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National
Christopher Knaus and Matilda Boseley

Evacuation orders lifted for parts of Lismore – as it happened

A group of firefighters are seen near flood waters in Lismore
Evacuation orders have been lifted for parts of Lismore in northern NSW as flooding hit the region again. Photograph: Darren England/EPA

Thanks for following us today.

We are closing this live blog but our dedicated coverage of the 2022-23 federal budget can be found here:

Updated

Class action launched against Star Entertainment

AAP is reporting that a class action has been launched against Star Entertainment Group, seeking compensation for allegedly misleading investors about compliance with regulatory obligations.

AAP reports:

Law firm Slater and Gordon on Tuesday filed a class action in the Victorian supreme court on behalf of investors who acquired shares between March 2016 and March this year.

It comes during a royal commission-style inquiry run by the NSW gaming regulator that is examining the fitness of the Star Sydney to hold a casino licence.

The probe was sparked by reports accusing the casino operator of enabling suspected money laundering, organised crime, fraud and foreign interference at its gaming facilities, including its Sydney casino.

It has heard damning evidence about practices at the casino, prompting the resignation this week of Star Entertainment chief executive, Matt Bekier.

Ben Zocco, a senior associate at Slater and Gordon, said potentially thousands of investors had a strong case against the firm.

“For the last six years, Star has held itself out to be a model casino operator that took its obligations seriously and followed not only the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law,” Zocco said in a statement.

“Star insisted that it took compliance seriously and ran its business ethically, honestly and with integrity. Our investigations to date ... suggest that they did everything but.”

Zocco said investors purchasing shares in a listed company were entitled to assume all information relevant to its financial position had been disclosed to the market.

“Our case is that Star failed to do so, and, therefore, investors are entitled to compensation for their losses,” he said.

The lead plaintiff, David Lynch, said he was disappointed to see the value of his shareholding fall so significantly and was concerned that the company may have misled him and other shareholders.

Updated

Guardian Australia can confirm the budget will provide a one-off $420 tax offset for Australians earning up to $126,000 a year.

It will see the low and middle income tax offset increase to up to $1,500 from 1 July this year when Australians lodge their tax return.

The government says it’s a practical measure that will ease cost of living pressures for 10 million Australians.

Those eligible for the offset, which has been extended twice throughout the pandemic, currently receive between $255 and $1,080 when they file their taxes. The extra amount means they will receive between $675 and $1,500, paid out from 1 July.

Updated

One hour until budget, what do we know?

The countdown to the budget is on. We’ve only got an hour left until the budget papers are released and the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, makes his speech.

As always, we know quite a bit about what will be in the budget. Let’s recap:

  • The government has promised a cut to fuel excise, to reduce the high costs of petrol due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The 44 cents a litre excise could be cut by up to 20 cents.
  • The budget is reportedly going to give a one-off increase to the low and middle income tax offset (LMITO) – the temporary tax offset for those earning $126,000 or less. That offset currently pays from $255 to $1,080, depending on your income. The changes would now give between $675 and $1,500, paid out from 1 July, according to the ABC. About 10 million people will get $420 on average.
  • Welfare recipients and pensioners are expected to receive a one-off $250 payment. The payment is also billed as relief to cost-of-living pressures
  • The budget will include $16bn in new infrastructure funding. A Guardian Australia analysis of the 144 projects being funded by the government in Tuesday’s budget shows that just 21 are included on Infrastructure Australia’s current list of priority projects.
  • An expansion is expected of the home guarantee scheme, which helps first home buyers get into the market by placing government as the guarantor of the loan. The government will make 35,000 guarantees each year, up from the current 10,000, from 1 July.
  • About $365.3m will be spent on getting an extra 35,000 apprentices and trainees get into a job, through extensions to the boosting apprenticeship commencement wage subsidy.
  • The government has also promised $480m to improve NBN infrastructure in regional, rural and remote areas.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, in the treasurer’s office in Parliament House this morning
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, in the treasurer’s office in Parliament House this morning. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

National party MP George Christensen is either “Putin’s Patsy” or is actively involved in Russian disinformation, a Queensland MP said in state parliament today.

