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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Caitlin Cassidy and Natasha May

Flood warnings issued as east coast braces for heavy rain and storms – as it happened

Australia United States Victoria Queensland Flood CCP Greens Labor Solomon Islands China
pedestrians under an umbrella in central Sydney
Severe weather and flood warnings have been issued for parts of NSW, Victoria and Queensland, with daily rainfalls of 30mm forecast. Photograph: Richard Milnes/Rex/Shutterstock

What we learned – Wednesday 5 October

With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Stay safe and dry, we’ll be back first thing tomorrow.

Here are today’s major developments:

Updated

Flood waters isolate NSW communities

Residents in outback New South Wales are rainfall weary as dams overflow and wet weather continues, as a severe system brings a widespread risk of flooding, thunderstorms and hail, AAP reports.

Locals in the small cotton and wool town of Warren have been dealing with consistent rain since December, the owner of the Macquarie Caravan Park, Carolyn Monkley, said.

The park’s campground flooded on Wednesday. Flood waters also cut roadways into the town, stranding a team of hospital staff at the park.

It hasn’t been hammering with rain, but we have had such a lot of rain consistently, basically since Christmas, that it just doesn’t have a chance to dry out. Rainfall here is totally different to rainfall on the coast. A couple of inches out here makes it very very, very soggy.

The Macquarie River reached major flood levels at Warren on Wednesday, as nearby Burrendong Dam, which is above full capacity, continued to release flows into the river.

The deluge comes close to harvest season with farmers already facing a number of setbacks, as they prepare to work through a third consecutive La Niña season.

The chair of the NSW Farmers Business, Economics and Trade Committee, John Lowe, said the severe weather threatened to destroy remaining crops, and there was already extensive flood damage on rural properties and roads.

Communities in western and south-western parts of the state, including many already impacted by floods, are in the path of the current rain band, the assistant SES commissioner, Sean Kearns, said.

Louise Roberts, who works in the Dubbo visitors information centre, said a number of major highways were closed in central NSW, with drivers anxious about how to get through.

The centre itself, on the Macquarie River, was at risk of becoming isolated by rising waters and may close this week.

Updated

Flood watch issued for parts of Victoria

Updated

NSW community groups condemn decision to raise Warragamba Dam wall

The Hawkesbury Community Alliance, a coalition of five community groups from the Sydney region have “strongly condemned” the New South Wales government’s decision to raise the Warragamba Dam wall by 14 metres.

The alliance has lobbied since July for the full supply level of the dam to be lowered by 12 metres ahead of flooding events to mitigate the impacts on downstream communities.

Samantha Magnusson, an alliance spokesperson, said:

Today’s announcement is a stab in the back to the Hawkesbury community.

It is not about saving people, it is about packing more houses onto the most complex and dangerous flood plain in Australia. By declaring it a critical infrastructure project, the project will not have to go through the checks and balances we expect in a democracy. The NSW government has confirmed today that they have no interest in what the community needs or wants.

Magnusson said raising the wall would place thousands of people living on the flood plain “in harms way”.

Raising the dam wall by 14 metres creates the opportunity for further development on the flood plain. The dam wall raising is 10 years away, and the community cannot wait that long. Another flood will destroy families and businesses completely.

At a press conference this morning, the premier, Dominic Perrottet, said it was a “balancing act” to build more homes and develop across western Sydney, and “saving lives, protecting property is the most important thing we can do”.

The NSW flood inquiry released today stopped short of recommending raising the wall, listing the $2bn-plus project as just one option governments have to reduce flood risks in the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley.

Read more here:

Updated

Queensland police officer charged over use of excessive force

In Queensland, a male police officer has been charged and suspended from duty following allegations he used excessive force against a man being held in custody.

The incident, which occurred on 9 December last year, led to an investigation by the ethical standard command.

Following the investigation, the officer was suspended from duty and charged with one count of grievous bodily harm.

He appeared in the Southport magistrates court on 30 August where he is due to next appear on 15 November.

Updated

Flood watch issues for Tasmania

A flood watch has been issued for parts of Tasmania for a number of catchments in northern parts of the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology said:

A series of troughs and cold fronts are expected to cross the state during Thursday and Friday, bringing widespread rainfall to the northern half of Tasmania.

Catchments are wet across the flood watch area and rivers will respond quickly to the forecast rainfall.

Widespread two day rainfall totals of 30mm to 50 mm are forecast for Thursday and Friday with higher isolated totals possible about the Western Tiers and the north-east highlands and with thunderstorms.

Minor flooding may develop in the flood watch area from overnight Thursday and isolated areas of moderate flooding are possible from Friday.

Updated

Sydney could have record wet year

Sydney is on track to set a new record for its wettest ever year, with more than two months still to go, as the city braces for another 100mm of rain over the next few days.

The soggy city has recorded 2 metres of rain between 1 January and 4 October – just 65mm shy of the record set in 1950, when the annual total reached 2.2 metres.

Check out charts from Nick Evershed here:

Updated

Adam Bandt (and First Dog) on stage-three tax cuts

Bandt said pushing ahead with the legislation would “turbocharge inequality” in Australia.

It would cost $244bn over the decade. The top 1% get the same as the bottom 65% combined and it means politicians and billionaires and the wealthy get $9,000 a year every year, while everyone else continues to do it tough. They are bad and they should just go.

The reason that we are pushing so hard is that they are not yet in force. So, the simplest thing to do … would be to stop them coming in. Don’t give the tax cuts to the very wealthy … we can spend the money on dental and Medicare instead.

Here’s First Dog on the Moon’s take:

Updated

Adam Bandt says Lidia Thorpe has ‘different view’ of meeting with Geraldine Atkinson

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has been on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today pushing the party’s opposition of the state-three tax cuts.

We’ll get to that shortly, but first, he was asked about the outcome of today’s partyroom meeting – the first following a report about Senator Lidia Thorpe in Nine newspapers last week that alleged she verbally abused Indigenous elder aunty Geraldine Atkinson in a meeting last year.

Bandt said he had a discussion with Thorpe who had a “different view” about what occurred at the meeting.

But I did take the actions that were requested by Ms Atkinson about making sure that parliament remains a place where people can … come and talk to us and any parliamentarian and know that it will be respectful. I didn’t get back to her - to Geraldine Atkinson as I should have but I have acknowledged that in writing to her but in terms of the actions that Ms Atkinson was requesting that we took, they were taken and I feel very confident now that we are doing our part to make sure that parliament is a place where people can come and have respectful meetings.

Asked if it led to an internal investigation, Bandt said “Thorpe had a different view” but “people are entitled to meet in a respectful way”.

Since then of course there has been a further matter that has been raised with someone else who was in that meeting … I have asked … for that issue to be independently looked at by the department. We await outcome of that. There are different views about what happened in that meeting but I think we’re agreed that, in parliament, people are entitled to have respectful and safe meeting. That is something all of us agree on.

He reiterated Thorpe had his support and a review of the party’s processes had been done “well before” the present issues were raised.

Since becoming leader, what I have done is conducted a review of our party’s processes and this happened well before any of these issues were raised. That was to make sure that especially after all of the revelations we have seen over recent years about how people have behaved in parliament, I wanted it to be crystal clear that anyone who worked for the Greens or had an association with the Greens would be supported if they wanted to come forward and raise issues with us.

Updated

Haines promises anti-corruption commission will be ‘best it can be’

If you missed it earlier, Independent MP Helen Haines has been announced as deputy chair of the joint select committee on National Anti-Corruption Commission legislation, an important decision regarding her status outside the major parties.

Labor’s Linda White is chair.

Haines tweeted:

I have committed to working constructively with the government to ensure the anti-corruption commission model that is implemented is the best it can be, and I am glad to be able to continue that work in this role.

It is significant that a senior member of this committee comes from outside the major parties and it will contribute to the multi-partisanship that I hope will support the NACC.

Updated

Labor continues to support stage-three tax cuts, making Nationals happy

Labor senator Nita Green has followed Mulino on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and is up alongside Nationals MP Michael McCormack to discuss the stage-three tax cuts.

Asked if language from senior leadership including the treasurer had changed on the commitment to the cuts, Green said Labor’s support remained firm.

I don’t think the language has changed all that much. There are some commentators and obviously the opposition [who] want to make more of some of the language that is being used. But I think the treasurer has been really clear. Our position hasn’t changed.

And we are taking into consideration all of the economic factors when we are thinking about this budget. But our position on the stage three-tax cuts hasn’t changed and we are making sure we are delivering a budget that repairs a lot of the debt we have seen and is full of cost-of-living measures.

Queensland Labor senator Nita Green.
Queensland Labor senator Nita Green. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

McCormack echoed her sentiment with gusto. He said the cuts should go ahead because “why shouldn’t Australians have more of the money that they earn to spend on the sorts of things that they want to spend it on?”

After being pointed to the changes in the economy that have occurred since they were proposed, including rising inflation and cost of living, McCormack replied: “We have record iron ore prices.”

