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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly and Emily Wind (earlier)

BoM forecasts category three storm – as it happened

Yang Hengjun China Australia Penny Wong Xiao Qian
Queensland premier Steven Miles
Queensland premier Steven Miles is readying for the second cyclone challenge of his leadership after Tropical Cyclone Jasper hit the north of the state in December. Photograph: Dan Peled/Getty Images

An update on the severe storms in QLD here:

Australian stock exchange bounces back

The local stock exchange has snapped its five-day losing streak, with gains nearly across the board, AAP has reported.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Friday finished up 74.7 points, or 1.02%, to 7,421.2, while the broader All Ordinaries added 76.7 points, or 1.01%, to 7,652.3.

For the week, ASX200 finished down 1.0%, however. It’s also down 2.2% so far in 2024, after a 7.1% gain in December.

The Australian dollar was also bouncing back, buying 65.77 US cents, from 65.52 US cents at Thursday’s ASX close.

Updated

The queues for petrol in Kalgoorlie are hundreds of metres long after the city was hit by a blackout. Watch the video below:

Updated

NSW fire hydrants stripped of metal parts

Nearly a tonne of metal has been stolen from fire hydrants across western Sydney in a few months, rendering some inoperable, AAP has reported.

Fire and Rescue NSW has found 38 hydrants with missing components from apartment buildings and other sites across a dozen suburbs since November.

The missing parts are mainly brass and copper fittings, which are valuable when sold for scrap metal.

FRNSW and police have identified the removal of about 850kg of metal fittings, which can sell for as much as $10 a kilogram.

One plumber, aged in his 40s, has been arrested and charged with 18 counts of theft following the hydrant-stripping.

The fittings were important structural components and their loss might render the hydrants unusable and firefighters unable to properly respond to emergencies, authorities said.

Updated

Director general of NSW Department of Primary Industries leaving role

The man responsible for overseeing NSW agriculture and managing threats such as fire ants has departed abruptly from his role, AAP has reported.

Scott Hansen was two months away from marking a decade as the director general of the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) when it was announced on Friday that he was leaving.

The reason for the change, made by regional NSW secretary Rebecca Fox, was not immediately given.

“The department thanks Mr Hansen for his service and significant commitment through some of the toughest conditions NSW’s primary producers and our regional communities have faced during the past 10 years,” a departmental spokesman said in a statement.

Deputy director general Sean Sloan will step into the director general role as the department looks for a new leader.

Scott Hansen
Scott Hansen was two months away from marking a decade as the director general of the Department of Primary Industries. Photograph: NSW Parliament Livestream

Updated

The BoM is warning about a severe heatwave for parts of Queensland, with maximum temperatures in the low-to mid thirties, increasing to the mid-to high thirties by the start of the new week.

Updated

The BoM has put out an update on the severe weather forecast for the north of Australia. You can watch it here:

Updated

Unemployment rate steady despite full-time job losses

Thousands of full-time workers lost their jobs over the holiday period but despite this decline the unemployment rate remains stable, AAP has reported.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday reveals the number of full-time jobs in December plummeted nearly 107,000, marking the largest monthly fall in employment since the COVID-19 lockdowns.

However, the jobless rate managed to hold steady at 3.9% because of outsized job growth in the months before with 52,000 more employed in December than September.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil says the innocuousness of the unemployment rate is masking concerning trends in the labour market.

While the number of Australians employed full-time declined, part-timers surged by more than 41,000, suggesting employers are hiring on a casual and insecure basis rather than offering permanent jobs.

The data also reveals 80,000 fewer women were employed full-time than in November and 42,000 entered part-time work while the overall underemployment rate increased to 8%.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil says the steady unemployment rate is masking concerning trends in the labour market. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Current estimates suggest it could take one of several tracks across the coast and end up over Tenant Creek in the Northern Territory, or bounce off the coast and make ground at New Caledonia. Residents as far north as Cooktown and as far south as Mackay should be on alert, he said.

If it does make landfall in Queensland, Hannify said residents should be prepared for “catastrophic flooding, obviously a storm surge in the vicinity of the low, and obviously very destructive wind gusts”.

“It’s not a guarantee, but certainly a risk for the Queensland coast to have a severe tropical cyclone crossing during next week.”

Updated

‘High chance’ that severe tropical cyclone will cross Queensland, BoM says

Senior Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Felim Hanniffy has given an update on the cyclone building off the coast of Queensland.

Hanniffy said the storm is expected to intensify into a “serious tropical cyclone”, of at least category three. It could cross the Queensland coast at that size, he said.

“The atmosphere is certainly conducive for significant tropical cyclone development in the Coral Sea,” he said.

“I think the bottom line is for next week there’s a high chance of tropical cyclone development in the Coral Sea and a severe tropical cyclone at that.”

But there’s still “a lot of uncertainty” about the direction the storm will head over the next week, he said.

Updated

Many thanks for joining me on the blog today, I’ll leave you with Cait Kelly to take you through the rest of today’s news. Take care!

Wong holds final talks as part of Middle East visit

Foreign minister Penny Wong held her final round of talks as part of her Middle East visit today, this time meeting with key officials in the United Arab Emirates.

Posting to X this afternoon, Wong said this:

The UAE is a key partner for Australia in the region. We cooperate across a broad range of sectors and Australia welcomes expanding ties, including the commencement of trade agreement negotiations.

I spoke with His Highness Sheikh [Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan], and we agreed on the importance of increasing humanitarian assistance to Gaza and finding a pathway out of the conflict.

We discussed averting regional escalation and supporting a political process that meets Israel’s security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood.

I also met with HE Reem Al Hashimy and thanked her for the UAE’s assistance in repatriating Australians in the region and ongoing cooperation on defence and security. We agreed to continue to explore opportunities to further strengthen our relationship.

Updated

The WA department of fire and emergency services has issued further advice on the widespread power outages affecting Kalgoorlie and the wider Wheatbelt, Goldfields and Great Southern regions.

Here is the latest from them:

  • There are 8,800 homes and businesses still without power across the network, including 3500 in Perth Hills, 700 in parts of the Goldfields and 2000 in the Wheatbelt

  • Crews are at work and aim to repair extensive damage to the network “in the next few days”.

  • “There will be some customers who remain without power for a longer duration,” DFES said.

