THIS week's Federal Budget fails to address urgent disaster recovery needs, including the housing crisis, says Richmond MP Justine Elliot.

"I'm very disappointed there's no targeted comprehensive funding for flood recovery,” she said.

"I think we needed a specific package that provided support for businesses, homelessness, local councils to rebuild our communities, and for our region, especially Murwillumbah and some of the smaller villages, such as Chinderah and Tumbulgum.”

The Labor member also took aim at the Coalition for its crackdown on welfare cheats who miss interviews or skip work for the dole and believes the measures could cause more problems than they solve.

"I think overall it's a bad move, but let me explain why,” she said.

"First of all, we have a government that's really slashed funding for training, TAFE funding and apprentice training.

"We have very high unemployment in our region, so it's really hard to find a job and we have a government that's cutting training options.

"Now while obviously the objective is to move people from welfare to work - and I acknowledge that - if you're going to create systems like this what you're going to end up doing is pushing people into poverty.

"I'm sure everyone's opposed to people taking drugs, but at the end of the day what you're going to do is push people into poverty.”