Labor’s Julieanne Gilbert accused the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, of a “gross dereliction of duty” for not holding the federal member for Dawson to account for online posts over a period of eight years which she said were “in alignment with Russian disinformation”.

Gilbert tabled the posts in parliament, beginning with Christensen’s opposition to the US intervention in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 on the grounds that East Ukraine was “ethnically Russian” and “wants to be part of Russia”.

She also tabled posts in which Christensen claimed Russia did not shoot down MH17, backed the debunked claim by Donald Trump that the 2020 US election was stolen, promoted conspiracy theories such as the “great reset” and described western media coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this month as “fake news”.

Christensen also shared “clickbait” that “drags readers into a more sinister piece of pro-Russian propaganda”, the member for Mackay said.

Gilbert said:

Given the Russian attempts to destabilise the west, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these statements are damaging to our democracy and Australia’s national interest.

She called on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and Joyce to explain why they had “turned a blind eye to George Christensen’s acts against our national interest for so long”.

In these acts Christensen may have been an active part of Russian disinformation.

Alternatively, if he was unaware of the Russian disinformation he was [reporting], he was in effect, Putin’s Patsy.

So which one is he?

Updated

Some Lismore residents are safe to return home as evacuation orders are lifted for Lismore CBD, Lismore Basin and low lying areas of East Lismore and Girards Hill.

The easing rainfall means the evacuation orders for Mullumbimby and Billinudgel have also just been lifted.

On Facebook, Lismore City council said: “Flood levels have dropped but you should take care when returning to the area as flood damage can be widespread and utilities may not be in service.”

Evacuation orders are still in place in the north and south of the town. There is also an evacuation order still in place Coraki’s Riverside Caravan Park, with residents urged to leave by 7pm.

Wilsons River is expected to peak below the major flood level of 9.7 metres this evening.

Updated

Additional $420 tax relief for low to middle income earners in budget, ABC reports

The ABC is reporting that tonight’s budget will contain additional tax relief worth $420 for low to middle income earners, as part of a package of measures to deal with cost-of-living pressures.

The government is planning to increase the low and middle income tax offset (LMITO) – the temporary tax offset for those earning $126,000 or less.

That offset currently pays from $255 to $1,080, depending on your income. The changes would now give between $675 and $1,500, paid out from 1 July, according to the ABC. About 10 million people will get $420, the ABC said.

This is separate to the previously flagged $250 one-off payment for pensioners and other low income earners.

Updated

Evacuation order lifted for Lismore CBD

In really welcome news, the SES is allowing residents to return to Lismore’s CBD and surrounds.

Evacuation orders remain in place for the town’s south and north. There is also a severe weather warning current for the northern rivers.

Updated

Earlier today, the Australian Electoral Commission had the temerity to claim sausages belong above onion on sausage sandwiches.

It is rightly getting dragged on Twitter.

Porter denounces 'mob', praises Dutton, van Onselen during valedictory

And that’s that. Porter finishes his valedictory and is congratulated by a number of colleagues.

Worth noting that the majority of the press gallery were in budget lock-up for the duration of that speech.

Here’s what Porter said:

  • Porter started out his valedictory speech in fairly uncontroversial fashion. He spoke of the rise of China and his work in re-shaping Australian foreign policy to become more assertive and hawkish. He spoke of his work on GST redistribution for WA.
  • He denounced identity politics and said Australia was at risk of following European democracies into the weakness of becoming obsessed with “boutique” grievances from the loudest voices.
  • Porter then addressed his recent experience with what he termed “the mob”. He said the experience showed him first-hand the importance of the rule of the law, which he described as “the antidote to the mob”. Porter is returning to the legal profession after leaving politics.
  • Porter said the mob became “so utterly convinced in their own judgment that they didn’t need anything else, other than their own judgment. They thought they could just through any law, abandon any process that would get between them and the target of their judgment. In that experience, I saw the real truth of how critical the protection of the rule of the law is. And how fragile it is.”
  • Porter specifically thanked journalist Peter van Onselen and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, for standing between him and the mob. Those “acts of courage”, he said, “will stay with me for the rest of my life”.

