Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged holidaying Australians to put far north Queensland back on their list, as the region continues to clean up after devastating floods.

Visiting FNQ with Queensland Premier Steven Miles on Friday, Albanese said the tourist hub faced a difficult period as it recovered from the effects of Cyclone Jasper.

“Cairns and Tropical North Queensland is open for business. We want to make sure that those of us who live in the southern part of Australia continue to come here,” he said.

“We need to make sure that, as the floodwaters recede, the visits to
this beautiful part of Australia don’t recede with them. We want people to come here in increasing numbers, not reduced numbers, in order to provide support as this community recovers.”

He also announced further financial assistance for those hit by the cyclone and its aftermath. The federal government will provide $5 million for tourism operators, $25 million for primary producers and another $25 million for small businesses and non-profit organisations.

There is also $1 million for each of the nine affected local government areas to help with their additional costs.

“We know there are challenges ahead, but I’m very confident that we can overcome them working together, each level of government, along with businesses, along with the local community here,” Albanese said.

Friday’s cash handout was on top of immediate disaster relief payments for households and businesses announced earlier this week.

Miles said repairing battered infrastructure and an economic recovery would be the focus of many efforts.

“We will continue to look to what the region needs throughout this recovery and make sure that we’re delivering it,” he said.

Earlier, the federal government promised that those priced out of insurance or underinsured will not be forgotten as the flood clean-up continues.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government was considering options to help people who did not have insurance or were underinsured.

“We’re working through what we can do to assist those people as well to ensure that nobody’s left behind as we make the big clean-up effort,” he told ABC radio on Friday.

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Rates of non-insurance and underinsurance have been rising as coverage becomes more expensive, especially for those living in flood-prone areas.

Jones said it was important insurance was tuned to appropriately provide assistance and cover risk in a changing climate.

“What we’re experiencing in Australia is part of a global phenomenon with reinsurers and global insurers starting to factor in the impact of climate change,” he said.

He said disaster resilience was central to the government’s role in managing insurance affordability and accessibility, which includes building the right infrastructure, carefully locating suburbs, and appropriately designed homes.

Insurance Council of Australia chief operating officer Kylie Macfarlane said the only way to bring down insurance premiums in the long term was government investment in mitigation.

“To ensure that the right floodways are in place, that building standards are in place, that land use planning is being considered and we’re not building homes in harm’s way,” she told ABC radio on Friday.

She said owners should be incentivised to to upgrade their homes and make them more resilient to floods.

About 4600 claims have been made in a relation to tropical cyclone Jasper and subsequent flooding, most from home and contents policy holders.

Macfarlane said it was difficult to estimate a dollar figure on the event while it was still unfolding, but hoped to have an approximate figure by the end of next week.

More than a week after arriving as a cyclone, Jasper is still affecting the far north with Kowanyama in the remote Cape York now on high alert.

Major flooding is forecast to hit the community from Saturday. Vulnerable residents have already been evacuated to Cairns as a precaution.

-with AAP