Flood-hit communities in Queensland and northern NSW will receive further support from the defence force, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced.
On Tuesday, Mr Morrison said 35 local government areas have been activated for disaster support, and some 80,000 disaster payment claims had already been made.
He said Services Australia teams would be available in evacuation centres to help people submit claims.
The ADF has sent 600 personnel to assist with rescue operations and the prime minister said more were being mobilised, with heavy rain expected for the NSW south coast, East Gippsland in Victoria, and northern Tasmania.
"I want to assure people ... at the same time as we're preparing the response (to the floods), we are already preparing - together with the state and local governments - the recovery and clean-up operation," Mr Morrison said in Canberra on Tuesday.
"Assets have been pre-positioned and planning is underway."
The prime minister said any further requests for federal assistance from the NSW and Queensland governments would be provided "immediately".
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says it is "beyond comprehension" a $4 billion emergency response fund set up by the government has not been spent on preparing for disasters.
"(The government) set up a fund a few years ago. We supported that happening. It got $800 million of interest, it's now bigger than it was at the beginning," he told Brisbane radio B105 on Tuesday.
"We need to make sure that we prepare for disasters in advance and spend the money that's been allocated."
Labor has committed to establishing a disaster-ready fund and would spend $200 million a year on natural disaster prevention and readiness if elected.
Emergency Management Minister Bridget McKenzie says the government's funding is operating as intended, with $50 million annually going towards flood mitigation projects.
"The emergency response fund was set up as a future fund to be used when all other sources of funding have been exhausted ... it's there for the future for communities - long after I'm the minister - to be able to exercise and use," she told ABC television.
"We're focused on getting people safe, making sure that they're alive and have that immediate support, and then we have the long road to recovery."
But Mr Albanese said the emergency funding legislation included $50 million for disaster preparedness projects.
"None of that money has been spent," he told reporters in Melbourne.
"The government is treating it like a bank account, a term deposit, not like it's a fund to be spent on disaster mitigation."