  • Police are increasing patrols in the area to assist the community

  • People should treat all damaged infrastructure as if it is live

  • Customers who have experienced an outage longer than 12 consecutive hours can apply for an extended outage payment once power is reconnected

  • Water supply disruptions are continuing – people may experience a total loss of water or low pressure

  • Power has been restored to some ambulance stations, however some people remain unable to call triple zero (000)

  • Major hospitals are operational

  • Branches from Westpac, NAB, ANZ, CBA and Bankwest have power and will be open for business in Kalgoorlie

  • Non-essential travel should be postponed, and people planning travel to the area should reconsider

Updated

Peregrine’s final moments tracked in Canberra

Canberra’s Deep Space Station Network tracked Peregrine’s final moments, as the moon lander burned up on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

The lander’s mission to reach the lunar surface was foiled by a fuel leak not long after launch – but it would have been the first US moon landing in 50 years.

Please enjoy this footage of of the network’s antenna, Deep Space Station 36, ‘watching’ it go down:

DSN outreach manager, Glen Nagle, said the US company Astrobotic and NASA would make official announcements about the re-entry, but that they were proud to have played their role. He said:

In our control room, people were watching and expressed how fascinating it was seeing the steadiness of the spacecraft’s signal throughout the final moments.

On our screens the signal [was] dropping fast, which was very evocative of what would have been Peregrine’s final plunge into Earth’s atmosphere. Suddenly the signal was gone, signalling for us the end of the mission.

Updated

Editor of the Kalgoorlie Miner Neil Watkinson has had one of the biggest 24 hours of his career.

Power died in their office just before 6pm on Wednesday evening and didn’t return until this morning. But against the odds they managed to get a paper out.

“There were two key elements,” he says.

We have a battery system backup that kicks in if the power goes out, but it only has a limited life. We could have our computers on but didn’t have power to the server - internet, or email, and most reporters didn’t have phone reception.

For some reason I’m still not entirely sure of, my phone was able to mobile hotspot for the entire day. I was expecting one or both to go out at any point in which case we would’ve been completely blind. We developed all these alternate strategies – down to a plan where we might physically take a photo of the text we had written and text that photo to the subs [in Perth] who would rewrite it all out. That would’ve been insane.

With no air conditioner in 42 degree heat they were able to “keep the Kalgoorlie Miner chugging for another day”.

The paper came on the truck this morning. Everyone was hot and bothered but we were out on the ground amongst the community, doing what we have always done.

Updated

Repair of Kalgoorlie power lines could take up to a week, mayor says

Glenn Wilson, mayor of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder council, is providing an update on the widespread outages following Wednesday night’s storm.

As we reported earlier, the main transmission line for Kalgoorlie’s power sustained significant damage and there are five power lines down. The community has been told the outage may last for up to one week as these are repaired.

Thousands are without power, with the outage also affecting the water supply and some mobile connectivity.

Speaking on a Facebook livestream, Wilson thanked the community for their patience, and the local power agencies and emergency services for their efforts.

He said the council looks forward to working with premier Roger Cook to look at safeguarding Kalgoorlie’s energy reliability for the long-term, to prevent things like this from happening.

To have our backup go down [as well] is not good enough.

There was a previous week-long power outage in 2017.

Updated

Kelly Price has just had her power come back on in Kalgoorlie after two days of a near-total blackout.

Apart from a moment last night where we had power for about nine minutes we’ve had no power since Wednesday.

It’s been rough, I’m not going to lie, but we’ve managed. We’ve got a house that’s tiled so we basically lay and slept on the floors just to keep cool, or we’ve been under the hose entertaining the kids.

They’ve lost “almost everything” out of the fridge and freezer after failing to pick up ice yesterday:

It was just chaos throughout town – everyone was trying to get their supplies as well, blocking intersections ... we’ve got to grin and bear it but the government does need to wake up and consider how they can improve the infrastructure.

Updated

Cute news alert!

The NSW Rural Fire Service has rescued a very adorable koala joey.

Volunteers from the Lynwood Park brigade rescued the distressed koala joey from a tree in St Helens Park – volunteers initially tried to coax him down, but the bear “just wouldn’t drop”.

The RFS wrote on X:

With the help of a ladder, modified poles and a fire blanket, the crew was eventually able to euca-lift him out of the tree.

Updated

WA swelters, with the Pilbara forecast to reach 50C

Some West Australians are sweltering through extreme heat, with parts of the state’s north forecast to reach more than 50C, AAP reports.

The Pilbara is expected to hit those intense temperatures either on the weekend or early next week, according to private forecaster Weatherzone. The hottest Australian temperature ever recorded was 50.7C in the Pilbara town of Onslow on 13 January 2022.

Weatherzone predicts that record could break due to a large mass of hot air hovering over the region:

This air mass has the potential to be hotter than usual, even by the Pilbara’s standards, due to enhanced warming from a phenomenon called subsidence.

Australia has only registered official temperatures above 50C on seven occasions. The Bureau of Meteorology has slightly more conservative forecasts for WA’s far north but temperatures are still expected to hit the high 40s.

Updated

Faruqi says Meta has questions to answer on alleged suppression of pro-Palestinian content

The acting federal Greens leader, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, says Meta has questions to answer after Guardian Australia reported the company’s response to concerns she had raised about suppression of Palestinian voices during the Israel-Gaza war.

Meta has blamed bugs for issues of suppression and translation problems reported by pro-Palestinian accounts and denied that there is ongoing censorship of their content, but Faruqi said there continued to be reports of suppression of content from Gaza and from activists and supporters of Palestine.

She said the eSafety commissioner must intervene if Meta is actively censoring its platform in such a way, and ensure “that people have the ability to share news about the atrocities being committed in Gaza by Israel and to activate and organise for an end to Israel’s occupation and apartheid.”

She said:

In no scenario should Palestinian voices be silenced or people stopped from sharing their suffering.

Updated

Power restored to ‘most parts’ of WA goldfields but Kalgoorlie still in the dark

Western Australia’s premier, Roger Cook, has provided an update on the widespread power outages following what he earlier called “unprecedented summer storms”. He said power has been restored to “most parts” of the Goldfields and that people have access to food, water and fuel. Cook wrote on X:

I want to thank every single person involved in these efforts – this achievement is nothing short of extraordinary given the challenging circumstances.