Updated

Peter Van Onselen and Peter Dutton showed 'acts of courage that will stay with me': Porter

Porter continues on “the mob”:

Some people they will join a mob, and others will slink away. Some people think they can harness it in their own interests. A word of advice: that is always a mistake. This thing’s uncontrollable. But very few people ever try and stand in the way of a mob. I watched people, friends, put themselves between me and the mob. I can’t mention them all. But Peter Van Onselen and Peter Dutton, knowing the risks ... they stated plain public support for me while the mob was in its full fury. And I’ve got to say they were acts of courage that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Updated

'I experienced a mob': Porter

Porter is now talking about what he’s learned about the rule of the law versus mob rule.

I’m returning to them. I’m returning to the law. And I will just finish with an observation about the law. You never stop learning about the law ... I’ve learned things about the law through experience as few people ever have; some of the experiences I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

He says his recent experience – presumably of being publicly accused of rape, though he doesn’t say so explicitly – showed him the “real truth of how critical the protection of the rule of the law is”.

The rule of the law is the antidote to the mob. And then I experienced a mob. People so utterly convinced in their own judgment that they didn’t need anything else, other than their own judgment. They thought they could just through any law, abandon any process that would get between them and the target of their judgment.

In that experience, I saw the real truth of how critical the protection of the rule of the law is. And how fragile it is.

Updated

Porter makes a reference to “the awful sides of politics” he’s seen while in parliament. He does not give further specifics.

While serving in this place, as well as seeing some of the awful sides of politics, I’ve had incredible support ... I’ve witnessed amazing courage and the defining power of true friendships. As a bit of a loner, I think I probably didn’t understand that when I first came to this place.

Updated

Porter warns Australia is “increasingly preoccupied with the identity politics of every imaginable boutique type”.

At worst, there has become this regularisation in the abandonment of fundamental, foundational western principles, the things that have made us privileged. Free speech, due process, free association.

Too regularly, they just get tossed aside ... when it becomes too hard in the daily news cycle to resist the demand to abandon them to produce some other outcome desired by the best organised and noisiest interest of the day.

Updated

Porter is speaking about the rise of China and says he leaves parliament as part of a group of foreign policy hawks or “rationalists” who “have come to see the reality of the strategic risk. Its immediacy, its peril, and the menace that it offers.”

In this government today, the rationalists now shape our preparedness for the very high risk of uncertain times ahead. That, for me, has been the biggest and most important change in government thinking in the past decade that I’ve been through.

Updated

Porter is talking about how he learnt to effect change in parliament as he sought early in his career to fix the GST distribution to Western Australia.

You’ve got to get as far in the tent as you possibly can, as close to the usually four or five people who can actually effect the change. Better still, become one of them. And in the end it requires massive ongoing grinding effort.

Updated

He is talking about the passage of time. He says sometimes parliament feels like a “black hole”.

You can come out of a single intense week here, like those swirling mad weeks when leadership spills occur, and you can feel like you’re actually lost in space.

He says of parliament:

You age hard, you lose paint.

He continues:

You naturally ask yourself ‘well, was it all worth it?’ My own answer is ‘absolutely, yes’. Yes, if you get to do as many worthwhile things as you possibly can in the time that you have.

Updated

Christian Porter delivers valedictory speech

Christian Porter, the former attorney general, is giving his valedictory speech right now.

He is speaking about China. He says when he first spoke in parliament, he talked of the great challenge about China’s economic rise.

I think I got that assessment, mostly, if not a little naively, right.

He thanks Tony Abbott and Colin Barnett, who he said gave him his starts in politics.