We have record prices for metallurgical coal. We’re looking like we’re going to have another bumper harvest if it would just stop raining. Things are looking bright. Yes, I appreciate that some might say the fiscal outlook globally is not good, but there are great opportunities for Australia.

Updated

Things are moving quickly in New South Wales. The severe weather warning has been expanded to cover parts of the state’s northwest including Condobolin, Nyngan, Cobar, Bourke, Wanaaring and Brewarrina.

A warning for the Riverina district has been cancelled as the rain has eased.

It comes as the state’s SES is now using the Australian Warning System for flooding events – which includes three categories, “Advice”, “Watch and Act” and “Emergency Warning”.

Labor's Daniel Mulino says Australia’s tax cuts different to UK’s

Labor MP and chair of the House Economics Committee Daniel Mulino appeared on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today to discuss the controversial stage-three tax cuts.

Mulino said it was “important to bear in mind” the cuts won’t come into effect for two years and Labor’s priority heading into the election was taxing multinationals (even though Labor supported the tax cuts at the time).

It is important to set the context because what the government’s is grappling with in this upcoming budget is a situation both here and internationally that is worsening, internationally at least. It is also becoming more complex and uncertain in many respects … the key taxation policy that we took to the election was multinational taxation. That remains the priority … at least in the short term, a revenue raising measure we are looking at closely.

Asked about the situation in the UK, whereby their conservative leader was forced to backflip on a trickle-down package that would have abolished the 45% top rate of income tax, Mulino said the two situations weren’t wholly comparative:

In the UK, the tax cuts that were being put forward by the newly minted trust government were tax cuts that would have come into effect quite soon … the problem with those tax cuts quite apart from the merits of the measures themselves, which I probably don’t support in many respects … is that they were coming at a time when you had monetary that was being tightened and significant tax cuts which would have meant expansionary fiscal policy. In the UK, that would have been very confusing and was a large reason why markets reacted so adversely.

Updated

Three Australian navy ships begin regional deployment across Indo-Pacific

The Australian government says the Royal Australian Navy will exercise freedom of navigation across the Indo-Pacific as three ships begin a regional deployment.

A statement issued by Defence says the ships will participate in maritime exercises with regional partners and conduct port visits:

During the deployment, HMA Ships Hobart, Stalwart, and Arunta will also conduct activities as part of our flagship regional engagement activity, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2022, in the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.

These engagements deepen Australia’s partnerships across the region and enhance our ability to operate with partner nations during security or humanitarian crises.
Australian vessels and aircraft will continue to uphold international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and exercise freedom of navigation and overflight. Defence supports others doing the same.

The HMAS Arunta is one of three ships that will take part in the deployment.
The HMAS Arunta is one of three ships that will take part in the deployment. Photograph: Mark Baker/AP

The statement doesn’t directly refer to the South China Sea, but Australian governments of both persuasions have long been concerns about China’s militarisation of disputed features in the region. China is engaged in territorial disputes with a number of countries in the region including Philippines and Vietnam – two of the countries named in the statement – but Beijing doesn’t accept the 2016 ruling of an international tribunal on the matter.

Rear Admiral Jonathan Earley, Australian fleet commander, described the deployments as “routine” and said they “demonstrated Australia’s commitment and engagement with our partners in the region”.

Earley added:

Australia has maintained a robust program of international engagement with countries in and around the Indo-Pacific for decades.

This deployment follows a high-activity period for the RAN fleet with HMA Ships recently taking part in Exercise Kakadu 22 and, prior to that, Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2022.

This routine deployment is aimed at strengthening practical cooperation with regional partners and enhancing interoperability, and it demonstrates Australia’s resolve for an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.

Updated

Tax office whistleblower’s case again postponed

A hearing for tax office whistleblower, Richard Boyle, has again been postponed.

It’s a critical process to determine whether Boyle is protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act (the PID). It’s the first time the PID has been tested.

Lawyers for both sides are working on a list of agreed facts in the case to present to judge Liesl Kudelka, and said they need more time. The hearing, in South Australia’s district court, was adjourned until tomorrow morning.

This brilliant Full Story podcast featuring Christopher Knaus has everything you need to know about this important case:

And you can find more details on the hearing here:

Updated

Kieren Perkins tees off on Greg Norman’s LIV golf tour

Earlier, the CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, Kieren Perkins, delivered an address to the National Press Club where he called for greater diversity in sport and foreshadowed a bright era ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

The former Olympian also delivered a stinging message to Greg Norman over the golf champion’s involvement with the Saudi Arabian-financed rebel LIV tour, AAP reports.

Perkins said Norman needed to consider the people he surrounded himself with as he continued his role as the global face of the controversial golf tour.

Norman and LIV’s competitors have been widely panned, with the tour labelled a ‘sport washing’ exercise designed to clean up Saudi Arabia’s global image amid its poor human-rights record.

Greg Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf.
Greg Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf. Photograph: Jonathan Ferrey/LIV Golf/via Getty Images

Asked what message he would give Norman, Perkins pointed to earlier comments he had made that Australian sport needs to be a societal leader and be more inclusive of minority groups:

Just stop and listen to the people around you, Greg, and think about some of the stuff that’s being told to you. See if actually there’s some value in it, instead of assuming you have all the answers.

Norman drew strong criticism for comments he made regarding the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s alleged involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, where he appeared to defend his benefactor.

Perkins said innovation within sport could not be more important than promoting inclusivity.

I understand and appreciate the need to disrupt sport and make it better, and the opportunity to create more competitive pathways that help athletes receive the benefit they deserve. (But) opening the door for more inclusion is incredibly important.

Updated

Eastern states on flood watch as vast rain and storm system approaches

The Bureau of Meteorology has provided an update on the widespread rain and storms lashing eastern and southern Australia.

A severe weather warning for heavy rainfall is active for New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland bringing renewed flood risks.

Severe thunderstorms producing heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail are possible across western Queensland and New South Wales, on Wednesday.

The coming rain is likely to lead to renewed river level rises across many already flooded rivers in New South Wales and northern Victoria, with widespread moderate to major flooding likely across inland NSW.

Some river catchments in southern Queensland and northern Tasmania may see flooding due to the anticipated rainfall.

Rain is forecast in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday and Friday.
Rain is forecast in Sydney on Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday and Friday. Photograph: Jérôme Favre/EPA

The bureau has forecast daily rainfall totals of up to 30 mm in southern Queensland, NSW and Victoria, with isolated totals of up to 100 mm possible.

On Thursday showers and isolated thunderstorms are forecast to develop in the afternoon and evening across southern Queensland, much of NSW and Victoria. Northern Tasmania may also see moderate to heavy rainfall.

Severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, heavy rain and large hail will be possible in south-west NSW and western Victoria on Thursday.

Updated

Raising Warragamba Dam wall will ‘destroy’ wilderness and Aboriginal sites, advocate says

Wildnerness Australia’s Harry Birkitt is speaking on ABC News about the NSW government’splan to raise the wall of Sydney’s Warragamba Dam to protect the region from future flooding events.

There have been four major floods in the flood-prone catchment in the past 18 months.

Opponents including Birkitt have argued it’s not a quick-fix solution and will destroy environmental and Indigenous cultural sites in the Blue Mountains.

Only 50% of water comes from the Warragamba catchment, meaning that if a flood’s in another river – for example, the Nepean – this dam wall’s not going to do anything to mitigate that flood. So we need other solutions to fixing this flood problem.

If they raise that dam wall, it means that when a flood happens extra water is going to raise the dam wall and build up behind that raised wall. And in doing so, it’s going to flood thousands of hectares of World Heritage area, threatened species, Aboriginal cultural sites, a whole range of World Heritage-listed values that we, in 2000, as John Howard, the prime minister, decided, were of outstanding universal value, and we would destroy them if we proceed with the dam.

The premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the government placed “people before plants”.

Updated

Almost two dozen flood warnings are in place across Australia.

On a much less important note, my excited office chatter about riding my bike to work for the first time today is feeling increasingly insane as the afternoon progresses.

Updated

Harvey Norman sued by Asic over allegedly misleading ads

Retail giant Harvey Norman is being sued by Australia’s corporate regulator for allegedly misleading advertisements relating to interest-free purchases, AAP reports.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched the legal action in the Federal Court on Wednesday, saying Harvey Norman and credit provider Latitude Finance Australia promoted “no deposit” and “interest free” payment methods between January 2020 and August 2021.

It’s alleged the ads were misleading because they didn’t disclose customers had to use a Latitude Go Mastercard to be eligible for the scheme, and they didn’t accurately show the true cost of the payment method by failing to state establishment and monthly account service fees.

Asic’s deputy chair Sarah Court said it was concerning the advertising didn’t give customers a complete picture.

Consumers have a right to make informed choices ... credit providers and retail partners such as Latitude and Harvey Norman should ensure that their advertising clearly discloses all important information about payment methods and any fees.