He added that Western Power was able to restore power to 10,000 homes and businesses last night in the region, including Kalgoorlie, Merredin and Kellerberrin.

However, as we flagged earlier, the main transmission line for Kalgoorlie’s power sustained significant damage and there are five powerlines down, which means repairs will take “some time”. The community has been told to prepare for power outages lasting up to one week.

Cook said:

I understand this has been a frustrating and inconvenient experience for residents and businesses.

I’d like to thank everyone for their patience as we worked to get power back online as quickly as possible.

Every Western Australian knows Goldfields locals are made of tough stuff – and that’s really been on full display this week.

Updated

Queenslanders urged to prepare for potential second cyclone

Queenslanders are being urged to be prepared for their second cyclone of the season, which could hit mid next week.

The premier, Steven Miles, has warned residents of north Queensland the storm brewing in the Coral Sea is likely to become a tropical cyclone by the end of the weekend. If the weather system does form into a cyclone, it would be known as Kirrily.

Miles said the route of the storm is still unknown:

It could head towards the Queensland coast, possibly around Townsville, but also possibly as far south as Rockhampton, or alternatively, it could head towards New Caledonia.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of a potential “severe impact” if it does hit the state. Tropical Cyclone Jasper, in December, flooded scores of communities around Cairns.

Updated

Aged care residents evacuated after fire breaks out

Residents at an aged care facility north of Adelaide have been evacuated after a fire broke out at the centre, AAP reports.

Fire crews were called to the blaze in Angle Vale on the Adelaide Plains about 9am today. The fire started in the ceiling of the communal hall, triggering the alarm and sprinkler system.

All residents were safely evacuated from the building without any injuries. It took more than 20 firefighters to extinguish the blaze, given the difficult location.

Investigators do not believe the fire was suspicious, although the aged care facility sustained about $400,000 worth of damage.

Updated

After announcing the Queensland supermarkets inquiry, premier Steven Miles highlighted the issue on X with this example:

A Queensland farmer is selling this 7kg watermelon by the side of the road for $10, because he can’t afford to sell it for the $4 he was offered by the supermarkets. At the checkout, people are paying close to $20.

Updated

Steven Miles announces Queensland supermarkets inquiry

Major supermarkets will face a Queensland parliamentary inquiry into the gap between the cost of groceries and what farmers are being paid for their produce.

The premier, Steven Miles, announced the inquiry on Friday, following meetings with Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. He said:

They were good meetings and they were concerned about the concerns that I was raising with them.

They all agreed to participate in that parliamentary inquiry.

Supermarket chains have come under scrutiny after recording large profits, while consumers struggle with cost of living pressures. Miles said detailed scrutiny of supermarket chains was “fitting” for the kinds of concerns the government had heard from farmers and consumers.

Transparency and scrutiny is a key first step in both addressing the way our farmers are treated as well as delivering cheaper groceries for Queensland families.

- AAP

Updated

Good news! Wild and captive honeyeaters have bred in a breakthrough

A male Regent Honeyeater.
A male Regent Honeyeater. Photograph: Mick Roderick

Conservationists are celebrating the birth of three rare honeyeater chicks as the result of a potentially species-saving breeding program. Captive-born regent honeyeaters have successfully bred with birds in the wild to produce the babies, conservation program coordinators revealed on Friday.

With only between 250 and 300 of the rare songbirds estimated to remain in the wild, every successful breeding event is critical for the endangered species.

Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, which runs the breeding program, released two female regent honeyeaters into the Tomalpin woodlands in the NSW Hunter Valley in October 2021.

Since then, one of the females flew more than 134km west to Capertee national park, northeast of Bathurst, where she and a wild male produced two fledglings in spring.

The other female was spotted with a wild-born partner in the upper Hunter region late in 2023 having previously hatched a wild chick with a fellow captive-bred partner.

The pair were the first known zoo-bred regent honeyeaters to successfully reproduce in the wild in NSW.

- AAP

An adult regent honeyeater bird with two chicks.
An adult regent honeyeater bird with two chicks. Photograph: Mick Roderick/Australian National University

Updated

ABC reports from a Kalgoorlie without power: ‘People look after each other’

Just earlier the ABC spoke with a Kalgoorlie local and real estate agent, Iris Haynes, about the town’s widespread power outages.

“Most homes and businesses” in the town are without power, according to police, with outages also affecting the water supply, telephone services, internet connection, fuel stations and retail outlets.

Haynes said she lost power on Wednesday evening. Having lived through a week-long power outage in November 2017, she was prepared – she has a petrol-operated generator outside and a battery one inside for the fridge.

However, when she met with a client who had just got out of hospital after three weeks, she gave him the lithium generator to cool down for the day:

And also with our [community] Facebook group … we asked if somebody needed to charge a phone. This is how it goes in the neighbourhood - people look after each other.

Haynes said she is worried for those in the community on low incomes, and those in old homes without proper insulation. Kalgoorlie is forecast to reach a max of 40C today.

She also understands the town’s backup generator failed, which plunged the CBD into a blackout:

I went to buy some bread for someone, and I went to the local large supermarket - it was all in the dark, it was really eerie to go there…

And I just heard from my colleague, my boss, this morning, to say she waited 1 hour and 45 minutes to buy something because there were so many people at the checkout. That’s not something you expect in 2024.

Hayes drives an electric vehicle but said people have had to drive 80km to Kambalda to fill their tanks.

Updated

NT police attempting to recover submerged vehicle that may have person trapped inside

Northern Territory police are working to recover a vehicle submerged in water yesterday, which may have a passenger in it.

Around 4.30pm, police received reports that a vehicle carrying two people had crashed into the water and became trapped near a popular Top End fishing spot – Six Pack Creek boat ramp.

Police said one occupant of the vehicle escaped prior to it sinking but “a second passenger reportedly [was not able] to extract from the vehicle”. The vehicle remains underwater, and recovery efforts are ongoing.

Detective senior sergeant Brendan Lindner said:

This is a complex recovery effort and NT police are yet to confirm a person remains in the vehicle.

There are currently road blocks in place along Barramundi Drive and the Javalin Road intersections and we are urging motorists to avoid the area.

