Goodnight from us
We’ll be wrapping up the live blog for the day now. Thanks for staying with us on this Sunday ahead of what will be a rainy week to come. The blog will be back tomorrow morning.
Goodnight, and stay safe.
Updated
Social media giants give cautious support to new misinformation policy
The main lobby group for digital giants have both cautiously backed the government’s plans to address mis and disinformation, while the federal opposition has raised concerns about freedom of speech.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, today unveiled new plans to give ACMA power to register and create new industry codes and standards to deal with the issue, with potential penalties up to 5% of a platform’s global turnover.
The Digital Industry Group Inc. (Digi), which represents the likes of Google, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, said it “shares the Government’s strong commitment to protecting Australians from harms related to misinformation and disinformation”.
A spokesperson said in a statement:
In principle, DIGI supports the granting of new powers to the ACMA that are broadly consistent with their previous recommendations, and we will be closely reviewing the legislation and look forward to participating in the public consultation.
We welcome reinforcement of DIGI’s efforts and the formalisation of our long-term working relationship with the ACMA, as sustained shifts in the fight against mis- and disinformation require a multi-stakeholder approach.
The shadow communications minister, David Coleman, said the Coalition wanted to see “careful and cautious review” of the issue, raising concerns around freedom of speech and expression:
This is a complex area of policy and Government overreach must be avoided.
The public will want to know exactly who decides whether a particular piece of content is ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’.
Coleman noted that the changes “potentially places substantial power in the hands of government officials”:
We will engage with stakeholders and carefully examine the proposed legislation to ensure that it strikes an appropriate balance.
Updated
Scandal-plagued PWC looks overseas for new boss
PwC has appointed Kevin Burrowes, a 19-year partner in PwC’s UK arm to head up its Australian division as it confronts multiple scandals involving its handling of sensitive public information.
Burrowes is now leader of PwC Network’s global clients and industries but will relocate to Sydney and become a partner in PwC Australia. Kristin Stubbins will remain acting CEO until he makes the transition.
In a statement on Sunday, Justin Carrol, chair of PwC’s governance board said Burrowes will role will be to “lead the management team and serve as Chair of the firm’s executive board to ensure the firm fully responds to the need to enhance leadership and governance and reinforce our values throughout the organisation”:
The Board wants to thank our Acting CEO Kristin Stubbins for leading the firm during this challenging period marked by rapid change.
We look forward to welcoming Kevin to our firm and leveraging his decades of executive leadership, unique experience working with PwC’s largest global clients and his extensive knowledge of the PwC Network.
Carrol said the priority will be to “enhance the firm’s culture, with a focus on ethics and controls”:
Kevin’s experience across other parts of the PwC Network ensures that as he takes over the leadership in Australia he brings a fresh perspective to the firm, and he will work with his colleagues and management team to re-earn trust with PwC Australia’s stakeholders” continued Carroll.
The firm also announced on Sunday that it will divest its federal and state government business to Allegro Funds for $1 with both organises expected to sign a binding agreement by the end of July.
Allegra Funds is a private equity firm that specialises in “rebuilding” struggling firms, with its website describing it as “Australia’s most-awarded team in the turnaround, special situations and transformation investing space.”
Doing so will create two independent firms while “ensuring there will be no disruption in vital services to public sector clients”, Carroll said.
We have taken this step because it is the right thing to do for our public sector clients and to protect the jobs of the c.1,750 talented people in our government business. This transaction will result in the first pure play, at scale, government business in the market. This was an extremely difficult decision, but we are determined to take all necessary steps to protect the jobs of our people and re-earn the trust of our stakeholders.
The move means PwC Australia will pull out of all government advisory work at state and federal levels, which represented a fifth of the company’s 2023 revenue.
Updated
Last refugee on Nauru evacuated; government says offshore detention here to stay
The last refugee held by Australia on Nauru has been evacuated off the island, flying into Brisbane on Saturday night, marking the end – at least for now – of more than a decade of offshore processing on the Pacific island.
However the Australian government says it remains committed to offshore processing as a policy. It maintains an offshore detention centre in abeyance on the island, at an annual cost of $350m, which it says is “ready to receive and process any new unauthorised maritime arrivals”.