These credit cards, ASIC alleges, attracted substantial fees over the course of the 60-month payment term, and exposed consumers to the risks of incurring further debts and charges, as well as potentially affecting their credit rating.

ASIC says anyone who made a purchase at Harvey Norman and signed up to the credit card after March 16 last year would be liable to pay at least $537 in fees on top of their purchase amount over 60 months.

Latitude acknowledged the court action in a statement.

Latitude takes these allegations very seriously and has worked cooperatively with ASIC during its investigation. Latitude is now reviewing ASIC’s claim and will not be commenting further at this stage given the matter is before the courts.

Harvey Norman has been contacted for comment.

Asic has launched legal action against Harvey Norman.
Asic has launched legal action against Harvey Norman. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Updated

Flood warnings issued as Australia's east coast braces for heavy rain

Speaking of the weather, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a number of warnings for parts of Australia’s east.

A flood watch has been issued for greater Sydney, the Hunter and inland rivers with “minor to major” flooding possible as rain continues.

The BoM says:

Multiple troughs will bring heavy rain and thunderstorms to much of NSW from Wednesday through to the weekend. This will cause renewed flooding over inland NSW and Hunter and Greater Sydney districts.

Renewed major flooding is likely for the Gwydir, Namoi, Macquarie, Belubula, Lachlan and Bogan rivers from Thursday. Minor to moderate flooding is possible for many other inland river catchments from Thursday into Friday, many of which have experienced flooding due to previous rainfall in recent months.

Major flooding is also possible for parts of the Lower Hunter River and Wollombi Brook from Sunday. Other coastal catchments in the Hunter and Greater Sydney districts including the Hawkesbury Nepean will see minor to moderate flooding from Saturday.

Further south, a severe weather warning has been issued for damaging winds in Tasmania’s north-east.

Updated

Thanks to Natasha May for guiding us through today’s news – another thing that’s been anything but dry! (Dad joke). I’ll be with you for the rest of the afternoon.

That’s it from me, as I pass the blog baton oto the marvellous Caitlin Cassidy.

If you’re in one of those areas we’ve been mentioning today that’s being hit by heavy rainfall, I hope you’re managing to stay dry!

Updated

More census results coming next week

Census day seems ages ago but what you might not realise is that the fun is actually spread out across three census days, which each release different sets of data.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ social media team are today reminding Australians that the second release of data is coming up on the 12 October 2022.

It includes data such as how many people made a treechange or seachange and how many were working from home amid the pandemic.

Updated

Football Australia issues lifetime ban for fan who made Nazi salute

A football fan who allegedly made a Nazi salute during the Australia Cup final in Sydney has been given a lifetime ban by Football Australia.

Disturbing video footage emerged from Saturday night’s Australia Cup final showing Sydney United 58 fans displaying the Hitler salute.

Many people, including the NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, called for the fans who displayed Nazi symbols and salutes at the match to be banned for life.

Football Australia has now released a statement saying “an identified spectator” has been issued with a lifetime ban following its investigation into the incident at the 2022 final held at CommBank Stadium in Sydney on 1 October.

The spectator in question has today been issued with a lifetime ban from attending Football Australia-sanctioned football matches including all NPL, A-Leagues, Australia Cup, and national team matches. The ban is effective immediately.

The conduct in question relates to a fascist salute or similar gesture conducted during the match and captured on the host broadcast. Such conduct is a breach of the Australia Cup terms of admission and Football Australia’s spectator code of behaviour.

Football Australia adopts a zero-tolerance policy to disrespectful and offensive behaviour at sanctioned events and will not tolerate behaviour that has the potential to offend, insult humiliate, disparage or vilify spectators, players or officials.

Football Australia is continuing to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and law enforcement in identifying other individuals who may have committed similar anti-social behaviour at the Australia Cup 2022 final.

Football Australia is committed to promoting a safe and enjoyable environment for all Australians engaging with football, where the rights, dignity, and worth of every person are properly respected.

Football Australia’s chief executive officer, James Johnson, has today penned a letter to the Australian football community which can be read here.

Updated

What is climate finance you might ask?

Here’s a definition from the United Nations:

Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change.

The Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from Parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable.

This recognises that the contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent it and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions.

Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.

In accordance with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities” set out in the Convention, developed country Parties are to provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties in implementing the objectives of the UNFCCC.

You can read the UN’s full definition here.

Updated

Climate finance is next hurdle for Australia, Oxfam says

Australia will be in the hot seat over its finance for less developed countries at next month’s global climate talks as a leading charity casts doubt on rich nations’ contributions, AAP reports.

Oxfam Australia says climate finance is a lifeline for some of the world’s poorest people and is a vital component of the yearly international negotiations that are meant to keep the world safe.

Ahead of the next UN Climate Change Conference, Australia has passed new climate laws but commitments on climate finance to help less developed countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change are yet to be declared.

Rich countries including Australia pledged in Copenhagen in 2009 to raise US$100bn a year in climate finance by 2025 to help less developed economies - a promise ditched under the coalition government.

Instead, last year Australia announced an “increase” in international climate finance commitments to $A2bn over the next five years to support developing countries in the region.

But research by Oxfam Australia and ActionAid Australia has estimated Australia’s fair share at $A4bn annually, or approximately 10 times the contributions expected between 2020 and 2025.

Further, existing climate financing has been questioned by Oxfam in a recent report that found figures may be dodgy and countries may be short-changing some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Oxfam audited the World Bank’s reported $US17.2bn 2020 climate finance portfolio and found it could be off by as much as 40%, or $US7bn.

Stricter reporting rules and clear definitions are demanded in the lead-up to the United Nations summit in November, with Australian politicians, business leaders and charities to gather in Cairo after last year’s Glasgow session.

Villages in the Phillipines were flooded by super typhoon Noru in September 2022.
Villages in the Phillipines were flooded by super typhoon Noru in September 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

A spokesperson for climate change minister Chris Bowen told AAP that Australia is committed to working with the international community to make the upcoming climate negotiations successful:

Australia determines how much of our development funding can be attributed as climate finance in line with the OECD climate change guidance, and like-minded country commitments and reporting.

Quizzed about Oxfam’s claims, the spokesperson said Australia supports transparency and accountability in climate finance, including by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank.

But Australia is “supportive of international efforts to develop clearer, credible and globally comparable climate risk disclosure standards,” they said.

The latest Oxfam report, Unaccountable Accounting, says rich countries have broken their $100bn promise. Oxfam’s climate change policy lead Nafkote Dabi said:

This audit exposes the danger that some climate finance claims could simply be greenwashing, which would lead to a dangerous under-investment in poor countries’ mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Without better disclosure, the World Bank is asking us all to take too much on faith. These funds are too important for that.

Updated

Australia learning from Chile on Indigenous constitutional recognition

The assistant minister for foreign affairs, Tim Watts, is in Santiago where he is hearing from experts on Chile’s journey towards achieving Indigenous constitutional recognition.

As Mat Youkee wrote for the Guardian this year:

In 1993 Chile enacted its Indigenous law, recognising eight peoples, including the Mapuche – who make up 12% of Chile’s population – and the Rapa Nui of Easter Island. In some cases land titles and limited legislative representation have been offered, but the continued expansion of timber, mining and agricultural projects – combined with heavy-handed policing – has led to rising social tensions in the south of the country.

A new constitution was proposed which would have enshrined some of the world’s most extensive Indigenous rights and ecological protections, but Chileans rejected it last month.

Updated

New committee established to examine anti-corruption bill

Contention over the Albanese government’s anti-corruption watchdog is set to be thrashed out when a committee puts its legislation under the microscope, AAP reports.

A new joint committee has been established specifically to examine the National Anti-Corruption Commission bill at public hearings planned for this month.

Committee chair and Labor senator Linda White welcomed submissions from individuals, organisations and interest groups.

Independent MP Helen Haines, who’s been instrumental in pushing for the commission, will co-chair the committee.

The Coalition has accused the government of breaking convention and playing politics with the inquiry as an opposition member is usually appointed to the position of deputy chair.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has provided tacit support for the bill but said a final position would be reached after the committee had a chance to examine it.

The body would operate independently of the government and have powers to investigate serious or systemic corrupt conduct across the commonwealth public sector.

Haines is pushing for the bill to be strengthened over concerns the threshold to hold public hearings only in “exceptional circumstances” is too high.

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has also raised concerns about the threshold but said she wouldn’t hold up the bill “over two words”.

Public submissions will close on October 14 and the committee will report back by November 10.

The independent MP for Indi Helen Haines will co-chair the committee examining the anti-corruption commission.
The independent MP for Indi Helen Haines will co-chair the committee examining the anti-corruption commission. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Rural internet leaving Australians unable to call for help in emergencies

A man in regional Queenslander had to wait hours in the rain with a snapped femur because where his accident occurred, he had no reception in Kondalilla Falls on the Sunshine Coast.

Ben Green told Seven News he was worried about getting hypothermia if he wasn’t found before nightfall.

