What we learned – Saturday 9 April
And that’s that. We’re going to wrap the blog for this evening. Enjoy your Saturday night and we’ll be back with you first thing tomorrow.
Here were today’s major developments:
- Sydney airport continues to be chaos with Qantas forced to apologise to one family who missed a flight to Santiago;
- Opposition leader Anthony Albanese says there will be a royal commission into robodebt if a Labor government is elected;
- The New South Wales government released a $193m plan to save koalas from extinction which has received mixed reviews with some conservation groups saying it doesn’t address the key problem of habitat loss;
- A 25-year-old police officer in an unmarked car and a 23-year-old man has died in a three-car collision near the New South Wales-Victorian border, with a second officer in a critical condition;
- The election still hasn’t been called by the prime minister – but he did release a glossy YouTube video taking credit for having saved 40,000 lives during the pandemic.
Updated
And as Guardian Australia’s political editor Katharine Murphy points out, there are a few people absent from Scott Morrison’s video.
Two things about that vid. Get the atmospherics, but PM sounds pretty tired in that vid. Borderline hoarse. Also, is the opening sortie of the campaign pick a fight with the premiers? No sign of the national cabinet in that staging. Blue all the way #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) April 9, 2022
Updated
Scott Morrison takes credit for saving 40,000 lives from Covid in social media video
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says his government’s handling of the pandemic saved 40,000 lives in a slick new pre-election video making his pitch to Australian voters.
The opening sequence begins with a shot of Parliament House at night, before showing the prime minister at work through its windows.
“You always have setbacks. You always have imperfect information,” Morrison says.
“Things are tough. And they’ve been really tough. There’s fire. There’s flood. There’s pandemic. There is now war.”
Music in the background builds as Morrison explains how he is thinking positively in the face of global challenges, telling an unseen interviewer how his management of the pandemic saved lives.
“Forty thousand people are alive today because of the way we managed the pandemic, 700,000 people still have jobs and countless numbers of business that would have been destroyed,” Morrison says.
The video closes with the prime minister telling a story about a visit to a Brisbane trade school where half the year 11 and 12 cohort said they wanted to start a business.
“How good is that?” He says. “That’s why I love Australia.”
So far, 6,521 Australians have died during the pandemic.
Updated
Australia will provide a further $16m to support Tonga’s recovery following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami earlier this year, AAP reports.
Three people were killed in the January 15 tsunami, while dozens of homes were destroyed, drinking water was tainted, and the country’s main internet connection was severed.
Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne on Saturday said the $16 million would help rebuild critical Tongan infrastructure, including telecommunications and government services.
Australia will also provide 54,990 Pfizer vaccines in partnership with Tongan health authorities to support the country’s COVID-19 response.
Payne said Australia would continue to coordinate assistance with New Zealand, Japan, the UK, and United States.
“Our collective approach has strengthened cooperation on humanitarian and disaster response in the region,” she said in a statement.
Australia initially provided $3m in humanitarian support, as well as the Australian defence force personnel to assist with the clean-up.
Updated
⚠️⛈️ A Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been issued as severe storms are developing about the southern interior this afternoon. Locations affected may include Thargomindah, Cunnamulla, Quilpie, Hungerford, Barringun, Wyandra. ⚠️Latest Warnings at https://t.co/Ho3lfkXXo1 pic.twitter.com/ZxScpTbkj4
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) April 9, 2022
North East Forest Alliance has criticised the New South Wales government’s $193m koala plan for not addressing “the main drivers” of the animals decline.
“The Strategy proposes nothing to redress the logging of Koala habitat on public lands where at best five to ten small potential Koala feed trees per hectare need to be protected in core Koala habitat, with the only other requirement being to wait for a Koala to leave before cutting down its tree,” Pugh said.
“We know that Koalas preferentially choose larger individuals of a limited variety of tree species for feeding, and losses of these trees will reduce populations. So protecting and restoring feed and roost trees is a prerequisite for allowing populations to grow on public lands.
“The most important and extensive Koala habitat we know of in NSW is in the proposed Great Koala National Park, encompassing 175,000 hectares of State Forests south of Grafton and west of Coffs Harbour.