Human rights and refugee advocacy groups have welcomed the end of offshore processing on Nauru, but said many of those held suffered irreparable damage in indefinite detention on the island.
“All my friends are so happy this week,” Betelhem Tibebu, a human rights activist and refugee previously held on Nauru, said.
We don’t have to lose any more friends, people don’t have to get sick, no trauma, and no fear. Nauru, it killed us mentally, for us Nauru is hell, where we lost our lives.
For more on this story, read the full report from Guardian Australia:
Updated
Matt Hauser wins world triathlon gold
The Australian athlete Matt Hauser is finding top form ahead of next year’s Olympic Games, finishing strongly to win Australia’s first men’s gold at the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) in four years.
Hauser, the first Australian male to win a round of the WTCS since Jake Birtwhistle in 2019, produced the fastest swim and run times to beat Brazil’s Manoel Messias into second place by 11 seconds.
He broke free of a group of eight athletes with less than one kilometre to run, dropping all but Messias and hanging on for the win.
Hauser, ranked fifth overall in the world championship series, was delighted to finish one step higher on the podium than his second place in Yokohama in May. He said:
After Yokohama … I knew I had a better lead-up in my preparations.
I felt good out there today and got the job done. It’s instinct, you’ve just got to act in the moment.
The Tokyo Olympic champion, Kristian Blummenfelt, from Norway, finished fifth in the 55-man field.
Australia’s Emma Jackson and Sophie Linn finished 23rd and 24th respectively in the women’s race, which was won by Britain’s Beth Potter.
Australia’s triathletes will head to the Paris Olympic test event next month, before the World Triathlon grand final in Spain in September.
– AAP
Updated
Queensland mulls crackdown on dangerous dogs
Queensland is warning dog owners they could be held criminally responsible for the actions of their animal, including facing jail time, as the state moves to crack down on dangerous dogs.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, called on the minister to reexamine the issue of dangerous dogs and who is responsible for them after the wave of attacks in April.
The state’s agriculture minister, Mark Furner, said on Sunday the government wants community input on the issue, with consultations open until 24 August.
A 2021 taskforce committed to dealing with dangerous dogs was revamped by the government in April after at least four serious attacks.
I created the taskforce to review our animal management laws because the Palaszczuk government takes community health and safety seriously.
It’s time for Queenslanders to have their say on these proposed reforms, and I’m encouraging everyone to provide feedback on the discussion paper.
Suggested changes would include owners of dangerous dogs facing jail time for serious attacks.
Dog owners in Queensland currently face maximum potential fines of up to $45,000.
A standardised state-wide requirement for all dogs to be effectively controlled in public places, and the banning of restricted dog breeds are also up for discussion.
The RSPCA urges people to be cautious around dogs, whether they be owners or otherwise.
- AAP
Updated
International students claim conflict of interest with $400 English retest
International students are spending hundreds of dollars on mandatory English language tests that expire after two years – even if they have completed degrees in English and lived in Australia for years.
Students say they are frustrated and believe there is a conflict of interest between the organisations that set the rules and administer the test.
To apply for an Australian visa, international students are required to pass one of five accepted English language tests. But even after they have passed and completed study in Australia, they must retake tests to enter some workplaces or undertake further study in Australia, such as master’s or PhDs.
For instance, international students who have completed nursing degrees in Australia must pass another English language test to get registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
Most students sit the $400 International English Language Testing System (Ielts) test which is used by 11,000 organisations around the world and jointly owned by the British Council, Cambridge University Press and Assessment and the Australian company IDP Education.
For more on this story, read the full report by Guardian Australia’s Caitlin Cassidy.
Updated
Women’s World Cup takes over Sydney Harbour Bridge
Thousands of people have marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday morning to take part in the Fifa Women’s World Cup 2023 Unity Celebration.
The event comes ahead of the 20 July kick-off of the tournament held in partnership between Australia and New Zealand with nine cities playing host to games.
Updated
Melbourne has Australia’s worst heroin problem. Why can’t it kick the habit?
Jill Mellon-Robertson’s son was on the cusp of adulthood when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Soon after that he began smoking marijuana.
For him, you’re 17, you’re wanting to be cool and it wasn’t cool to have a mental illness. It was cool to smoke a bit of dope.
He was in the space – he was a musician and an artist. It’s all about the space and what’s cool.
