary.
The joint taskforce, consisting of 80 personnel, draws upon all three services but is comprised mainly of army personnel and includes engineers.
Australia has received offers of assistance from New Zealand as well as a call from the US Embassy asking what help it could provide.
During a visit to Emerald, Opposition leader Tony Abbott called on insurance companies to take a reasonable attitude when assessing claims from people affected by the floods.
Mr Abbott also wants the federal government and its welfare agency Centrelink to adopt a commonsense approach to claims for assistance.
"This really has been a disaster of epic proportions," he said.
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