Australia a 'harder country to live in' because of natural disasters: Scott Morrison

But Mr Morrison has pushed back at suggestions his government could do more to tackle the driving force behind extreme weather events, arguing Australian action alone won't change the climate in the regions battered by the flooding crisis.

Mr Morrison made the comments as he toured the flood-ravaged northern NSW town of Lismore on Wednesday, in his first public event since emerging from a week of COVID-induced isolation.

The Prime Minister will later this week ask Governor-General David Hurley to declare the flooding crisis a national emergency, handing the government special powers to cut through red tape to support victims and communities.

It would mark the first time a national emergency has been declared for a natural disaster since laws recommended by the Black Summer fire royal commission passed federal parliament in December 2020.

The federal government has also committed another relief package for flood victims, which includes two further disaster payments for residents in three council areas facing "catastrophic conditions".

Mr Morrison described the extreme weather event which struck the northern rivers as more than just a flood, saying: "it overwhelmed everything, and it did it at an alarming and disturbing pace".

The response of state and federal authorities to the crisis has been heavily criticised, with residents describing feeling abandoned as flood waters swamped their town.

An estimated 2650 ADF personnel are on the ground in northern NSW as the massive cleanup continues - but critics say more help should have arrived earlier.

Mr Morrison said no amount of support would be enough because of the "sheer desperation" of people caught up in the crisis. He suggested it wasn't realistic to expect ADF personnel to be "waiting around the corner" during every natural disaster, declaring "everyone has a role to play" when a crisis strikes.

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"The suggestion that it is only the governments that are involved in an emergency response, I don't think the community agrees with that," he told reporters inside Lismore Council chambers.

Just as flood waters peaked last week in Lismore, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a new report warning Australia could expect similar extreme weather events to occur more often without urgent action to limit global warming.

Protestors gathered outside the Lismore Council building on Wednesday, holding placards demanding stronger climate action from the Morrison government.

Mr Morrison said it was an "obvious fact" that the climate had changed, before adding that Australia was "getting harder to live in because of these disasters".

He pointed to the $10 billion reinsurance pool to cover homes and businesses from cyclone and flood damage in northern Australia as an example of how the government was responding to the "practical consequences" of climate change.

But the Prime Minister pushed back when asked if he was concerned that Australians, living through disasters, could become increasingly angry at the government's reluctance to wean the country off fossil fuels.

After repeating the government's record on emissions reduction compared to other countries, Mr Morrison argued that Australia alone couldn't fix climate change.

What Australia could and was doing, he said, was partner with countries such as India and Indonesia to develop technology which would allow them to cut emissions.

"What's not going to fix it [climate change] is just doing something in Australia and then in other developing countries, their emissions continue to rise. That won't change the climate here in the northern rivers."

The latest package of support includes $25 million for emergency relief and $10 million in mental health support for school-aged children in the northern rivers region.