“Similarly on the Richmond River lowlands the most important and extensive area known is the proposed Sandy Creek Koala Park, encompassing 7,000 ha of State Forests south of Casino.
“These are public lands that we know are important Koala habitat that need to be protected from further degradation if we want to recover Koala populations. There are many other areas of important Koala habitat on State forests in need of identification and protection from logging.”
Qantas has apologised to a Melbourne family left stranded in Sydney, after domestic flight delays saw them miss an international trip, AAP reports.
Javiera Martinez, her partner Daniel Capurro and their three children aged 14, seven and eight were supposed to be flying to Chile on Friday to visit relatives they had not seen in three years.
But after their 8am Qantas flight from Melbourne was delayed by half an hour, baggage handling and airport transfer delays in Sydney meant they couldn’t make their 11.30am Latam Airlines flight to Santiago.
Martinez said the airline’s procedures at the airport were chaotic.
We think Qantas didn’t behave appropriately, I got berated by the person at the counter, they never apologised, they never assumed any responsibility at all.
It was a rude conversation, we have been mistreated badly I would say.
The PCR tests they need to travel have now expired and they will have to re-take them as they wait for seats on the next flight to Santiago departing Sunday.
The airline has apologised and paid for a night’s accommodation in Sydney.
Updated
Free three-year passes to the Perth Zoo are on offer to West Australian children who receive a Covid-19 vaccine these school holidays, AAP reports.
Each child aged between five and 11 who visits the zoo’s pop-up clinic between 11 April and 13 April will be eligible to receive a free pass.
Health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson says the zoo will be one of 11 vaccination sites open during the school holidays in an effort to boost immunisation rates.
Other locations include the May Drive Parkland playground in King’s Park, Bibra Lake and the Mundaring Sculpture Park.
Updated
WWF-Australia has given a tick of approval to the New South Wales government’s koala strategy that was released late on Friday.
Conservation scientist Dr Stuart Blanch said the government’s decision to make $193.3m in funding available over five years showed it was serious but that strong legal protections to prevent habitat were still necessary.
“WWF welcomes the koala strategy and its ambitious goal of doubling koala numbers in NSW by 2050,” Blanch said.
“The $193.3 million, 5-year investment demonstrates the level of funding that governments need to provide for koalas and other threatened species. It should be a standard bearer for similar strategies.
“The strategy addresses many of the key funding and on-ground needs for koalas in NSW. It is a great improvement over the first koala strategy, as it includes goals and actions that are explicit and ambitious, major funding for habitat restoration, and a commitment to national parks.”
Blanch said the strategy contained some “very welcome innovations”, such as rewilding koalas into restored box gum woodlands.
“These landscape-scale interventions are needed to give koalas the chance to thrive, not just survive,” Blanch said.
“With koalas now listed as an endangered species on Australia’s east coast, we hope the strategy will be followed by additional funding for major new incentives for landholders and farmers to protect koala habitat.
“We’d also like to see the government implementing its commitment to provide robust protections for koala habitat on rural lands and stronger legal protections for native vegetation that is high quality koala habitat. Doubling koala numbers won’t be possible without strong laws to protect koala habitat.”
Updated
Australia’s second biggest schools chaplaincy provider imposes a code that discriminates against staff based on relationship status and sexual conduct, a whistleblower has alleged.
Caragh Larsen, a former Schools Ministry Group chaplain at two Adelaide public primary schools, said the code banning “cohabitation” and “sexually intrusive” behaviour left unmarried and LGBTQ+ staff vulnerable.
Larsen’s job at one school was funded through the federal chaplaincy program, which gives $60m a year for chaplains connected to religious groups to provide pastoral care services in schools. The other position was funded by the South Australian government.
Proselytising in public schools is banned, but Larsen said SMG chaplains were encouraged to speak about their faith with students, when asked, and praised for directing them to church youth groups.
The SMG code states that “it is unacceptable for a pastoral care worker to initiate or become involved in relationships of a sexual or inappropriate nature with any person to whom they are not married”. That includes relationships which “involve cohabitation or any behaviour which is considered to be sexually intrusive by another person”.
Larsen, a qualified counsellor, told Guardian Australia the clause meant “we had to be married, or living on our own”.