Over the next two decades, Jahn battled drug addiction. In his early 20s, he began using heroin, the drug that would ultimately kill him in 2015 at the age of 38.
“With heroin, he said [he] could just chill out and he felt very relaxed and the day would go quick – he didn’t have to think about it,” Mellon-Robertson says.
Victoria accounts for 45% of the nation’s heroin consumption, according to wastewater analysis conducted by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), with Melbourne use per person approximately 70% higher than Sydney, and at least five times most other Australian capitals.
Yet as the city remains embroiled in heated debates over injecting rooms, crime and health responses – few are asking why Melbourne hasn’t been able to kick its heroin habit.
For more on this story read the full feature by Guardian Australia’s Victorian state reporter Adeshola Ore.
Updated
Another Labor upset in Fadden a longshot: PM
Anthony Albanese says the chance of another Labor upset during the byelection for the federal seat once occupied by the controversial former Liberal minister Stuart Robert is “very long odds”.
The byelection in the Queensland seat of Fadden was triggered following Robert’s resignation. Robert served as the veterans’ affairs, national disability insurance scheme and government services minister under the Turnbull and Morrison governments.
Speaking to Sky News in a prerecorded interview on Sunday, Albanese said the ALP candidate Letitia Del Fabbro, a local nurse educator, was starting at “very long odds”.
But he criticised Robert for not attending parliament to explain why he was resigning “under such a cloud”.
People will ask why is it that this money is having to be spent on this byelection with someone who just has made that resignation.
We think this is unnecessary and shouldn’t have happened.
Albanese said Del Fabbro was a strong candidate and he would launch her campaign in the next few days.
Fadden is held by the LNP with a margin of 10.6% and the party has chosen the Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell as its candidate.
- AAP
Updated
Inflation pressures tipped to hit retail spending
The peak body representing the country’s retailers is hopeful Australians will spend more this year than in 2022 on mid-year sales despite cost-of-living pressures.
The Australian Retailers Association this month released the results from a poll indicating shoppers would spend $9.3bn on sales this year, up $500m from 2022.
But fewer Australians overall were planning to splash out – 5.8 million, down 400,000 from 2022, according to the Roy Morgan SMS poll of more than 3000 people.
ARA’s CEO, Paul Zahra, she was expecting to spend an average of $1,616, up almost $200 from 2022 despite concede that inflation was having an effect.
We’re in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and this is certainly reflected by the fact that 400,000 fewer Australians will be opening their wallets in the mid-year/EOFY sales.
The poll was conducted between 19 May and 24 May, before the Reserve Bank of Australia’s surprise rate hike on 7 June.
The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence figures, based on 1,480 interviews in the week to last Sunday, found consumer confidence was at its lowest level since April 2020.
ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell said confidence had been at extremely weak levels for about 15 weeks but had dropped even more sharply since the rate hike and was close to its lowest level since March 2020.
- AAP
Updated
GetUp rolls out new yes campaign
Activist group GetUp is backing the yes vote in the upcoming national referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament.
The progressive left-leaning advocacy group will launch its #WriteYes campaign in Cairns on Sunday and hold a similar event in Alice Springs on Wednesday.
GetUp’s First Nations justice campaign director, Amy Gordon, said, “We’re really in a historic moment.”
And it’s not just because we’re going to a referendum but because this is a moment where the whole country is talking about First Nations justice and this is a really incredible opportunity to build momentum.
Our aim is to create space for long-term First Nations justice and that includes treaties, truth telling and land rights.
We really see this referendum being a stop along the journey and not the final destination.
Gordon said the referendum “isn’t going to fix all of the issues in our communities,” but it will add pressure to governments to listen to Indigenous people on issues that matter to them.
It won’t stop deaths in custody but what it will do is show our political parties, our government, that there is huge momentum across Australia to actually be listening to First Nations people on these issues and being building momentum towards that justice.
GetUp is also encouraging people to enrol to vote and do whatever they can to combat misinformation about the voice.
- AAP
Updated
Australia monitoring situation in Russia ‘closely’: Wong
Australia is working with its global allies and keeping an eye on Russia following extraordinary scenes involving a mercenary group crucial to its war against Ukraine.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Sunday that “Australia is closely monitoring developments in Russia”.