The story of Australians finding themselves in trouble without any means of calling for help is unfortunately a common one in the bush. Guardian Australia’s rural network last year reported on Will Picker who had to crawl a kilometre with a broken back to get reception.

Seven’s reporting is timely because Guardian Australia’s rural editor Gabrielle Chan has this interview out today with eminent economist Ross Garnaut who says that Australian rural internet worse than ‘villages I know’ in Africa.

Updated

Young and sick children to be first Australians repatriated from Syrian detention camps

The youngest, most unwell and most vulnerable of the Australian children currently held in squalid Syrian detention camps will be the first ones repatriated to Australia. But some of their mothers could face arrest – and potential charges – upon return to the country.

The Australian government is currently implementing plans to repatriate about 60 Australian women and children – wives, sons and daughters of slain or jailed Islamic State combatants – who have been held for more than three years in the dangerous detention camps in north-east Syria.

Indigenous legal service funds fall short, inquiry hears

It is unlikely Indigenous legal services will ever receive enough funding to meet the needs of communities, a senate committee has been told, AAP reports.

The federal attorney general’s department made the concession during a public hearing of an inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children.

The senate committee is looking at the systems and circumstances that led to those deaths and disappearances, as well as reviewing current and historical practices used to investigate the murders.

The commonwealth provided $440m over five years to Indigenous legal services, Esther Bogaart from the attorney general’s department told the Canberra hearing.

An additional $9.3m was given to services in August last year to better support families of dead Indigenous people and those with complex legal cases, she said on Wednesday.

But Bogaart acknowledged it was unlikely there would ever be enough money to match the services’ needs.

The department was working closely with services so they could prioritise cases and ensure those most in need were being supported, she said.

Bogaart conceded it meant some people would not receive the legal advice or representation they should have access to.

The senate inquiry continues.

Updated

Some more information on the meeting between Albanese and the Solomon Islands PM

Tomorrow’s talks in Canberra will be the first in-person meeting between Anthony Albanese and his Solomon Islands counterpart since July.

At the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, Manasseh Sogavare greeted Albanese warmly, asking him for a hug, but alluded to tensions between the countries, telling him: “We are family, there are issues [but] that makes family strong.”

After that meeting, Albanese said it had been “productive” and he was “very confident” there would not be Chinese bases in Solomon Islands, despite the two countries’ security pact that was signed just before the Australian election.

Albanese’s Labor party had campaigned on the issue, claiming the signing of that deal on the Coalition’s watch was the worst foreign policy failure in the Pacific since the second world war.

It was clear that the personal relationship between Sogavare and Scott Morrison had fractured. In April, Sogavare accused the Australian government of hypocrisy over his country’s security deal with China, saying Australia’s own Aukus deal with the US and the UK was far from transparent but he “did not become theatrical and hysterical”.

But despite a post-election lull, tensions flared up again recently over Australia’s public announcement of an offer to provide funding towards the holding of the next election in Solomon Islands. (His plans to delay the election have been contentious in domestic Solomon Islands politics.)

Sogavare addressed the United Nations in New York last week, using that speech to denounce “a barrage of unwarranted and misplaced criticisms, misinformation and intimidation” that his country was subject to as it switched diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China in 2019. He urged other countries to respect the sovereignty of Solomon Islands, saying:

We will not align ourselves with any external Power or security architecture that targets ours or any other sovereign country or threatens regional and international peace.

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‘Enormous road in front of us’ to improve diversity in sport: Kieren Perkins

Perkins is asked about a reference made in his speech to sports including AFL and the NRL that have a higher percentage of diversity in their teams which are currently grappling with shocking allegations of racism.

The reporter asks:

The sports that do it best are the professional codes that end up having race problem after race problem after race problem. So how do you influence sports like the one you came from, that is not very diverse at all, to change that, and how do you influence the professional sports to fix up their environment?

Perkins says “we need to hold leadership accountable” to break up “deeply entrenched biases and norms” that sit within the sporting system.

Look at the enormous road in front of us that we have to traverse to try to figure out how we’re going to solve this. It is firstly building awareness. Often whenever we see an issue pop up, so many people rush to defence and say – we didn’t do that. And the inability for us to acknowledge another person’s experience, to just sit quietly and listen and understand that person’s experience, to give us an opportunity to learn from it, is one of the things I personally struggled with. I think we need to do that. Just stop and listen for a minute …

My worst case scenario [is] I have to wait for all of us to die before things get better. No, let’s hang back, let’s wait until the old guard die and then things get better.

Just be a human being and pay attention to the people around you, listen to what they are telling you and learn and grow from it. We don’t all have the answers. We aren’t god. We actually need to recognise that every human being that we have responsibility or leadership for is a valuable person. And their perspectives matter. So, yeah. Just be a human being.

Updated

Queensland police commissioner’s second appearance at the inquiry into police responses to domestic violence

The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, is being questioned about why she ignored an option to more severely discipline a former deputy police commissioner who made “vagina whisperer” comments at a formal function.

The inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence heard in August that the deputy commissioner, Paul Taylor, had made comments referring to his friend, a gynaecologist, as a “vagina whisperer” at a policing conference. He subsequently resigned.

On Wednesday, the counsel assisting the commission, Ruth O’Gorman, presented Carroll with a briefing note she was handed in July, prior to giving Taylor “managerial guidance”.

The briefing note suggested Carroll might require Taylor to make a written or verbal apology. Carroll decided against implementing such a punishment.

Under questioning, the commissioner said she regretted not doing so in hindsight; and that had Taylor not resigned over the matter in August, after it was raised by the commission, that she would have asked him to do so.

She also said a “more serious” disciplinary matter relating to Taylor was in process, and that she had asked human resources to assess Taylor’s contract, with the intention of taking more significant action.

I honestly believed the other investigation would be swifter than it was. If I looked back in hindsight, knowing that, I would have addressed [the disciplinary matters] separately.

He was under no illusion as to what I thought about his behaviour. He was extremely remorseful and upset.

O’Gorman said the briefing note detailed upset within the ranks at Taylor’s comments, including from senior female officers.

Carroll said the resignation was required in August, because after the commission hearing “there was massive damage to the organisation as a result”. She said:

It would have been even more difficult if he stayed in the organisation.

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Kieren Perkins confirms $26.8m of federal funding for Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports

The federal government has committed $26.8m in funding to Australia’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports to 2026, Perkins confirms.

He points to the fact that $14.6m provided in grants to athletes by the Australian Sports Commission is shared across 900 athletes, averaging at around just $16,000 a year.

Longer term funding is something we’re working towards, and it could be a game-changer for athletes and sports in Australia. Generationally, sports have been seeking longer term funding for greater consistency and clarity in their planning.

For the first time ever, Australia’s Winter Olympic and Paralympic sports have been given a funding commitment for the entire 4-year cycle through to the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympics. This is a $28.6 million commitment, a huge sign of confidence in our Australian athletes, telling them, we believe in you, we support you, and we absolutely know you will make us proud. We have also already committed to funding sports for the Paris ‘24 summer and Paralympic Games too.

Updated

Australian Sports Commission to retire ‘Sport Australia’ brand

The Australian Sports Commission will retire the brand name “Sport Australia”, introduced to differentiate between performance and “other aspects” of sport, Kieren Perkins announces.

The commission will be one integrated organisation incorporating the Australian Institute of Sport.

Australian Sports Commission is changing our business model. We’re retiring the brand name Sport Australia … that divided our focus. It created confusion across the sector, and it didn’t maximise our resources. So going forward, the Australian Sports Commission is one integrated organisation. Which of course incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport, the AIS. I want to be absolutely clear in this, our focus on high performance sport remains as strong as ever.

Contrary to previous lines of questioning, the AIS will remain in Canberra rather than relocating to Queensland due to the upcoming Olympic Games.

Can I be emphatic and put this one to bed: our plans for the AIS remain in Canberra. Canberra is the seat of federal government and it’s the home of the Australian Institute of Sport. When it was built, it became the most important factor in the resurgence of Australian sport on the world stage. It’s one of our most treasured national institutions, but I have to say, after 41 years of service, the AIS campus does need to be updated.

As part of this revitalisation, the AIS will host 166 high-performance camps over the next year, bringing more than 4,000 athletes and staff from across 27 sports to Canberra.

Updated

Kieren Perkins: ‘It’s important our sporting sector becomes truly representative’ of Australia

Kieren Perkins addresses the elephant in the room, that he is a middle-aged white man talking about diversity.

I get the irony of what I’m about to say, this is coming from a middle-aged while man in a privileged position, but sport needs to be a lot more open and inclusive. After coming back into the Australian sporting sector, I’m been very disheartened but not surprised to see that sport looks identical to when I finished as an athlete. Sport is very white and very male. We haven’t progressed and it’s important our sporting sector becomes truly representative of a modern, progressive, and diverse Australia. By 2032, if sport still looks the same as … today, I certainly haven’t done my job properly.

He reflects on the recent Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, when the Australian team excelled on the medal tally.