Read the exclusive here:
Vaccine boosters for 12- to 15-year-olds a step closer
Covid-19 vaccine boosters are a step closer for 12- to 15-year-olds, reports AAP.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has granted provisional go-ahead for a Pfizer booster for the age group, although final approval by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) is still pending.
The medical regulator on Friday recommended that 12- to 15-year-olds receive a third shot six months after their first two regardless of which approved vaccine they had received as their primary course.
A spokesman for the TGA said its review of overseas vaccine data was rigorous when deciding whether to push ahead with the booster.
“Regulatory approval of the booster dose for this age group has also been granted in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States,” he said.
“The TGA continues to work very closely with international regulators to align regulatory approaches, share information and, where it speeds up evaluation, collaboratively review Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
“Australians can be confident that the TGA’s review process for this vaccine was rigorous and of the highest standard.”
Previously, only those 16 and over have been able to get their booster.
The final approval decision from Atagi is expected within days.
Updated
And here is a little more detail on the targets in the new NSW koala strategy we reported earlier in the blog.
Additional targets include declaring one new area of outstanding biodiversity value for koalas and 20 new assets of intergenerational significance, which are special designations that would trigger additional legal protections for the chosen sites.
The strategy says precise koala numbers in NSW are unknown, with estimates ranging from 15,000 to 30,000. For the plan, the NSW government has adopted what it says is a conservative population estimate of 20,000.
The strategy identifies 50 koala populations in the state and divides them into two groups, with 19 populations to receive urgent conservation investment through the five-year plan and 31 that will be the target of surveys and research to fill gaps in understanding about those populations.
In the first group, the government has identified 10 stronghold areas of NSW that will be the focus of “intensive intervention”. Those places include the north east of the state, the northern rivers, Coffs Harbour, Armidale, the southern highlands and south-west Sydney.
There is also a plan to work with Taronga Zoo to restore woodlands around the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range and translocate koalas to that restored habitat.
Of course, there are other overdue government policies that will be relevant to this strategy, including promised new codes for land management and private native forestry. And conservation groups will want to know how the government intends to address the massive increases land-clearing that have occurred since the state government relaxed native vegetation laws in 2017.
Updated
The northern rivers region of New South Wales has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country.
Lush, rolling hills in every gradient of green. There’s the ancient rainforests, mountain ranges, famous beaches. A subtropical climate. In the long golden afternoons, there is magic in those hills.
But on 28 February, everything changed. After six months of rain, the rivers overflowed and flooded.
Susan Chenery explores the possibility of land swaps, relocations and rebuilds in Lismore:
'It’s an absolute tragedy': police officer, 25, and driver, 23, killed in Victoria crash
AAP has more on the three-car crash last night near the Victoria-NSW border that killed a police officer and a motorist, and left a second officer fighting for his life in hospital.
A ute hit an unmarked police car head-on at Red Cliffs, near Mildura, about 10pm on Friday, and a third car hit the rear of the police vehicle.
Preliminary investigations showed the Nissan Navarra veered on to the wrong side of the road into the path of the police car.
A 25-year-old female senior constable who had been an officer for six years died at the scene.
A male leading senior constable, 43, an officer for 21 years, was critically injured and has been flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
The driver of the Nissan Navarra ute who was also killed was a 23-year-old man from nearby Cardross.
The third car’s driver and three child passengers were assessed and found to be uninjured.
“You become at a loss of words to describe this. It’s an absolute tragedy,” Victoria police chief commissioner Shane Patton told reporters on Saturday.
The officers had started a routine highway patrol shift at 6pm that night.
“I can say at this stage there is no indication of any attempt by the police vehicle to be intercepting anyone, no pursuit involved,” Patton said.
He said the crash would have a big impact in the police force and wider community, but would be especially hard for local police.
“Attending a fatal collision is a difficult thing for any police officer to do, but when you’re actually attending the scene of a colleague in a close-knit tight community that makes it especially difficult.”
Updated
NSW government announces koala conservation strategy
The Perrottet government has released a long-awaited koala strategy to try to turn around the decline of the much-loved animal in New South Wales.
This is the strategy that details how the $193.3m that the state’s former environment minister (now treasurer) Matt Kean announced for koalas in last year’s NSW budget will be spent.