Updated

Humanitarian group says Palestinians will be dependent on aid for ‘years, if not decades’

The Catholic humanitarian aid agency Caritas Australia has warned Palestinians will be dependent on aid for years into the future after the destruction of key infrastructure – such as hospitals – in Gaza.

It comes as Israel and Hamas struck a deal this week allowing the passage of a shipment of medicine for Israeli hostages and Palestinian civilians.

Israel’s “complete siege” of Gaza, which has cut off water, food and power supplies to the territory, has been in place since early October after Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200.

After more than 100 days of conflict in the Gaza strip - home to 2.4 million people - just 15 out of the territory’s 36 hospitals are partially operating, according to the World Health Organisation. Medical supplies, such as insulin, anaesthetics, antibiotics, are also almost totally exhausted, doctors and medical officials in the territory say.

Sally Thomas, the aid agency’s humanitarian emergencies lead, said the recent deal “can only go so far to stem the tide of Palestinian suffering”.

It is worth remembering that 8 in 10 Palestinians were dependent on humanitarian aid before the events of October 7th, with many homes, hospitals and other infrastructure now destroyed after over 100 days of conflict.

This means that however the politics of this bear out, the international community should anticipate Palestinians being at an unprecedented level of need years, if not decades, into the future.

Thomas added the longer-term repercussions for the Palestinian people included prolonged malnutrition and a lack of education on the development of Palestinian children.

Updated

Road train kills pedestrian south of Darwin

A man has died after being hit by a road train on a remote highway in the Northern Territory, AAP reports.

Police received reports late yesterday evening that a man had been hit by a truck on the Stuart Highway, almost 4kms south of the Mataranka cemetery. The man was declared dead at the scene and has not been formally identified.

The driver allegedly did not stop after the crash but later called police to notify them. He tested negative for alcohol and has undergone drug testing.

Detective senior sergeant Brendan Lindner said detectives are still trying to work out what happened:

The investigation is in the early stages and we would like to speak with anyone who saw any pedestrians or parked vehicles on the Stuart Highway south of Mataranka last night.

Updated

Chalmers cheers IMF ‘endorsement’ of government’s economic management

The International Monetary Fund has just released its latest assessment of the Australian economy and while not a lot hinges on it (we’re not seeking an IMF loan, say), there are some interesting points.

The IMF staff chat to the RBA, Treasury and so on, and so their estimates hint at what those bodies’ forecasts are going to look like too. GDP growth, the IMF reckons, will slide from 1.8% in 2023 to 1.4% this year with “faltering private consumption” – especially from those with mortgages – dragging on the economy.

The IMF repeats its view that inflation will “decline gradually and return to the RBA’s target range in 2026”.

Perhaps contrasting the RBA’s present estimate for inflation to subside to 3% or below (from 4.3% in November) only by 2025, the fund’s directors “highlighted the potential need for further monetary tightening” (aka another RBA rate hike).

The IMF’s assessment, though, likely didn’t capture the latest data such as the poor December jobs figures out yesterday. And markets see almost 0% chance of a rate rise when the RBA board meets on 5-6 February (with the next move predicted to be a cut).

Anyway, the IMF directors stressed “the importance of continued monetary and fiscal policy coordination to reduce inflation and recommended reforms to promote productivity growth and the green transition”.

“Directors welcomed the authorities’ progress on fiscal consolidation and commitment to debt sustainability” while underscoring “the need for a tighter fiscal stance to support disinflation”. (Reforming the spilt between direct and indirect taxes would help, they say, without mentioning the controversial stage-three tax cuts.)

Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, sees the report as “a welcome endorsement of our progress in repairing the budget, fighting inflation and investing in skills, housing and energy”, and said:

The report makes it clear that our government is doing better than other countries’ when it comes to getting our budget into much better condition as a buffer against the global economic uncertainty ahead.

Australia’s overall economic picture is rosier than most, it’s fair to say. Still, it’s not necessarily much consolation for those households and firms on the brink... and that’s the Chalmers’ political challenge (and the rest of the government’s).

Updated

Firefighters confirm North Bondi fire started by faulty lithium ion battery

Fire and Rescue NSW investigators have confirmed a fire in North Bondi, Sydney early this morning was sparked by a faulty Lithium ion battery.

(We had this in the blog a bit earlier this morning here).

Four tourists from South America were asleep inside a unit on Curlewis Street when a blaze broke out just before 4am, FRNSW said. One of them was woken by the sound of small explosions, and alerted the other occupants before fleeing the smoke-filled building.

Two people were forced to escape through a window, FRNSW said, while 14 people in adjoining units were evacuated as a precaution.

FRNSW firefighters quickly extinguished the fire, with damage contained to the unit in which it started.

As a result of the fire, the occupants have lost all their personal possessions, including passports, phones and bank records, but have acknowledged to fire crews they were lucky to escape with their lives.

Investigations have established an e-bike battery was left on-charge in a bedroom and ignited, sparking the fire.

Updated

The City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder council will host a livestream at 11am local time (2pm AEDT) to provide an update on the power outages.

We will aim to bring you this here on the blog, but you can follow along yourself on their Facebook page here later today.

Updated

Oral cancer rates on the rise for younger woman: report

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says that oral cancer rates are on the rise for women under 45, with cases of tongue cancer increasing by around 4% each year.

The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Nicole Higgins, spoke to ABC TV about this earlier and said oral cancer is still quite rare in the community.

She said it is most common in men over 60 and related to cigarette smoking, alcohol and HPV, but health practitioners are unsure why there is a rise in cases for women without these traditional risk factors.

Higgins said “this is coming out of the blue” and anyone with ulcers in their mouth, a sore that doesn’t heal, loose teeth or spots that don’t heal should be checked by a GP or the dentist.

One of the challenges [for early detection is] they are painless and it is not in an area where people actually look or see until there has been some bleeding or pain.

Higgins is advocating for more research and awareness around the symptoms, for both patients and health practitioners, so they can understand why there is this rise in cases.

Updated

Storm warning for south-east Queensland

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast severe storms with heavy and intense rainfall for inland south-east Queensland, and the Wide Bay and Burnett areas.

It said this could lead to dangerous flash flooding:

Updated

What caused the widespread power outage in Kalgoorlie?

Western Power said it is working to restore power to around 15,000 homes and business in Kalgoorlie, following severe thunderstorms on Wednesday night.