The security situation is evolving and we are working closely with partners.
Senator Wong also said Australians in Russia should leave immediately because the security situation could deteriorate further.
Australia’s travel advice for Russia is “do not travel” and the government has warned its ability to provide consular help in the country is limited and it won’t be able to facilitate evacuations.
Late on Saturday, the heavily armed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner company who were on their way to Moscow after threatening the president, Vladimir Putin, and his top defence brass began turning back.
But overnight, Belarus intervened and brokered a deal, with Putin’s approval, to halt the further movement of Wagner troops on Moscow in return for guarantees of their safety.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wagner’s leader, Evgeny Prigozhin, would move to Belarus under the deal, but the situation remains unstable and is being closely watched by the US, France, Germany and Britain and their allies.
- Reuters
Updated
Social media platforms could face big fines for misinformation under proposed Labor changes
Social media giants could be fined 5% of their global turnover for “systemic breaches” of misinformation rules, under a new framework proposed by the federal government.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, today unveiled a consultation period to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) more power to “hold digital platforms to account for harmful misinformation and disinformation online.” But the government is also being careful to stress a balance between fighting harmful misinformation, and protecting freedom of speech.
Acma will be given powers to obtain information and documents from digital platforms about how they are responding to mis and disinformation; if the platforms fail to respond appropriately over a period of time, Acma would be able to create enforceable industry codes with significant penalties, or to create a standard requiring platforms to increase their efforts.
The government proposes that systemic breaches of a registered code could be penalised by up to $2,750,000 or 2% of global turnover (whatever is greater) for corporations; and systemic breaches of a standard to be penalised by up to $6,880,000 or 5% of global turnover (whatever is greater) for corporations.
Codes or standards could include measures such as stronger tools to empower users to identify and report misinformation and disinformation, ensure more robust complaints handling, and enable more extensive use of factcheckers.
Public consultation is open until 6 August, and the government plans to introduce legislation later this year.
Mis and disinformation sows division within the community, undermines trust and can threaten public health and safety.
This consultation process gives industry and the public the opportunity to have their say on the proposed framework, which aims to strike the right balance between protection from harmful mis and disinformation online and freedom of speech.
Updated
Ignore the scare campaigns and vote for what’s right on voice: PM
Australians shouldn’t listen to scare campaigns when considering how to vote in a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says.
Despite recent polling showing reduced support for the proposal, the federal government is on track to hold the referendum in the last quarter of 2023.
This is a very simple proposition to recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution, in our founding document, and it’s time that we did that.
I believe most Australians will accept that … It’s not a complex proposition, it doesn’t change any of the ways that we are governed, it just provides for the opportunity for Indigenous people to have a say in matters that affect them.
Albanese said he wanted Australians to vote on the facts, not fearmongering. He compared the upcoming referendum to parliament’s apology to the stolen generations in 2008, which opponents claimed would be divisive and result in large compensation claims.
We know that it was a moment of national unity, the scare campaigns weren’t right … it didn’t have an impact on most Australians except they felt better about who we were as a country.
If we recognise Indigenous Australians in our constitution, people will look back and say, ‘Why didn’t we do it earlier?’, just like people say why didn’t we make the apology earlier.
- AAP
Updated
Despair returns to Lismore for those left out of flood buyback program
Phones started pinging across Lismore last Tuesday afternoon as a fresh wave of fury and confusion crashed upon the northern rivers town.
Nearly 16 months after the first of two catastrophic floods inundated the New South Wales town – claiming five lives, swamping thousands of homes and robbing residents of untold treasured possessions – many survivors are still to learn which of the long-promised government assistance packages might apply to them.
Will the state government’s Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation offer to buy their home and ensure no one else relives their trauma on that piece of land again?
Will they be offered money to raise their homes, or retrofit them with more flood-resilient materials?
Or will they be left adrift to seek what shelter they can from a housing market in crisis?
Kay Armour was among those hoping to be offered a lifeline.
For more on this story, read the full feature by Joe Hinchcliffe.
Collins on Indigenous voice and housing
The interview closes with a question about the future of the Indigenous voice to parliament: how would the minister treat advice from an Indigenous voice? Would she treat it differently to what she is currently getting from other groups?