The funding is a huge investment for a single species and has been divided into four buckets.
The government will spend $107.1m on habitat protection and restoration, $19.6m to fund community groups working on koala conservation, $23.2m to improve koala health and safety from vehicle strikes and $43.4m on science and research.
There’s a raft of new targets, including securing and protecting 22,000 hectares of koala habitat and restoring 25,000 hectares of habitat.
In 2020, a NSW parliamentary inquiry found koalas would be extinct by 2050 in NSW without urgent action to protect their habitat.
Kean announced a goal to double the state’s koala populations within 30 years.
The new NSW strategy covers the first five years of that 30-year period and replaces a previous strategy that expired in 2021.
Announcing the plan at Taronga Zoo in Sydney on Saturday morning, the new NSW environment minister James Griffin said it was the biggest financial investment by any Australian government to secure the future of koalas in the wild:
In fact, this is the largest investment in any single species in Australia, and demonstrates how committed we are to conservation and achieving our goal of doubling koala numbers by 2050.
Updated
Queensland records 8,687 Covid cases and two deaths
Two people have died from Covid-19 in Queensland in the latest reporting period, with the state reporting 8,687 new cases. There are 480 people with Covid in hospital and 16 people in ICU.
Today we have recorded 8,687 new COVID-19 cases.
— Queensland Health (@qldhealth) April 9, 2022
We have reported 2 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Full details ➡️ https://t.co/MyDwPPzP2F pic.twitter.com/g9lgBBMEAJ
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Albanese’s press conference has wrapped now with voters getting a look at how things will shape up when the election is called.
The opposition leader said he will be building his election platform around cost of living issues, including policies for cheaper childcare and a plan for aged care that includes the recommendations of the royal Commission.
He also said there would be policies around cleaner energy and a royal commission into the robodebt scandal.
Updated
Albanese now moving into criticism the government over its handling of migration policy during the pandemic.
This government at the beginning of the pandemic told people to leave and they did. And there are a range of industries that will need temporary workers. But, no ... You will need that but what we need to do as well is to have more pathways to permanency to give people more security.
Updated
Albanese says if elected there will be a robodebt royal commission
Albanese says that if elected there will be a royal commission into the Coalition’s robodebt scheme.
Think about one issue in which we will have a royal commission, the issue of robodebt.
This is a government on robodebt that had to pay compensation of over $1 billion.
Albanese rattles off a series of issues that touch on public accountability.
Updated
Albanese is picking up on allegations of pork barrelling by the Coalition:
The question for Scott Morrison is, what is his policy that he is taking to this election? Because I haven’t seen any. He handed out a budget where all the handouts end once people have cast their ballot papers.
He then spins into the Labor talking points for this election: cost of living, policies for the future on broadband, infrastructure, industry policy, women’s police, industrial relations, climate policy and more apprenticeships.
Australians know that Labor has a plan for the future and they know that this government is out of puff, is out of ideas, is out of time and it should be out of office.
A taste of things to come, perhaps?
Updated
Albanese may be talking tough but he is also working to set expectations, saying “we have a mountain to climb”.
The government goes into this election as favourite. Governments win, get re-elected, much more often than government changes hands in this country and Scott Morrison has a considerable advantage in going into this election.
Updated
Anthony Albanese says PM treating election like 'a game'
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking live now from Sydney where he is again challenging the prime minister to call the election. He says the election will be called today or tomorrow:
I can’t see how a prime minister who really doesn’t like scrutiny will allow the parliament to come back on Monday in the form of the House of Representatives, and that’s what will have to happen, so either the election will be called today or the election will be called tomorrow morning, is highly likely, because this prime minister – though I think it has been a bit of a game, frankly – the prime minister last year gave up on governing and said he was campaigning.
Updated
Voters will be kept in the dark on how Scott Morrison’s government selected three potential bases for Australia’s planned nuclear-powered submarines, after the advice was blocked from release.
With the prime minister preparing to formally call the election within days, Labor demanded the government reveal how it shortlisted the locations to prove the announcement was “not just a marketing ploy”.
Morrison named Brisbane, Newcastle and Wollongong’s Port Kembla as three contenders for a new eastern submarine base, and revealed Aukus-related infrastructure works would more than $10bn, in a keynote national security speech last month.