This has left most homes and businesses without power.

It said that five 220kVA large transmission towers that supply power on the Merredin to Kalgoorlie line were damaged by the storm:

We have a team of engineers and technicians working on plans to re-energise the 220kVA line.

We were able to temporarily restore power to around 10,000 customers in Kalgoorlie townsite last night through backup generation from the gas turbine power station located near West Kalgoorlie Terminal however an issue with the turbine meant customers in Kalgoorlie townsite lost power again at around 10pm.

Synergy technicians are currently conducting repairs on the power station.

More Rozelle Parklands samples test positive for asbestos

Two more samples of mulch taken from garden beds around the Rozelle Parklands precinct in Sydney’s inner west have tested positive for asbestos as the remediation plan progresses.

Last night Transport for New South Wales confirmed the additional positive results after the Guardian revealed there was a seven-day delay between the department first being alerted to the possible contamination and testing beginning.

The further asbestos finds were made after the operators of the WestConnex motorway asked the department to test more sites within the precinct, which were not open to the public.

The department said:

A draft remediation plan to remove asbestos from the Rozelle Parklands and associated sites will be provided to Transport for NSW by main contractor John Holland CPB Joint Venture.

Transport for NSW will work through that plan to ensure it aligns with the clean-up notice issued by the NSW Environment Protection Authority.
Once a finalised plan is agreed, Transport for NSW will update the community on how and when this work will be undertaken to comply with the EPA’s direction.

Updated

We’ll be keeping an eye on the Western Australian power outages here on the blog today. Please send any tips or photos (if you are able) to us via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can email me: emily.wind@theguardian.com.

And most importantly, please stay safe and look after yourself, and each other.

WA premier says electricity infrastructure hit by ‘significant damage’

Western Australian premier Roger Cook said “unprecedented summer storms” have caused “significant damage” to electricity infrastructure across the state, including its main high-voltage transmission network.

In an update posted last night to X, he said this:

What we’re seeing are widespread power outages for both homes and businesses, including to most of Kalgoorlie. All relevant government agencies are working around the clock to fix the issue. However, mobile phone coverage may be affected in these areas.

Major hospitals are operational, and police and emergency services are upping patrols. The Kalgoorlie Police Station is open to the public 24/7.

To those in affected communities - we are doing everything we can to bring power back as quickly as possible.

Please check on each other, especially vulnerable neighbours and members of your community, and take care. I will provide further updates as the situation evolves.

Updated

Remote WA mining town of Kalgoorlie facing a week without power

The remote mining town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is being told it should prepare for power outages lasting up to a week.

This comes as “most homes and businesses” in the town are without power, according to police.

The outages, caused by severe thunderstorms on Wednesday night, are also affecting the water supply, telephone services, internet connection, fuel stations and retail outlets, according to the department of fire and emergency services.

Thousands of Western Power customers remain without power, across 97 active outages.

As Kalgoorlie enters its second day without power, the town is forecast to hit a maximum temperature of 40C, with a high fire danger rating.

WA police said it met with relevant agencies last night and would be working “around the clock to resolve the issue”.

Western Australia has been hit with widespread storms and bushfires in recent days, and earlier in the week around 34,000 were without power as a result.

Updated

Council for Civil Liberties says hate speech law review needs ‘extensive’ community consultation

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties says it hopes a review of s93Z of the state’s Crimes Act will involve “extensive” community consultation. We had all the details about the review, being led by Tom Bathurst KC AC, earlier in the blog here.

In a statement, the NSWCCL noted that NSW has strong “hate speech” laws that already criminalises speech that either intentionally or recklessly threatens or incites violence against someone based on their race, religion, sexual orientation or other characteristics – and argues these should be seen within the context of federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

Resort to criminal law should always be a last resort. The law should not criminalise legitimate free speech.

The NSWCCL said it is “concerned that NSW police have been given power to launch prosecutions under s93Z”:

NSW police have not overcome entrenched hostility to some vulnerable communities, as demonstrated by the recent report of the special commission of inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes.

If the legal threshold for criminal prosecutions is lowered, it will not make faith communities any safer from a perceived risk of violence or the risk of actual violence occurring. Lowering the threshold could substantially alter the fabric of our democracy.

The council said it supports “educative and human rights based models” that deal with community tensions rather than “the blunt instrument of criminal law which give the police power to target vulnerable people in discriminatory ways”.

Updated

Executive Council of Australian Jewry calls on government to declare 7 October Hamas attacks as terrorism'

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry says it is “perplexing and difficult to comprehend” why the Albanese government is still “considering” whether to make a terror ruling on the 7 October attack by Hamas on Israel.

In a statement, co-CEO Alex Ryvchin noted that Hamas is a designated terrorist organisation in Australia and cabinet ministers have referred to the attack as terrorism.

He said:

We can only hope any holdup in the designation is bureaucratic because if these attacks were not terror, nothing is.

Hamas’s deliberate targeting of civilians, its use of gruesome methods of murder including beheading and burning alive, its use of sexual torture and abduction and its heinous live broadcast of its atrocities to the families of its victim using Facebook Live were all intended to inflict maximum terror and psychological trauma not only on the victims but the people of Israel and the civilised world.

Updated

Potential tropical cyclone Kirrily’s track looking clearer

For now, the Bureau of Meteorology is offering a wide spread on its cyclone warning page of where Tropical Cyclone Kirrily – assuming it forms – will go:

The BoM gives an 85% chance that the cyclone will form in the Coral Sea. Their own access model points to potential cyclone Kirrily forming near the Queensland coast late on Thursday into Friday.

Another view is being offered by the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts. The latest runs of its main model has Kirrily tracking towards the Queensland coast nearer Brisbane.

As it happens, ECMWF has its own experimental model based on machine learning that it is trialing to see how it compares with the more traditional numerical models (that generate an ensemble of forecasts, rather than the AI’s single run).

This model has Kirrily crossing the Queensland coast a bit earlier than the others:

Queensland residents, though, should continue to monitor the bureau’s forecasts - which is also what the emergency services rely on. Still, the developments of machine learning are interesting, as we note here:

More to come in this space, as they say.

Updated

BoM report no tsunami threat for Australia after Tongan earthquake

The Bureau of Meteorology says there is no tsunami threat to Australia following a magnitude 6.5 earthquake near the Tonga Islands.

