The Informer: The murky politics beneath flood disaster payments

Domestically we might need to cross-check the MPs' list of commonsense policies includes not playing politics during a natural disaster.

Of course, if you can shamelessly include a variety of "rort affairs" on your CV - namely car parks and sports - then your perspective might be skewed differently.

Scott Morrison's federal government has been hammered for its decision to extend its $1000 Australian government disaster recovery payment for people in the Lismore, Richmond and Clarence Valley local government areas by another two weeks.

That in itself is not the issue but rather the decision not to apply the same provision to the nearby Byron, Ballina and Tweed local government areas. Except alas, those three areas do not have Coalition MPs.

Labor MP Justine Elliot, whose electorate of Richmond takes in the Ballina region isn't impressed: "Many people can't access housing or money and they need urgent assistance, and what we have seen since the flood hit is rolling incompetence from the state and federal governments."

Mr Morrison's largesse did extend beyond NSW's northern border but it was a case of "thanks, but no thanks".

The PM indicated he would declare a national emergency in NSW and Queensland on Friday, after consulting with the governor-general. But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state would not need the measure: "The time for that national emergency (declaration) was probably a week ago."

That's really neither here nor there as a national declaration would allow the Morrison government to access stockpiled resources and remove red tape.

On a more global level, included among the list of things you don't do is bomb hospitals.

A maternity ward and a children's ward have been destroyed in a Russian air strike on a hospital in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, officials there say.

With the attacks now entering week three, Russian authorities had earlier pledged to halt firing so at least some trapped civilians could escape the port city. But no. Instead both sides were left blaming the other for the evacuation's failure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a war crime. He posted vision apparently from inside the damaged hospital and officials said at least 17 people were injured, including staff and patients.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted: "Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets." No, of course.

But COVID-19 continues to evolve, petrol prices continue to soar and Warnie's on his way home. Our world keeps spinning.

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