I was proud and inspired by our athletic performances. But during that time I did reflect whether everyone in Australia saw themselves in the team … 53% of the athletes on the team were female. Yet we know that less than 10% of coaches in Australia’s high-performance system are female. Thirteen per cent of the Australian team in Birmingham were born overseas, compared to 29% of Australia’s population.

Pleasingly, there were a record number of First Nations athletes in our Commonwealth Games team, reflecting just over 2% of the Birmingham team, which is of course an absolute positive step. However, when you contemplate that First Nations athletes make up more than 10% of the players in the AFL and the NRL, it’s clear there needs to be more that we can do to support the progression of First Nations athletes into our Olympic and Commonwealth teams.

Australian Sports Commission CEO and champion swimmer Kieren Perkins addresses the National Press Club in Canberra today.
Australian Sports Commission CEO and champion swimmer Kieren Perkins addresses the National Press Club in Canberra today. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Diversity in sport push

Perkins says he “truly believes” Australia is entering “one of the greatest periods of opportunity” in the country’s history, pointing to the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games as a “clear focus”.

We have pasted the UCI road world cycling championships in Wollongong, and the women’s basketball World Cup in Sydney, and this month we’ll begin the men’s T20 cricket World Cup, next year the FIFA women’s World Cup, in 2026, the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, and then so much more.

In launching the Sport Commission’s strategic vision, he emphasises wanting to involve “more Australians” in sport, Australians reflective of the cultural diversity of the nation.

Today I’m really proud to be able to launch the Australian Sports Commission’s strategic vision for the next decade and beyond. Our vision is that every sport has a place for everyone, and delivers results that make Australia proud. Within that, we’re setting a mission to lead, support, and provide opportunities for all communities to be involved in sport, while growing elite success and representation, inspiring future generations. And then we have some goals. Lead and enable the world’s best sporting system, involve more Australians in sport at all levels, and drive innovation in sport.

Updated

Kieren Perkins delivers speech to National Press Club

Kieren Perkins, new CEO of the Australian Sports Commission, is addressing the National Press Club on the topic “Our vision for the green and gold decade of opportunity”.

The former freestyle swimmer began his address reflecting on sport’s role in his own life.

Sport has been incredible to me. Growing up in Brisbane, I had a go at everything, football, Aussie rules, tennis, gymnastics, cross country running, even equestrian for a while. It wasn’t until I started school I had my first swimming lesson. I have to admit, I was not particularly very good at first, but I did enjoy being involved. And a big part of that was because of the supportive friends, and then eventually a coach, who helped me. There was never any overbearing focus on results, the focus was on fun and enjoyment. They helped me to understand the value of consistent improvement and making progress.

He pays tribute to Cathy Freeman in Sydney 2000, a national team he was part of.

I wager that everyone in the room still remembers where they were the night that Cathy won, seeing her collapse with jubilation and relief. I was one of the lucky ones able to be in the stadium, that is absolutely phenomenal. Beginning with these personal memories, not to try to relive past glories – it doesn’t hurt – but it’s not why. But to show you how much Australian sport has meant to me, so I can explain how optimistic I am about sport’s future.

Updated

Environmental groups criticise raising of Warragamba Dam

Reactions are starting to come in to the announcement that the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall has been declared a critical state significant infrastructure project in NSW.

Harry Burkitt, of Wilderness Australia, said the move was an “opportunistic, political wedge”.

There are three regional seats down there, two that [the Coalition] needs to retain. That’s what this is really about.

We still have no funding for evacuation routes, no action taken on development in the flood plain, and we’ve seen no action on adaptively managing the existing dam for flood mitigation purposes.

Updated

Sogavare to meet with Albanese in Canberra

The prime minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, is on his way to Australia for talks with Anthony Albanese.

Sogavare is due to arrive in Australia this afternoon on a flight from Singapore.

Albanese’s office confirmed that the prime minister would welcomed Sogavare to Canberra tomorrow. The pair met at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji in July, although the relationship between Solomon Islands and Australia has been strained recently, including over the new security agreement between Honiara and Beijing.

In a statement, Albanese said:

Our relationship with Solomon Islands is incredibly important.

As members of the Pacific Family, we are committed to working together to face our shared challenges and achieve our shared goals, including on climate change. I look forward to engaging with Prime Minister Sogavare on building a strong and prosperous Pacific region, based on principles of transparency, respect and partnership.

Updated

Norco factory rebuild to commence this month, local member says

We brought you the good news a little earlier this morning that Norco’s Lismore ice cream factory will be saved as it accepts $45m in grants to rebuild the factory devastated by catastrophic northern rivers floods earlier this year.

Local member Kevin Hogan says construction will commence this month and has shared a picture of everyone involved celebrating with some Norco ice cream.

Fiscal outlook improves for most Australian governments

As the Albanese government mulls what to do with its stage-three tax cuts, the Parliamentary Budget Office has released some interesting updates about the state of the proverbial coffers around the country.

The bottom line, so to speak, is that the federal, state and territory governments are on an improving trajectory as spending during the Covid pandemic shrinks and revenues pick up.

The so-called national net operating balance – or the difference between spending and revenue – will improve from a deficit of 4% of GDP, or $92bn in 2021-22 to 0.5% of GDP (or $13bn) in the 2025-26 year.

The Albanese government had already flagged the improving finances a couple of weeks ago when the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, revealed the federal deficit would be about $50bn better for the 2021-22 year than forecast in March.

Still, it’s not all sweetness and light. The national net debt is forecast to keep climbing at a slower pace than previously forecast by the PBO.

Net debt would be $126bn less than previously pencilled in for 2021-21, and a full $172bn less for the 2024-25 year.

“The improved outlook is due to a combination of the improved net operating balance, such that governments are required to borrow less, and a downwards revaluation to the market value of government securities, due to higher interest rates,” it said.

Still, we’ll be managing $1.224tn debt by 2025-26, or equal to 47% of Australia’s GDP by then, up from $820bn (36% of GDP) as of the end of June. (A cue, perhaps, for rethinking those tax cuts that will kick in come July 2024.)

Along with more debt comes more debt repayments, particularly as interest rates rise everywhere (and Australian governments have to offer higher yields to lure buyers.)

Governments, meanwhile, have been cutting or delaying some of their big spending projects such as roads, schools and hospitals (not necessarily the ideal response to a pandemic). National net capital investment in 2021-22 came in $2bn less than forecast, and will slide further to $33bn (1.3% of GDP) in 2025-26, the PBO said.

The fiscal projections for the two biggest states by population and economy, NSW and Victoria, diverge, according to the PBO.

One reason might be pushing back of some of those projects, but it does suggest the incoming NSW government (whether Coalition or Labor) will have relatively more work to do than their southern counterparts to repair the budget.

Updated

Expert raises concerns about raising of Warragamba Dam wall

Water expert and professor of environmental engineering at UNSW, Stuart Kahn, has taken to social media to raise concerns in response to NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s announcement that the Warragamba Dam wall will be raised by 14 metres.

While Perrottet has said the raising of the dam wall will protect communities from future flooding, Kahn is critical of the government’s development plans for the area. He says they are putting more people “in harm’s way” and contravene recommendations from the 2022 flood inquiry.

When it comes to flood mitigation options for the Hawkesbury-Neapean valley, the report commissioned by the NSW government said:

The single largest driver of flood risk in the Valley is the development in the floodplain. It follows then that one of the most effective flood risk mitigation mechanisms is the application of stronger planning controls on current and future development in the Valley.

Updated

Sever weather warnings for heavy rain issued across eastern states

ABC Western Plains reporter Lucy Thackray has shared this video of sheep being moved to higher ground in Brewarrina, as the Barwon River swells.

Rivers rising in western NSW

Bec Dance from Condobolin share this image of the rising Lachlan River with Guardian Australia. She said the agricultural region’s crops would be affected:

Landholders in the area spent their long weekend moving what they could to high ground. Some very good crops will go under - not unprecedented for these areas but a bloody shame and will impact communities and the country as a whole as commodities are lost or downgraded.

The Lachlan River has risen at Condobolin in n central NSW, this morning. Australia
The Lachlan River has risen at Condobolin in n central NSW, this morning. Australia Photograph: Bec Dance

Sean Kearns, the assistant Commissioner of the New South Wales SES, told the ABC what emergency services are expecting over coming days:

We are really concerned about the rain that started late yesterday and is expected to continue today being followed up by a second front Friday and leading into the weekend.

That’s going to impact the western parts of NSW and south-western NSW. This is going to impact communities that have already been impacted by floods over the last month or two.

What we’re going to see is significant amounts of rain, sometimes the monthly rainfall in just a couple of days, if not more. This is falling already over already-saturated catchments. So what we are going to see is that water lead to rapid renewed river rises and potentially flash flooding as well.

We’re particularly concerned around the areas of Gunnedah, Wee Waa, Warren, Bathurst, Forbes, Gundagai and Tumut and also Wagga Wagga.