I’m already listening to Indigenous Australians around how do we close the gap. I am the minister responsible, as you said, for closing the gap when it comes to housing. I think it’s Closing the Gap target 9A. I had a meeting just this week with Indigenous in Victoria and in terms of national Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association – we want to work with them to get capacity, so that they can actually provide support and advice in terms of what is required. So I would absolutely be listening to the voices of Indigenous Australians when it comes to housing and closing that gap. The important point here, David, of course, is that our Housing Australia Future Fund also included $200m for repair and maintenance to remote and Indigenous housing.
But what about a voice specifically?
Well it would obviously give us more voices around the country and the way it is established. We were talking about getting input from right across the country. At the moment obviously I can’t talk and speak to every single Indigenous voice in the country, so he it would centralise that and provide us with very good advice on how do we close the gap.
And that’s a wrap.
Updated
Collins reiterates government’s focus on supply
Collins is asked about her comments in opposition saying “Any solution to Tasmania’s housing and rental affordability crisis must include federal reforms to negative gearing and capital gains tax.”
Does she still agree with them?
There have been two elections in that interim period. What we’ve been told to do is add to supply. That’s what we’re focused on, adding to supply. Those things are not on the government’s agenda and we are busy adding to supply and we are doing that at every opportunity we have.
Updated
Collins says the country’s housing ministers are actively looking at the issue but would not commit on whether a national approach is needed to addressing the issue.
What the housing ministers have done, we’ve had four meetings, it has been raised at some of those meetings. We are looking at the different interventions in each state and territory and the data around what is working.
I always have the Affordability Council, which is essentially a panel of experts, looking at around what small wins we can get quickly to add to supply, and they will look at all of those but again the states and territories need to move in terms of this. They have the powers.
Airbnb ‘no doubt’ driving up rents: Collins
Collins says the issue is “very personal for me” having spent part of her childhood in public housing.
I understand the struggles. I understand how difficult it is to make sure that more Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home. I am driven every day to do more to make sure that we as a federal government step town the plate.
The minister says “there is no doubt” that Airbnb is having a role in driving up rents by converting housing to short-term rentals particularly in markets with large tourism industries.
I do think that Airbnbs, and I’ve looked at some of the data, and again the Australian urban Research Council has said they are having an impact where tourism is high. There is no doubt they are having some type of impact. There is no data and evidence around what types of interventions will actually work.
Updated
Collins says the government plans to put “renters rights on the National Cabinet agenda” – and will add to supply with its build to rent program.
She also says the government has been accomodating of the Greens’ request. The government received a letter “outlining eight different things they wanted” and that the government “moved on all eight of those”.
You’ve seen us talk about that publicly before We have support of some in the Senate. We are having conversations about getting this through, but what we saw last week is actually something blocking something which will deliver homes on the ground When people say there is no cost to the decision and delays don’t matter, they do matter, and they matter to people on the front line, they matter to people sitting on the public housing list, they matter to people fleeing violence, they matter to veterans at risk of homelessness and it matters in a practical way.
States will ‘do their own things’ on rent caps: Collins
Speers asks for what evidence Collins is referring to. The minister points to research by Graeme Samuel, former boss of the ACCC, which she referred to in parliament this week and again reiterates the talking point:
The overwhelming evidence suggests that it doesn’t work. States and territories will do their own things in terms of this. What we are being asked to do here is have eight different jurisdictions make these decisions at the same time and we have been told very clearly from those jurisdictions that they won’t be doing this. Some states have already ruled out both freezes and caps. What we’ve been asked to do is simply not achievable and we won’t commit to something that is not achievable, David.
Updated
Rent caps reduce supply: Collins
Collins rejects the view the imposition of rent caps work saying “in some cases it would, but overall the evidence and data shows it doesn’t work long-term.”
The minister says that “what the experts are telling us is that it reduces supply”.
When you look at the evidence that has been cited by others, the evidence shows that it reduces supply significantly by up to 15%. The other thing that it shows is the quality of the stock diminishes over time, so I will look at the data and the evidence and the data and the evidence says that it doesn’t work.
Updated
Speers challenges Collins over that, saying CoreLogic’s data shows the ACT system works with rents down in May, but more landlords coming into the market.
Collins says, “All the evidence I’ve read is that what’s going on in the ACT is adding to supply”.