Updated

Albanese says federal incentives will power a ‘race to fix up housing in this country’

Asked about the state’s planning minister Paul Scully’s call for some of the funding to be paid upfront to pay for sewerage, Anthony Albanese said:

No, [we] provide other funding of course for infrastructure, separate for this. But we have [that] incentive that’s the national agreement as part of national cabinet, and that is an incentive for states and territories essentially to be rewarded for meeting their targets.

That amount of money will be carved up; if only one state wins the race to meet their targets, then that state will receive all of the funding.

Albanese said it is a “race to fix up housing in this country”.

We know that it’s had a real impact and that’s why we had measures in the budget, including the incentive for the private sector for build-to-rent schemes as well. Now, the property council estimates that that will result … in … building between 150 and 250,000 dwellings. That will make a difference right around the country.

We need all levels of government federal, state and local to work together with the private sector to achieve this outcome because we know that for many younger people in particular, what they say to me is the big thing they’re concerned about – and parents are concerned about for their kids as well – is that they’ll never be able to own a home. And part of that is about supply.

Updated

Housing targets are still achievable: PM

Speaking to ABC Sydney Radio, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, responded to comments from the NSW premier, Chris Minns, that the state’s housing target of 75,000 this year is likely not achievable.

Albanese said the targets set at national cabinet are achievable because they are “over the decade”, although he acknowledged NSW is starting from “way behind” because it hasn’t had “appropriate planning mechanisms in place”. He said:

We need to make sure that we get all different forms of affordable housing. We have our social housing accelerator; NSW benefited with more than $600m for that this week.

Albanese said states were offered funding of $3bn “at the end” of delivering on housing targets “as an incentive”.

“I’m confident that we can work constructively with New South Wales to do so,” he said, pointing to Parramatta Road as a precinct that should have more density.

Updated

ABC Melbourne building evacuated due to fire alarm

The ABC Melbourne building had to be evacuated in the final half hour of News Breakfast today due to a fire alarm, according to host Michael Rowland.

He said on X that everyone is safe and the emergency is over. In a video, he said the situation did not appear to be serious:

Updated

Albanese ‘shocked’ by ‘extraordinary’ Rozelle asbestos contamination

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has commented on asbestos contamination in recycled mulch used at Rozelle parklands. He told ABC Radio he was “shocked by these revelations” and doesn’t understand how “it wasn’t foreseen”.

It’s just extraordinary.

The people of Rozelle and that local community were essentially given this parkland as compensation in part for the disruption that occurred in the construction of Westconnex, that went for a long period of time…

This was seen as a plus .... [to have] recreational space and the fact that it’s closed is really disappointing and I want to make sure that the appropriate authorities get on top of this really quickly, clean it up once and for all so that the people of the inner west, and others visiting, can have access to this open space.

Albanese said getting the area cleaned up is a “priority because of people’s safety”.

You don’t want your young boy or girl playing in a playground that’s risky to them. You want to be a positive experience ... and I just want people to have access to it as soon as possible because open space is a real priority.

Albanese said the timeframe for cleanup by 29 February was “reasonable”.

Updated

Simon Birmingham calls on government to ‘use all available diplomatic means’ to secure freedom of Dr Yang Hengjun

The shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, has sent this thoughts to Dr Yang Hengjun and his family on the fifth anniversary of his detention in China. He called on the Albanese government to “use all available diplomatic means” to ensure Yang’s wellbeing and secure his release.

Birmingham wrote on X:

Today marks 5 years since Australian Dr Yang Hengjun was detained in China. He continues to be held indefinitely.

Our thoughts are with Dr Yang & his family. The Albanese government must use all available diplomatic means to ensure Dr Yang’s wellbeing & secure his release.

In a statement earlier today, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, wrote:

The Australian government will continue to advocate for Dr Yang’s interests and wellbeing at the highest levels, including for the appropriate medical treatment, and provide consular assistance to him and his family.

You can read more about this here.

Updated

Inala byelection set for 16 March

The Inala by-election – triggered by the resignation of former Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – will be held on 16 March.

The date was announced this morning, recommended by the premier, Steven Miles, to be held on the same day as local government elections to “minimise administrative and operational costs”.

Palaszczuk’s resignation as the member for Inala and as premier took effect on 31 December.

The election of a new Inala MP will mark the first time in more than 31 years that the seat is not held by a Palaszczuk – Annastacia held the seat from September 2006 and was preceded by her father Henry Palaszczuk, who represented the electorate from 19 September 1992.

Miles said in a statement:

I want to pay tribute to Annastacia Palaszczuk and thank her for her service.

I am looking forward to continuing the strong legacy our government has built for the Inala electorate and all Queenslanders.

Updated

A closer look at NSW racial vilification laws

More from AAP on the NSW government’s review of inciting violence laws:

Since local tensions erupted over escalating violence in Israel and Gaza last year, NSW’s incitement and vilification laws have come under close review, despite some views that changing them could unnecessarily stifle free speech.

In November, the government passed laws giving police power to pursue prosecutions under section 93Z without gaining approval from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Seeking permission from the DPP was cited by the government as a key reason no person had been convicted under the law since its introduction in 2018.

Prior to the latest escalation of violence in the Middle East, legislation was passed in August making it illegal to publicly ridicule someone due to their religious beliefs.

The amendment to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 made it unlawful to “by a public act, incite hatred towards, serious contempt for, or severe ridicule of, a person or group of persons, because of their religious belief, affiliation or activity”.

According to the government, the changes brought religious protections in line with existing provisions making vilification unlawful on the grounds of race, homosexuality, transgender status and HIV/AIDS status.

The acting attorney general, Ron Hoenig, said the review is an important step towards promoting social cohesion.

Updated

NSW to review inciting violence laws over Gaza tensions

Concerns from some community groups that laws in NSW prohibiting incitement of violence don’t go far enough have prompted a legal review, AAP reports.

Former NSW Supreme Court chief justice, Tom Bathurst AC KC, will review laws under section 93Z of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which make it an offence to publicly threaten or incite violence against a person on the grounds of race or religious belief or affiliation.

In announcing the measure today, the premier, Chris Minns, said it is vital to have legal protection for people from different communities all around the world who call NSW home.