Perrottet says “we put people before plants”

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is taking questions at a press conference at the Warragamba Dam, where he announced the raising of the dam wall will be a critical state significant project.

NSW state reporter Tamsin Rose is at that press conference where she reports Perrottet was asked how inundating parts of the Blue Mountains was consistent with the area being named a priority place in the new national threatened species action plan.

Perrottet:

We put people before plants.

Updated

Kelpie saved by ambos after cliff plunge

Kelpie pup Max was rounding up sheep on NSW south coast when he slid off the edge of a cliff, plunging 30 metres.

Paramedics managed to rescue the working dog by abseiling down the precipice on Tuesday afternoon, AAP reports.

NSW paramedics posing for a photograph with a kelpie pup they rescued in Nowra on Tuesday, October 4, 2022.
NSW paramedics posing for a photograph with a kelpie pup they rescued in Nowra on Tuesday. Photograph: NSW Ambulance/PR IMAGE

NSW ambulance inspector Faye Stockman said nine-month-old Max was rounding up sheep at Yerriyong when “he got a little too excited and slid off the edge of the cliff”.

Stockman said:

Our special operations paramedics who are trained in vertical rescue, abseiled down to Max before he was carefully loaded into a bag and hauled to safety.

Much to everyone’s amazement, the carefree canine survived the fall without a scratch. Stockman said:

He’s a loved family pet, so his owner was very relieved to see he wasn’t injured.

We were thrilled to be able to reunite Max with his family.

Updated

NSW premier urges people to follow instructions ahead of a “difficult summer”

Perrottet also urged people to follow emergency warnings ahead of a summer where more flooding is expected:

It will be a difficult week but even more so a difficult summer, and significant flooding is expected as well.

We need to make sure we follow those instructions, so an evacuation warning is in place and you need to prepare to leave. If an evacuation order is in place you need to leave immediately, please do not drive through floodwaters: we say this every single time we are approaching a flood event and people still do it.

I’m very pleased with the preparation in place and that work will continue as we move through the next few months. It will be a difficult summer, we have rivers, dams, as you can see behind, that for, right across our state, our rivers and dams are full, that creates a significant risk of flooding that creates a risk to people’s lives and properties, so follow those instructions.

Updated

Raising of Warragamba Dam declared critical state significant infrastructure project

The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, says the Warragamba Dam wall will be raised by 14 metres and that the project will be a critical state significant infrastructure project.

Perrottet says:

This declaration reinforces that raising the dam wall is the most effective long-term flood-mitigation strategy to help protect residents of the Hawkesbury-Nepean.

This region has been hit by floods and we are committed to progressing this important project to make sure residents have genuine flood protection into the future.

Updated

“It’s going to be a difficult week”: Perrottet ahead of predicted flooding

Guardian Australia’s NSW state reporter Tamsin Rose is at a press conference the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, is holding at Warragamba Dam.

Updated

Victorian government promises new biomedical research facilities

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is this morning announcing an investment in biomedical research facilities, as part of the government’s $6bn redevelopment of Melbourne’s medical precinct.

The investment, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, will include fit-for-purpose sites to attract more studies and clinical trials and training facilities for healthcare workers.

Andrews said:

Our vision for this project doesn’t stop at new and upgraded hospitals, we’re also developing some of the best medical research and education precincts in the world – and all of that means the very best of care for Victorians.

Here’s more about the redevelopment from yesterday:

Updated

Power out after South Australian storms

More than 5,000 properties across South Australia remain without power and roads are closed after a night of heavy rain and strong winds, AAP reports.

SA Power Networks says there are more than 60 outages, mainly across metropolitan Adelaide, but also in the Barossa Valley.

Extra crews have been mobilised to restore services to affected properties as soon as possible.

Authorities are also dealing with fallen trees across a wide area, with the State Emergency Service handling close to 400 incidents from Tuesday to Wednesday morning.

SA police say the main road between Kingscote and the Penneshaw ferry on Kangaroo Island is flooded.

Just before 4am on Wednesday, a car trying to navigate the water became stuck but the driver was rescued without injury thanks to a passing motorist.

The road is expected to remain closed for up to 12 hours but a detour to the ferry, which brings goods and traffic from the mainland, is available.

Kingscote recorded the heaviest rainfall total across the past 24 hours with 36 millimetres, while Adelaide had more than 10mm.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the rain would continue to track to the east on Wednesday, with winds easing to about 15km/h.

However, more showers were forecast for Thursday and Friday.

The SES said the risk of flooding in the state’s mid-north had reduced, including concerns around Port Augusta and Port Pirie.

Updated

Healthcare funding skewed to focus on treating rather than preventing illness, GPs warn

As mentioned in the last post, general practice leaders are meeting in Canberra for an emergency summit organised by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). Its president Adj Prof Karen Price had this insight about the structural problems facing general practice:

The problem is healthcare funding in Australia is skewed to focus on treating illness, rather than preventing it. This is despite all the evidence showing investment in primary care saves lives, improves health outcomes, and is much more cost effective.

We also have a funding divide in our country, with the federal government responsible for general practice and the states and territories responsible for hospitals and tertiary care. This results in cost-shifting, care-shifting, fragmentation and waste, and it urgently needs an overhaul.

Updated

GP crisis summit begins in Canberra

The Royal Australian College of GPs is today convening an emergency summit in Canberra to save the sector it says is facing an uncertain future.

It comes after the Australian Medical Association yesterday released a seven-point plan to revitalise general practice, tackling financial sustainability, the viability of general practices outside capital cities and making general practice more attractive for young doctors.

RACGP president Adj Prof Karen Price said the crisis summit was bringing together leaders from general practice, nurse groups, local health and workforce agencies, patient groups, universities and government to collaborate and put forward meaningful solutions to the problems facing general practice:

Without decisive action, we will see more practices close their doors across Australia, more people struggle to access a GP, and bulk billing will continue to collapse – which will result in more patients delaying care and health conditions deteriorating.

We are in this crisis because Australia’s general practice system has been stripped of funding and support for decades. The Medicare freeze had a devastating effect on healthcare in Australia. Today’s Medicare patient rebates don’t come near to reflecting the cost of delivering high-quality care in communities across, which is why we are seeing the decline in bulk billing.

The lost decades of underfunding have also led to the GP workforce shortage … Just 13.8% of future doctors are putting general practice as their first preference career, and recruiting and retaining GPs has become the biggest challenge reported by practice owners in our 2022 Health of the Nation report.

Price said the sector was struggling as healthcare funding in Australia is skewed to focus on treating illness, rather than preventing it.

Price said the summit will examine the key issues that need to be addressed, including exploring different funding models, and that the solutions from the summit will be released in a white paper in coming weeks.

Updated

Optus ‘lawyering up’ a poor look, assistant treasurer says

Optus should focus on helping customers who had their personal data leaked in a major breach rather than briefing lawyers before a potential class action lawsuit, a government minister says, AAP reports.

Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones today labelled the move of Optus parent company Singtel to pre-emptively engage lawyers as unfortunate and making a bad situation worse.

His comments came amid reports tens of thousands of Australians had registered their interest in potential class action suits against Optus over the cyber attack.

Legal firm Slater and Gordon, which is taking expressions of interest in one legal action, said the impact of the hack was being felt far and wide, including by domestic violence survivors and stalking victims.

Singtel representatives told the Singapore stock exchange on Monday any class action would be “vigorously defended”, prompting Jones’ rebuke.

Jones told reporters:

Frankly, I think the Australian people want to see Optus deal with the crisis instead of engaging and briefing lawyers.

Their No 1 priority should be communicating with the customers and ensuring them that they have put every step in place to ensure that the bad situation, which resulted from their botch-up with the data handling, isn’t made worse by having that lead to fraud and misuse of that data now.

The personal details of more than 10 million Optus customers were exposed in the data breach, with up to 50,000 Medicare records and 150,000 passports compromised.

Jones said only a collaborative approach could see the crisis dealt with effectively:

Yes, we want [Optus] to pay for passports because the costs are going to be incurred immediately ... yes, we want you to pay for licences, because people are queuing up and having to pay for a licence replacement.

We’re not talking about lawyering up, we’re not talking about any of those liabilities, we’re talking about it quite sensibly.

Updated

Severe weather warning for north-western Victoria

Updated

David Pocock wins athlete of the year at inaugural BBC Green Sport awards

Former Australian Rugby Union captain and current ACT senator David Pocock has won the athlete of the year award at the BBC’s first Green Sport awards.

The award category recognises a professional sportsperson who has “advocated for, raised awareness of, or instigated action on environmental and/or climate change issues in the past 12 months”.

Independent ACT senator David Pocock
Independent ACT senator David Pocock. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The BBC say it was awarded to Pocock for his work leading the The Cool Down initiative that resulted in more than 300 athletes writing an open letter to the Australian government encouraging for bolder climate action.

It also noted his historic election as the first independent senator for the Australian Capital Territory and the “first sportsperson to transition into politics on an environmentally focussed platform”.