Speers asks again whether it will work or not.
Different states and territories apply it differently and will apply it differently if that’s what they decide to do.
Speers asks again for the minister’s view.
I will leave it up to the ACT.
Updated
Rent freeze in ACT ‘doesn’t work’: Collins
Collins is asked whether there should be a limit on how much landlords can increase rents, but says the Commonwealth “doesn’t have the power” to impose a rent freeze under the constitution.
We have been very clear about that from the very beginning. People are talking about other forms of rent controls such as rent capping. That is obviously the purview of the states and territories.
Collins also said the rent freeze that has been imposed in the ACT “doesn’t work”.
Obviously there is a style of a cap currently in place in the ACT. What the overwhelming experts say, though, is that this doesn’t work. We obviously want to look at things that do work and the primary thing we are being told is to add to supply and that’s what we are trying to do.
Updated
Supply is key to housing crisis: Labor
The minister for housing and homelessness, Julie Collins, says the government has been advised by “all the experts and the evidence” that the key to dealing with rising rents is to “add to supply” and has expressed frustration at “parties out there saying they will block” the government’s housing bill.
What we saw frankly last week in the Senate was really quite, from my perspective disappointing. I know that the community housing providers and the peak bodies on the frontline every day, dealing with people who are dealing with housing stress, whether they be renters or people fleeing family violence, they want to get more homes on the ground and they are saying that the blockage of this bill in the Senate last week means there are houses that won’t be built that are ready to be built.
Collins was asked by ABC Insiders host David Speers for her response to comments by the RBA that it expects rents to rise another 10%. The housing minister said the government is “working hard to turn this around”.
Everybody suggests they will go up. There are different views as to what that looks like. We want to add to supply as quickly possible. We have seen a change of household composition post the pandemic that is making that worse. So we need to add to supply and do it as quickly as we can.
Updated
Speculation mounts ahead of next RBA decision
The Reserve Bank of Australia is nine days away from its next interest rate decision and has been keeping a keen eye on the consumer price index for signs inflation is beginning to slow.
The May index, to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, will provide the next up-to-date assessment of Australia’s inflationary environment and this information is expect to feed into any RBA decision to hike interest rates or hold fire.
In April, annual inflation grew by a stronger-than-expected 6.8%, up from 6.3% in the year ended March.
As well as the monthly CPI, the RBA is likely to study the May retail trade data from the bureau on Thursday for insights into consumer spending patterns.
Retail sales have plateaued over the past few months as cost of living pressures and high interest rates take a toll on household finances.
- AAP
Updated
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has appeared on Sky News this morning with a prerecorded interview recorded on Friday and independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender.
We will bring you a summary shortly.
Updated
The minister for housing and homelessness, Julie Collins, will be speaking to ABC Insiders this morning where the stoush between Labor and the Greens over the government’s draft housing legislation is likely to be high on the agenda.
We will bring you all the latest when it happenas.
Updated
South Australian authorities issue dam failure alert
Residents of a small town in South Australia are on alert for possible flooding, with emergency services warning residents to prepare for a possible dam failure.
SA’s State Emergency Service have issued a watch and act warning for residents of Hope Forest, a town of about 150 people 40km south of Adelaide.
The dam is at a high risk of failure, the SASES said in a statement, and properties near the intersection of Bevan Road, Phillips Road and Verrall Road in the vicinity of Brookman Road could be subject to sudden flooding.
Emergency services issued more warnings over the weekend, with the danger zone spreading overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning.
- AAP
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Authorities are warning a dam 40km south of Adelaide at Hope Forest is at risk of failure and are advising nearby residents they may need to leave quickly in the event of sudden flooding. Severe weather warnings were in place across South Australia Saturday evening with gusts measuring 102km/h at Murray Bridge and 100km/h across the Mount Lofty Ranges.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge has been closed to traffic this morning to make way for an event celebrating the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which Australia is co-hosting with New Zealand across nine cities from 20 July. The bridge will remain closed to vehicles until 10.30am but trains will continue to operate and the tunnel will remain open.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day. With so much going on out there, it’s easy to miss stuff, so if you spot something happening in Australia and think it should be on the blog, you can find me on Twitter at @RoyceRk2 where my DMs are open.
With that, let’s get started …