The widespread loss of life and impacts of war in the Middle East is traumatic for many families and communities. The impacts are felt deeply by many.

The NSW government is deeply committed to ensuring that all communities are able to live peacefully without fear of violence, or threats of violence.

This review, to be conducted by one of the state’s most respected legal minds, will be considered and thorough and help provide the community with confidence that our laws are operating effectively.

Updated

Dunkley byelection to be held on 2 March

The speaker of the house, Milton Dick, has announced that the Dunkley byelection will be held on 2 March.

The Dunkley by-election was triggered following the death of MP Peta Murphy, who held the seat centred on the outer Melbourne suburb of Frankston.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been campaigning with Labor’s candidate, community leader Jodie Belyea, while the Liberals have touted Frankston’s mayor, Nathan Conroy, as its candidate.

Updated

As we brought you earlier on the blog, today marks the fifth anniversary of Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun’s detention in China.

His friend Feng Chongyi, who is a professor of Chinese politics at UTS in Sydney, spoke to ABC RN earlier about his condition and prospects for release.

Feng said that his friend is in “very poor health” and that the “torture, the detention and the harsh conditions” over five years has taken “a very heavy toll” on his health.

Five years ago he was a very healthy middle aged man. Now he suffers from a lot of diseases, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and especially kidney disease.

Feng said the government should use its economic and geopolitical leverage in China to do more:

I think they should be very clear and determined and demand for the immediate release of Yang Hengjun. It is an outrageous, fabricated case against [him].

- with AAP

AFP warn parents to be vigilent against sextortion attempts

The Australian Federal Police is urging parents and carers to help protect young people from the threat of sextortion online.

Sextortion is a form of online blackmail where offenders trick or coerce someone into sending sexual images of themselves, before threatening to share the images unless their demands are met.

Recent data from the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation shows around 300 reports of sextortion targeting children each month.

The AFP’s commander, Helen Schneider, said there were some telltale signs of sextortion which every parent and carer needed to know:

Warning signs include incoming friend requests from strangers or people pretending to be friends with your child, or sudden sexualised questions, conversations, or photos from a random profile, who then ask for some in return.

If your child is or has been a victim, it is important to stay calm and reassure them that it’s not their fault and that there is help available.

You can read more, and access support material, here.

Updated

BoM provides update on NT floods

Earlier, Miriam Bradbury, a BoM meteorologist, spoke to ABC News Breakfast to provide an update on the latest weather conditions in the Northern Territory. It comes as around 100 people have been evacuated from the Top End due to flooding.

Bradbury said there was a general flooding warning current for the Victoria River catchment, with water over the Victoria Highway at the Victoria River crossing.

So it’s a really really significant situation … even though it is a generalised flood warning, rather than moderate or major, it still will have a significant impact.

She said there is the potential for more heavy and intense rainfall as the tropical low persists, enhancing the monsoon trough over the NT.

The flood risk is really high still. The catchments are saturated after days of rain already. We’ve got flood watches current for much of the Top End and northern interior of the NT, with a number of flood warnings in place.

Updated

Victoria police recover over $600,000 worth of drugs in raids

A man has had to let go of his prized Lego collection yesterday after police seized more than $600,000 worth of 1,4-Butanediol – a chemical that mirrors the drug GHB when ingested.

Police, who had been building a case for more than four months, executed five simultaneous search warrants and arrested a 45-year-old man in Morwell. During the searches, police located the 1,4-Butanediol as well as:

  • 34kg of iodine – a precursor to methylamphetamine.

  • 32kg of hypophosphorus acid – a precursor to methylamphetamine.

  • Illegal steroids.

  • Methylamphetamine.

  • A handgun.

  • An extendable baton.

  • Ammunition.

  • Three digital devices.

Police also uncovered 74 boxes of Lego, one Rolex watch and four Breitling watches, which they will allege are the proceeds of crime.

The Morwell man was in the afternoon charged with trafficking a large commercial quantity of a drug of dependence, three counts of committing an indictable offence on bail, two counts of deal with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime, prohibited person possessing a firearm, two counts of possessing a prescribed precursor chemical and trafficking methylamphetamine.

He was remanded overnight to appear before Latrobe magistrates court today.

Updated

Wong makes UAE visit on final leg of Middle East trip

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, will hold her final round of talks in the Middle East when she meets key officials from the United Arab Emirates, AAP reports.

Senator Wong arrived in the UAE last night, Australian time, following discussions with Israeli and Palestinian representatives.

Talks with counterparts in the UAE are expected to centre on ways of preventing the conflict between Israel and Hamas spreading to other parts of the Middle East.

Wong will also meet Australian Defence Force troops based in the nation who have helped to return Australian citizens who were caught up in the conflict following the 7 October attacks by Hamas.

Updated

Pollution warning leaves some Sydney beaches unsuitable for swimming

Sydneysiders hoping to beat the humidity and go to the beach are being warned to check for pollution.

Beach Watch is warning that due to the recent rain, a number of beaches have poor water quality, with pollution possible. A number of locations are listed as “unsuitable for swimming” due to pollution, including Balmoral Baths, Foreshore Beach and Rose Bay Beach.

Some places are listed as possibly containing pollution. An alert for Bronte Beach reads:

Caution advised for swimming. Water quality usually suitable for swimming, but young children, elderly or those with compromised health may be at increased risk.

Pollution is listed as unlikely for Bondi Beach today.

Some beaches with pollution warnings will have signage up at the beach, but you can read the full list of alerts here before heading out.

Updated

Over 9,000 locations in WA still without power after storms and fires

Thousands in Western Australia remain without power following storm and bushfire-related outages, including “most homes and businesses” in Kalgoorlie.

According to Western Power, around 9,000 homes and businesses remain without power, with services restored to 24,000. There are 96 active outages.

Western Power’s latest update said that current restoration times are “unknown” but it would work to “restore more customers over coming days”.

Full customer restoration will take a number of days and we are prioritising key sites.

WA police noted there are “significant” power outages affecting the Wheatbelt, Goldfields and Great Southern regions policing districts – including “most homes and businesses” in Kalgoorlie.

A police statement said all relevant agencies met on Thursday night and will be working “around the clock to resolve the issue”, with some mobile phone coverage affected in these areas:

Major hospitals are operational, and police and emergency services are upping patrols. The Kalgoorlie police station is open to the public 24/7.