Pocock said:

On climate change, I’d probably say to people get involved. Rather than getting cynical and checking out, get involved, find people in your school, in your neighbourhood who are interested in doing something. Act locally, but then also push your local politicians and your national politicians to get going. We don’t have any time to waste and I think it’s really exciting what we can actually build together.

Ed Leigh, a judge for the award, said:

It is clear that David Pocock’s environmental convictions form the core of who he is. His actions show that he is willing sacrifice his sporting legacy in order to raise awareness of climate change. He was for me, by far the most inspirational candidate who fearlessly used his sporting profile to further the environmental agenda.

Updated

Victorian Coalition pushes $10bn roads upgrade

A $10bn upgrade to Victorian roads will fix potholes and broken road surfaces across the state if the opposition wins the November election, AAP reports.

The Liberal and National parties say they will put the sum into road maintenance funding over the next 10 years to create safer roads.

The plan includes an audit of all state-managed roads and a review of construction standards to increase accountability of VicRoads and contractors.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy said the multibillion-dollar plan would ultimately save lives:

The Liberals and Nationals will deliver better roads through billions of dollars in investment to ensure everyone can get to work and crucial appointments, safely and on time.

Safe roads save lives. Roads budget cuts have never made sense as we watch our road network fall into a state of disrepair.

Opposition roads spokesman Danny O’Brien said a road upgrade was long overdue:

The Andrews Labor government has neglected Victoria’s road network, ignoring the genuine concern of road users across the state, in both the city and the country.

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Hearings begin today for inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children

The first public hearings are being held in Canberra for an inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children.

At the time of the announcement of the inquiry Greens senator Lidia Thorpe spoke about the disparity between how Australia regards violence against Indigenous women and children and non-Indigenous women and children:

When a white woman dies, or a white woman is murdered, it’s a front page. There’s rallies.

When a black woman dies, when a black woman is murdered, you don’t hear about it.

You can read more about the inquiry from my colleague Sarah Collard:

Updated

Lismore ice-cream factory to be rebuilt

In good news for the flood-ravaged town of Lismore, the ice-cream factory which locals told Guardian Australia is “the beating heart” of the town will be saved.

Dairy giant Norco will spend more than $59m rebuilding its flood-damaged ice-cream factory in the NSW northern rivers, three weeks after standing down workers, AAP reports.

Then PM Scott Morrison inspects flood damage at the Norco factory in Lismore in March
Then PM Scott Morrison inspects flood damage at the Norco factory in Lismore in March. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

The factory, which sits on the banks of the Wilsons River in South Lismore, was forced to close after the catastrophic February floods, leaving more than 200 workers uncertain of their future.

Chief executive Michael Hampson says 105 staff had been stood down from the farmer-owned cooperative because there was no work for them during the rebuild. He told ABC TV today:

Lismore is the home of Norco, we’re founded in the Lismore region and we’ll be able to get this manufacturing facility back up and running and invite our people back to work here to make Australia’s best ice-cream.

The company aimed for production to gradually resume from April, with workers returning progressively over months as various lines came onboard, he said.

The factory would be rebuilt on the original site, with key equipment to be lifted above 15 metres as well as the addition of mezzanine areas. Hampson said:

Lismore is a town that’s had 100 floods. This factory has survived 100 of them.

The one that it didn’t was the mega-flood that we had in February which is a one-in-500 year event.

The dairy cooperative announced on Tuesday it would rebuild the factory with $34.7m from a federal and NSW government flood package, along with $11m from an outstanding 2019 grant from the state’s regional growth fund.

The company said it would contribute more than $59m to the rebuild, estimated to total more than $100m. Hampson said:

Norco will be taking on a greater level of risk, something we’re prepared to do in order to safeguard jobs, support other small and medium businesses in the region, and offer a sense of hope to a community of people who have already endured so much.

Norco stood down workers last month, saying the $34.7m grant from state and federal governments was not enough to save the factory. The layoffs prompted three unions to meet Norco management, urging certainty for staff.

The Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union’s Justin Smith said workers should receive voluntary redundancies and a guarantee their jobs would be available when the factory reopened.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said yesterday there had been no further updates on the future of the Norco workforce.

Updated

Optus details haven’t yet been used by fraudsters, Equifax CEO says

After its massive data breach, Optus last week announced it would be offering affected customers a 12-month subscription to the credit reporting agency Equifax. The CEO of that organisation, Melanie Cochrane, was on ABC Radio this morning talking about the arrangement.

Has Equifax found any stolen information being used by hackers?

Not directly, but we are continuing to focus very heavily on looking at additional fraud and monitoring and seeing unusual activity in people’s credit profiles.

So while we can’t directly correlate that back, or we have not got evidence of that yet, we’re fairly certain … there will be increased fraud. And we all need to work together as an industry, work with the credit providers, work with agencies, etc, to come together to protect our community.

Cochrane could not give any further details who is eligible to the free subscription to Equifax:

Optus is deciding and rolling out that program now. They’re offering the service to those most impacted. I don’t have the details of the breakdown of the 2m documents, etc.

They’re already contacting customers now and proactively offering them this service.

But the company had its own data breach in the US in 2017. How can Australians have confidence in the company?

It’s incredible the scale of things you learn when you have been through a major breach … we now have a security standard that is one of the highest in the industry. In fact we are now advising to the FBI.

Updated

Albanese shares health kick tips

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has denied getting botox in his face, putting his smoother complexion down to cutting out bread and eating two boiled eggs for breakfast in the morning.

The PM gave a quick morning FM radio interview to Nova, where hosts Fitzy & Wippa asked about a Daily Mail article headlined “Botox, fillers or just clean living? Albo debuts a fresh new look”, which spoke glowingly of him “sporting a smoother complexion and a more youthful skin texture”.

The article quoted a cosmetic expert who freewheeled some musings about whether 59-year-old Albanese could have had laser procedures, injectables or other skincare. But Albanese flatly denied those suggestions:

I think whoever wrote that article has been having botox in the wrong place ... they’re in real strife.

His story of being involved in a serious car crash in January 2021 is well-known, an accident he credits with starting a health kick that cut down carbs and alcohol, leading to him losing 20kg. Asked on radio for his top weight loss tip, Albanese said: “Don’t eat the bread.”

He added:

Just this morning I had two boiled eggs for breakfast. It keeps you going until lunchtime.

Albanese dialled in to the show to discuss his appearance at a Nova charity cricket game next week, which will be held at Kirribilli House in Sydney. NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is also to join the game.

Updated

Archbishop to talk climate in Australia

Climate change and Indigenous reconciliation are expected to be on the agenda as Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby visits Australia, AAP reports.

The Anglican church leader has arrived for a two-week tour which will formally begin today with a welcome reception and First Nations cultural introduction in Perth.

Welby will also be introduced to members of Perth’s Sudanese community and meet with mining magnate Andrew Forrest. The pair have collaborated on efforts to eradicate modern slavery through Forrest’s Walk Free foundation.

Having declared that Anglicans have a sacred duty to protect the planet, the archbishop will meet people across the country affected by climate change.

He will speak to Torres Strait Islanders struggling with rising sea levels during a visit to Thursday Island and meet victims of catastrophic flooding in northern NSW.

The archbishop, who says he is committed to a “journey of understanding and healing with Indigenous people”, is expected to discuss reconciliation with First Nations groups.

He will meet with Kabikabi and Gurang-Gurang elder and Anglican pastor Ray Minniecon in Sydney before heading to Cairns to ordain two Indigenous women as priests.

The primate of the Anglican church of Australia, Archbishop Geoff Smith, urged believers ahead of the visit to “draw strength from each other as we confront the imperatives of our time”:

In a world plagued by division it is good to be reminded of our common values and to cement the ties of the Anglican Church of Australia with Anglicans around the globe.

The archbishop will be in Australia until 14 October.

Updated

Fire extinguished in Sydney shopping centre

Maria Kovacic elected NSW Liberals president

The NSW Liberals have elected a western Sydney businesswoman as president of the state division, months after she unsuccessfully ran for the federal seat of Parramatta, AAP reports.

Maria Kovacic was elected president of the NSW Liberals by members through a set of council elections, the party announced on Tuesday night.

She ran as the Liberal candidate in the hotly contested federal seat of Parramatta, losing to Labor’s Andrew Charlton.

Her election came on the same day premier Dominic Perrottet welcomed the aspirations of two female upper house Liberal MPs as they signalled their desire to run for seats in the lower house.

Women’s safety minister Natalie Ward will run for lower house speaker Jonathan O’Dea’s seat of Davidson.

Disability services minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones is eyeing the seat of Pittwater, set to be vacated by infrastructure minister Rob Stokes.

Last week NSW treasurer Matt Kean revealed the moderate wing of the Liberal party had committed to a quota of at least 50% female candidates across all vacant Liberal seats.

Kovacic said she wanted to build a stronger NSW Liberal party, making it a more welcoming place where membership numbers could grow:

The election next March will be hard fought.

Our party will be talking directly to our community, including western Sydney and the regions, about how the Perrottet Government can improve their lives and help their families.

