As rising floodwaters in northern Tasmania threaten lives and property, police urged residents to be careful.
Floodgates on the Charles Street Bridge in Launceston were closed overnight to protect the suburb of Invermay, where thousands of residents were urged to evacuate.
Tasmania's Premier Will Hodgman has described the floods as catastrophic.
"Well it's certainly disastrous circumstances, they're catastrophic. This is an extreme weather event, the worst flooding we've experienced in this state for 40 years and it's likely to get worse, it's likely to cause further damage."
The Prime Minister and Opposition leader postponed electioneering on Tuesday afternoon as they toured flood affected areas in New South Wales.
Both called on insurance companies to be fair to businesses and homeowners.
Visiting the town of Picton, south west of Sydney, Malcolm Turnbull urged insurers to support storm-hit communities.
"I'm sure the insurers will support these communities, this is very substantial storm damage."
On Sydney's eastern beaches Opposition leader Bill Shorten also warned insurers to deal with claims promptly.
"Make sure that you treat your customers fairly. Make sure you deal with their claims in a speedy fashion. For people who have suffered significant damage, the last thing they need is to be damaged again by a long argument with an insurance company."
Karl Sullivan, from the Insurance Council of Australia says damage from the east coast low weather system over the past five days has caused significant property damage in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.
"This damage, so far, has resulted in 14,500 claims being lodged for an approximate value of $56 million. And that will grow as people return to their homes, assess the damage, and start lodging claims themselves."
But as residents on Sydney's northern beaches met with local council officials some were angry that a common clause in policies which excludes ocean damage could affect their claims.
But Mark Ferguson, Northern Beaches Council General Manager, says the council does not accept liability.
Instead, it blames local opposition and a lack of funding for failing to build a sea wall earlier.
"The Council doesn't accept any liability for any of the damage that's been sustained. It was a natural event. It's been quite a significant natural event. "
Greens leader Richard Di Natale says there's a scientific consensus of the link between climate change and events such as this week's heavy storms.
Speaking to the ABC from Hobart, he says he, too, cancelled election campaign events because of the storms.
"All the science that is I think part of the broader consensus is making it very clear that when you have the events that we have seen. For example the major increase in water temperatures, most of that being felt here off the east coast of Tasmania, that is a contributing factor to these storms. Over and above all of that, we need to do what we can to prevent or mitigate against dangerous global warming."
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