Emergency services are urging the affected communities to look out for each other. Check on vulnerable neighbours and community members.

Updated

Unit fire believed to be linked to electric scooter: Fire and Rescue NSW

Emergency crews have gained control of a fire in the top floor unit of an apartment block in North Bondi.

Fire and Rescue NSW said the blaze, in a three-level block on Curlewis Street, is being investigated for a possible electric scooter being involved.

Just before 6am Old South Head Road had reopened following the fire, however there is still no access to Curlewis Street as emergency services remain on site, according to Live Traffic.

Updated

A hundred people evacuated from Top End amid rain and high winds

A remote Northern Territory community could be inundated for a week after days of heavy rain as another tropical cyclone building in the Coral Sea has Queensland in its sights, AAP reports.

Flooding has hit Australia’s Top End with motorists stranded and about 100 people evacuated. There was a report last night of a helicopter pilot rescuing three people from a truck roof and taking them to the Victoria River roadhouse, west of Katherine.

About 40 people from Pigeon Hole, a settlement on Bilinara Aboriginal land trust surrounded by Victoria River Downs pastoral property, have been relocated while another 50 at nearby Daguragu left for Kalkarindji.

Some Pigeon Hole homes were inundated, with police predicting the community would be flooded for up to a week. About 35 Pigeon Hole residents were expected to be transported to Darwin with another five medically vulnerable people sent to Katherine.

Storms have swept across the Top End.
Storms have swept across the Top End. Photograph: Neve Brissenden/AAP

The acting assistant commissioner for NT police, Matt Hollamby, said:

We want them to be safe and comfortable.

Authorities are also on standby at Daly River where flood levels were being monitored.

A monsoon trough continues to produce heavy rain in the NT, with 690mm recorded across seven days at Wadeye south of Darwin. Roads are closed along the Victoria River between Katherine and the Western Australia border while the Buntine Highway has also been cut.

Police said a number of motorists had been stranded.

Updated

Many thanks to Martin for kicking things off! I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be with you on the blog today.

See something that needs attention? You can get in touch on X, @emilywindwrites, or send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.

With that, let’s get started.

Wong announces funding for – and criticism of – UN Palestinian refugee education program

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has met with the head of a key UN agency and pressed for further action to address criticism of its teaching materials – days after she announced funding to help it deliver services to the people of Gaza.

The $21.5m in humanitarian assistance announced on Tuesday included $6m for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) “to provide urgent lifesaving assistance including food, shelter and emergency health care”.

This element of the Australian government’s package has been criticised by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Coalition’s home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, who told the ABC earlier this week that UNRWA-run schools “have been implicated in teaching antisemitic content to their students”.

Wong met yesterday with the commissioner-general of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, and “reaffirmed her support for the vital work the organisation does”.

Wong also expressed her condolences for the 150 UNRWA staff that had been killed in the current conflict.

Officials said the minister “welcomed Mr Lazzarini’s recent announcement that the organisation would hold an independent review into claims of pro-Hamas activity in his organisation”.

It is understood Lazzarini “confirmed that UNRWA had investigated and identified a small number of problematic sections in textbooks and that material inconsistent with UN values was not taught in classrooms”. Officials said Wong “pressed him to go further and remove them”.

Lazzarini told the ABC’s 7.30 program last night:

I have informed your minister that UNRWA has taken the decision to commission an independent review, to look at all the allegations regarding UNRWA and its activities in Gaza.

Lazzarini said his agency had been subjected to “quite a number” of “smear campaigns” so it was important for a review to be conducted at arm’s length.

Updated

Australia 'deeply troubled' by ongoing detention of Yang Hengjun in China

The Australian government says it is “deeply troubled” by ongoing delays in the case of Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun, with today marking the fifth anniversary of his detention in China.

But the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, also praised Yang’s strength, and promised that the Australian government would continue to advocate for his interests and wellbeing at the highest levels in talks with China.

Yang, an Australian writer and avowed democracy activist, was detained in China in January 2019 and charged with espionage later that year.

Yang has previously stated he is “100% innocent of the allegations” and that he “will never confess to something I haven’t done”. His closed trial was held in Beijing in May 2021 but he has still not received a verdict, with the court granting multiple three-month extensions on the deadline for handing down a decision.

In a statement issued today, Wong said:

I was moved to read the letter from Dr Yang’s sons late last year. All Australians know how much Dr Yang loves his family and his country. I want to acknowledge the strength that Dr Yang has demonstrated, and the strength of his family and friends. Our thoughts are with them all.

Wong said that the Australian government had consistently “called for basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment for Yang, in accordance with international norms and China’s legal obligations”.

Earlier this week, China’s ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, argued Yang’s case was “different in nature” from the case of fellow Australian Cheng Lei, who was released late last year. Xiao added:

To be honest, I cannot expect that the case would come to such a conclusion likewise.

Welcome

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be lining up some of the best overnight stories for you before my colleague Emily Wind takes the keys.

The star-rating system for aged care homes is a “total waste of time”, according to one expert, amid concern that some providers are winning four or five-star marks despite poor performance. Our top story reports on concerns that families are potentially being misled after it emerged that 150 aged care homes that did not meet minimum standards for safety and care were awarded four or five-star compliance ratings last year thanks largely due to a loophole in the system.

About 40 people have been evacuated overnight from Pigeon Hole, a remote settlement about eight hours south of Darwin, with police warning it could be inundated for a week as a monsoon trough continued to dump heavy rain on the territory. More than 690mm of rain was recorded across seven days at Wadeye, south of Darwin, and several roads have been closed with flash flooding warnings in place around Katherine. To the east, a tropical low building in the Coral Sea is expected to turn towards the Queensland coast from Sunday, with the system most likely becoming a tropical cyclone by Monday. More coming up.

Welfare advocates have renewed calls for the Labor government to drop the work for the dole program after a major not-for-profit announced it was cutting ties with the scheme over concerns it pushes participants into hardship. The Brotherhood of St Laurence announced this week it would no longer participate or use jobseekers from the program, saying it is “not in the best interests of people who are unemployed”. It follows a report by MPs which found the scheme “does not increase employability, fails to enable social participation, and creates safety risks in some cases”.

Updated

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