The government’s commitments to introducing universal pre-kindergarten, reducing fees for after-school care and funding interventions for domestic violence victims would contribute to improving the lives of women and families, she said.

Updated

RBA’s October surprise triggers investor pullback

“Markets don’t make mistakes,” so the slightly dubious mantra goes, but they can be surprised.

Yesterday dished up one of them, with the RBA lifting its cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.6% rather than the 50bp most pundits had predicted.

The reaction was swift, as money markets got out their proverbial slide rule (the ones they use “run the rule over”, not the “ruler”) and dumped the Australian dollar and snapped up stocks.

And they pared back their expectations of how much higher the RBA would go. Investors are still forecasting another rate rise in November but a lot fewer ahead. Rather than peaking above 4%, they now expect a peak of about 3.5% by mid-2023.

A lot can change, of course, including some large inflation or wage increase figures (the latter less likely).

We look here at something that might not surprise a lot – the first budget from treasurer Jim Chalmers on 25 October.

The lesson from the UK is that monetary and fiscal policies need to be in sync, or the country sinks. And our authorities seem to have been eager students.

Updated

Government should not break promise and scrap stage-three tax cuts, opposition says

Shadow finance minister Jane Hume follows the finance minister on ABC Radio.

Hume is critical of the possibility the government could scrap stage-three tax cuts, saying they had “already broken their promise to reduce energy bills”.

But should tax cuts be funded in deficit?

I would not want to see tax cuts promised by both parties that are already in legislation and that will be good for 95% of all Australians, we would not want to see the Labor government crab walking away from that commitment.

Hume says there are other things the government can do to bring down cost of living:

We want to see a plan where it’s not RBA doing all the heavy lifting bringing down inflation.

As a final question of the interview, the ABC asks Hume: does she regret telling David Speers the Coalition had no policies?

Hume says “of course” she regrets it and describes it as:

A slip of the tongue amplified by Twitter and the flying monkeys on social media.

Updated

October budget to be affected by global economic outlook, finance minister says

Katy Gallagher is also asked about the current economic climate after yesterday’s rate rise. Is the push to get inflation down risking tipping the nation into recession?

I think you can see from the RBA statement they issued yesterday, the balance they’re navigating in the decisions they are taking.

There’s no doubt we have high and rising inflation, the statement again goes to the fact that they’re expecting that to moderate next year.

Gallagher acknowledged the “really significant” pressure the decision places on households, as “finding hundreds of dollars extra a month for your mortgage is really, really tough”.

How exposed is Australia to recessions in the US and UK?

We’re mindful of the decisions we’re taking as we put together the budget, about what’s happening in terms of the global outlook, there are some significant challenges there.

Updated

Finance minister cites pressures on domestic economy

Katy Gallagher says she can “guarantee” Australians that the government will make the right call for the “right economic reasons”.

Patricia Karvelas then asks Gallagher then if she will she prioritise best economic decision over political incentives.

Gallagher says that’s what the government has always done. But she adds:

What has changed is some of those pressures in terms of the domestic economy and the global outlook … and the persistent structural pressures on the budget.

Updated

Katy Gallagher pressed on stage-three tax cuts

Finance minister Katy Gallagher is speaking to ABC Radio.

RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas is asking if she can confirm if the government is in “active conversations” about reconsidering stage-three tax cuts?

Finance minister Katy Gallagher
Finance minister Katy Gallagher. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Gallagher is maintaining that the government hasn’t changed its position:

We are finalising a budget where we are looking across the board at a whole range of decisions and we are being upfront.

But she said the government would be “mindful of the economic circumstances of the times”:

The responsibility for us, working hand in hand with the RBA, is to make the right decisions for the right economic reasons.

Gallagher says the government will be doing “the right thing for the budget and the right thing for the Australian people.”

Updated

Greens call for government to step up spending on affordable homes

The Greens have released a list of demands that it wants the government to consider to secure their support for upcoming legislation establishing the housing Australia future fund. The government has flagged it will introduce a bill for its housing policy by the end of the year but is likely to need the Greens support in the Senate to pass the legislation.

After a party-room meeting this week, the Greens have agreed to ask for the government to consider the following in negotiations.

1. Build 275,000 well-designed public, community and affordable homes over the next five years, enough to wipe out the existing waiting list and work toward building 1m homes over the next 20 years.
2. Introduce a national two-year rent freeze as part of new national tenancy standards.
3. Invest $5bn in maintenance and upgrades for existing public housing to improve accessibility, energy efficiency and ensure better heating and cooling.

The party’s housing and homelessness spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said Labor’s proposal would see the housing situation get worse:

Labor’s plan to build 6000 public, community and affordable homes a year won’t even match the yearly increase in need, let alone tackle the crisis.

At the end of Labor’s five year plan, we will see more people waiting for public and community housing, more people struggling to pay the rent, and the lowest levels of public and community housing since World War II.

The Greens are ready to negotiate in good faith to get the public, community and affordable housing Australia desperately needs, and some real, meaningful national protections for renters.

Updated

New report accuses China of disinformation against Australia

A new report claims the Chinese Communist party is spreading disinformation in Solomon Islands to undermine the relationship between Honiara and its traditional partners such as Australia – and that these efforts appear to be having an impact online.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says it has examined “CCP online influence in the aftermath of the Honiara riots in late 2021 and in response to the leaked security agreement in March 2022”.

Today’s report says that after the November 2021 riots, the CCP “pushed a fabricated narrative that accused Australia, the US and Taiwan of instigating the riots, fomenting unrest, and smearing the relationship between Solomon Islands and China”. It says this narrative “was pushed through party-state media (both in English and in Chinese) through statements from Chinese officials that were shared by the Chinese Embassy, published in local media outlets and quoted by local journalists”.

After the proposed security agreement between China and Solomon Islands was leaked online in March 2022, the CCP “sought to further undermine Solomon Islands’ relationships with Australia and the US” by pushing “a second but similarly themed narrative – that Australia and the US were colonialist bullies that were threatening Solomon Islands’ sovereignty”.

The report says the data is based on analysis of more than 2,000 Facebook comments, of which 1,470 had identified positive or negative sentiment towards a foreign country, grouping (the west) or the Solomon Islands government. The comments examined “were in response to shared party-state media articles, posts from the Chinese Embassy and posts from the three examined local media outlets that contained information about our two topics of focus – the riots or the Solomon Islands – China security agreement”:

There was an overall decline in anti-China Facebook commentary and an increase in pro-China and anti-West commentary in the weeks following the Honiara riots and the leaked China – Solomon Islands security agreement.

Analysis of the anti-West online commentary following the leaked security agreement suggests that the local population used language featured in the CCP’s narrative, such as “bullying”, equally as much as language from local politicians who were independently critical of the US for doing “too little, too late” and failing to address the issue of unexploded ordnance on Guadalcanal.

The report says CCP activities in the Solomon Islands information environment “occur across a spectrum ranging from routine diplomatic activity through to coordinated information operations”. The report says routine diplomatic activity, such as the publication of op-eds and press releases, was “being used in conjunction with online amplification activities to support the same overarching objectives: spreading disinformation about the origins of the Honiara riots and undermining the relationship between Solomon Islands and its traditional partners”.

Updated

Good morning!

A deluge is due to hit Victoria, NSW and Queensland, with many parts of those states preparing for flooding as South Australia begins a clean-up after wild storms.

Severe weather warnings for heavy rainfall are in place from central Queensland all the way down through much of inland New South Wales and along the Murray River in Victoria, after thunderstorms and heavy rainfall struck from Darwin all the way down to Victoria last night.

The list of flood watches is long across these states, with special concern for central and western NSW.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Dean Narromore told the ABC this morning that the rainfall could lead to rapid renewed river rises and potentially flash flooding:

We’re particularly concerned around the areas of Gunnedah, Wee Waa, Warren, Bathurst, Forbes, Gundagai and Tumut and also Wagga Wagga.

In South Australia, a clean-up begins after wild storms linked to that weather system brought down trees and powerlines. The Courier Mail reports that more than 4000 homes and businesses are still without power this morning.

There is more news of hacking in the media. The ABC reports that top Australian defence officials have been hit by a “sophisticated” cyber hack in Singapore. The ABC’s defence correspondent Andrew Greene writes:

Between May and July this year, customer data was stolen from eight Shangri-La hotels across Asia, including the luxury Singapore venue where Defence Minister Richard Marles held top-level security talks with China shortly after Labor’s election win.

This comes as Guardian Australia’s Josh Taylor brings you an exclusive of a different hack, as Australian employees of security firm G4S have had personal information – including tax file numbers, bank account information and medical checks – stolen and posted online in a ransomware attack.

After yesterday’s news of the Reserve Bank’s sixth interest rate rise in as many months, ABC Radio will be speaking to finance minister Katy Gallagher and shadow finance minister Jane Hume later. We’ll bring you the news of what they have to say.

Let’s get going!

Updated

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