The government is expected to lock in one of these sites late next year, once further studies and negotiations are completed.
Guardian Australia applied to the Department of Defence under freedom of information laws seeking the site analysis. The request also covered any advice, briefings or submissions prepared for the defence minister, Peter Dutton, regarding the preferred locations.
The department confirmed this week that it had found one document that fitted this description, but decided to deny access to it on a number of grounds, including the cabinet exemption.
Read more:
In the space of an hour on Thursday night, two Queensland Liberal National stalwarts made announcements that shook the party from the right, and then the left.
First, George Christensen announced he had formally left the LNP – ending a political farce that has seen the retiring federal MP for Dawson slide deeper into far-rightwing anti-government conspiracy, all the while remaining a member of the government.
Soon after, the Bundaberg mayor, Jack Dempsey – a former state police and Indigenous affairs minister – announced he would run as an independent in Hinkler, a seat held by the resources minister, Keith Pitt.
Other than their former party affiliation, Christensen and Dempsey have little in common. But the announcements have some in the LNP worried about its ability to present a coherent federal election campaign message in a deeply complex state.
Queensland has always presented as an oddity to outsiders; for more than three decades, with only a few rare exceptions, the state has voted for the Coalition at federal elections, and for Labor to run its state government.
Read more:
Police officer and motorist killed in crash near Victoria-NSW border
A police officer and a motorist have been killed in a three-car crash near the Victoria-NSW border, AAP reports.
Police said an unmarked police car and a ute crashed head-on at Red Cliffs, near Mildura, about 10pm on Friday.
A female senior constable died at the scene and a male leading senior constable was flown to hospital in a critical condition.
The driver of the ute was killed, and two children who were passengers were taken to hospital.
The driver of a third car and a child passenger were also injured and assessed in hospital.
Major collision investigation unit detectives are on their way to the site.
Kulkyne Way is expected to be closed for some time and police have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
Updated
The Australian government knowingly relied on discredited evidence obtained under torture to keep a refugee in detention for a decade, despite being repeatedly told the detention was unjustified and the allegations untrue.
Sayed Abdellatif, falsely labelled a “convicted jihadist terrorist… held behind a pool fence” by then opposition leader Tony Abbott, has spent more than 10 years in immigration detention in Australia without ever being accused of or charged with a crime, because spy agency Asio had a “predetermined view” of him, called him a “liar”, and relied on evidence it knew to be discredited, a federal court judge has found.
In a 133-page judgment, justice Debra Mortimer found the ‘adverse security assessments’ made by Asio against Abellatif, and used to block his claim for asylum, were “legally unreasonable”, riddled with errors, and denied him procedural fairness. She said the security assessments should be set aside.
Mortimer also criticised some of Asio’s interrogation techniques as “unreasonable and unrealistic”, including conducting an eight-hour, 700-question interview during Ramadan when Abdellatif could not eat or drink.
The judgment could lead to Abdellatif’s release from detention after more than a decade. Overturning the security assessments clears a path for the immigration minister to grant Abdellatif a protection visa. His wife and six children already live in the Australian community.
Read the full story, by Sarah Malik and Ben Doherty, here:
NSW records 10 Covid deaths and 17,597 new cases
Ten people have died with Covid in New South Wales in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday.
There were 17,597 new Covid cases in the state.
COVID-19 update – Saturday 9 April 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 8, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 96.1% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.6% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/ScIkH1FeAQ
Updated
Victoria records seven Covid deaths and 9,610 new cases
Seven people have died with Covid in Victoria in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday.
There were 9,610 new Covid cases in the state.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 8, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/VoCFC5YuiZ
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Soaring metal prices mean it will cost more than the face value of the coins to make 5c, 10c and 20c pieces, according to new research.
Prices of the two key metals in Australia’s silver coins, nickel and copper, have skyrocketed this year due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the price of nickel spiking 250% on the London Metals Exchange last month to more than US$100,000 a tonne.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts copper prices, which also spiked last month, are set to rise again as stocks of the metal run out.
In research released this week, analysts at Morningstar said the metal in a five cent piece was now worth 6c, up from 4c six months ago.
Over the same period, the value of metal in a 10c piece has increased from 9c to 14c, while metal making up a 20 cent piece has jumped in value to 28c from 18c.
However, the 50c and higher denominations continue to have a higher face value than their metal content. There is 38c worth of metal in the dodecagonal coin today, against 25c six months ago, while the metal value of each of the $1 and $2 coin remains below 10c.
The higher metal prices will eat into the Royal Australian Mint’s profit from making coins, which is known as seigniorage.
Read more:
Updated
Severe rain may have eased in Sydney and much of New South Wales, however flood evacuation orders are still in place across the state.
State Emergency Services in New South Wales have received more than 280 calls requests for assistance, and performed nine flood rescues, in the 24 hours to 8am this morning.
There are 12 evacuation orders and 28 evacuation warnings in place.
Past 24hrs, NSW SES has received over 280 requests for assistance and 9 Flood Rescues across the state. Operational activity is likely to continue today based on forecast weather.
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) April 8, 2022
🔴 12 Evacuation Orders
🟡 28 Evacuation Warnings
✅ 36 Return Safely
👉https://t.co/BCnxAe6tsR pic.twitter.com/0DANhwEcaW
Elective surgeries in Victoria could soon be delayed
Victoria’s peak public hospital body has warned elective surgeries could be wound back if demand for emergency care spikes during a predicted surge in Covid cases in the coming weeks.
The state’s Department of Health confirmed to Guardian Australia that four health services across the state were already not meeting the minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.
The Victoria Healthcare Association predicts staff shortages will worsen over the coming weeks and months, as the state braces for the current wave of infections from the Omicron subvariant to peak later this month.
The VHA’s chief executive, Tom Symondson, said despite the easing of elective surgery bans almost two months ago, the state’s hospitals were now experiencing a “difficult time again” due to increasing numbers of Covid cases, backfilling of leave and furloughed staff.
“Staff shortages may worsen in coming weeks and months,” he said.
Symondson said if emergency care spiked, hospitals might have to “adjust” a range of services, including elective surgery procedures, to ensure the sector could “provide safe care for the people who need it most urgently”.
Read the exclusive here:
The Morrison government has appointed more than 30 former Coalition ministers, MPs, staffers and donors to taxpayer-funded jobs in the last six months alone.
Scott Morrison and senior ministers have defended the appointments, but Labor has argued it’s a case of history repeating after a large number of partisan appointments before the 2019 election and stacking of the administrative appeals tribunal with 85 people linked to the Coalition since 2013.
On Friday evening, the energy minister, Angus Taylor, reappointed his former energy adviser John Hirjee to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency board along with Anna Matysek, an economist and co-founder of BAEconomics, which has been critical of Labor’s climate policies.
Taylor also appointed Matt Howell, the outgoing chief executive of Tomago Aluminium, Australia’s biggest power consumer, to the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Although not a Liberal, Howell has vocally backed the government’s investment in the Kurri Kurri gas power plant.
Read more:
Updated
Good morning readers, and welcome to the weekend!
We’ll be on election watch today. Late on Friday, the high court cleared the decks for Scott Morrison to call the federal election by refusing to hear a last-ditch appeal against the prime minister’s contentious captain’s picks in key New South Wales seats.
However there have also been reports of Liberal MPs booking flights and accommodation in Canberra for the upcoming sitting week of the lower house, suggesting Morrison might not pull the trigger this weekend and that the parliamentary calendar will resume as scheduled. Anything is possible.
Hundreds of New South Wales residents remain under evacuation orders on the first day of school holidays, with forecasts warning it will take time for water to drain from saturated catchments.
Heavy falls eased across much of NSW on Friday, however flooding is likely to continue in parts of greater Sydney throughout the weekend. River rises were still being observed in the Hawkesbury-Nepean on Friday and 13 evacuation orders remained in place across 11 low-lying suburbs.
Some 1,200 people remain under evacuation order, and a further 1,500 had been given warnings they may still need to leave.
We will also have the latest Covid news after the TGA granted provisional approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered as a booster to 12 to 15-year-olds yesterday.
Don’t fret – we’ll bring you even the faintest sniff of election news, and all other news, right here on the blog today.
Off we go!