Whereas some people wait political lifetimes to serve in cabinet or even be in government, I’ve had the great fortune to spend almost all my time since then in government and only spend four months in opposition.

Updated

Australian Council of Social Service boss, Cassandra Goldie, spoke to the ABC a little earlier.

She said Acoss wants a budget that lifts up the income level of the lowest paid.

We went into the pandemic with over 3 million people living below the poverty line ... and over the last few years we’ve seen some really big growth in inequality.

She wants to see a focus on social housing, rather than the planned extension of the first home owner scheme, which she said inflated house prices further.

Goldie says the strong economic performance after the pandemic provided a unique opportunity to focus on people who are most at risk in the labour market. That includes, she says, focusing on those displaced by floods and climate change.

For those people, they’re losing jobs today and there’s a real fear that they’ll never get back in.

Updated

Here are the latest flood warnings for the Colo, Hawkesbury, Nambucca, and Macleay Rivers, as well as Coffs Creek. They’ve all been issued or updated within the last 45 minutes.

The Business Council of Australia has again been advocating for company tax cuts for big businesses in the lead-up to tonight’s budget.

The BCA proposes to introduce the cuts by increasing the threshold below which companies currently pay 25 cents in the dollar compared with the standard rate of 30 cents. That threshold would be increase from a turnover of $50m to “either $250 million, $500 million or $1 billion and switch to a domestic turnover test”.

But, in new analysis, the Australia Institute has found such a cut would cost the budget $75bn over the next 10 years.

Executive director Ben Oquist said:

The economic case for company tax cuts is poor. Our research shows that a there is no correlation between lower company tax rates, employment or economic growth.

It makes no economic or budget sense to deliver big business a $75 billion dollar windfall when Australia already has a revenue problem.

A multi-billion dollar company tax cut represents an enormous hit to the budget. It means either racking up a much bigger deficit or cutting back on critical investments like education, hospitals and infrastructure or likely both.

OECD countries with lower company tax rates have lower standards of living, and as corporate and company taxes have been lowered in other countries, there has been a rise in average unemployment rates and decline in wages and mixed income.

Updated

Northern Rivers flood levels not as bad as predicted: SES

Paul McQueen, the SES incident controller responsible for the Northern Rivers, is on ABC. He has some positive news about the flooding risks in the region.

He says the risk is still present, but so far, water levels are lower than expected and not as bad as the recent flooding disaster.

McQueen:

While we’ve had some significant, rapid rises in water levels, certainly not the levels that we saw a couple of weeks ago in this area, which is fantastic news. But ongoing flooding is occurring.

Most recently, there’s been some downgrades of some of the levels we were expecting to receive, particularly in the Lismore area, which is fantastic news for people in that region.

McQueen:

We do seem to have a slight reprieve. But it’s time certainly to be alert and not alarmed and just ensure that, if you are in an area with any warnings or evacuation orders, that you heed that advice.

Updated

And that’s question time done for budget day 2022.

What did we learn?

  • Labor initially focused its attack on veterans’ affairs minister, Andrew Gee, who has attracted internal ire by describing the backlog of veterans compensation claims, which has accrued under his government, as a “national disgrace”. Gee was asked about the description in question time. He said claims had been “building up” in recent years. The Coalition has been in power for a decade. The defence minister, Peter Dutton, was seen speaking with Gee following his answer.
  • Morrison was attacked over the flood response, in particular the inequity in disaster relief payments between LGAs and states. He said flood responses should be above “partisan politics”.
  • Ahead of the budget, Labor focused its economic criticism on the lack of wage growth. Morrison said: “The best remedy for higher wages is a stronger economy, and the way that you get that stronger economy is through responsible economic management.”
Defence minister, Peter Dutton, speaks with the minister for veterans affairs, Andrew Gee, during question time this afternoon
Defence minister, Peter Dutton, speaks with the minister for veterans affairs, Andrew Gee, during question time this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Scott Morrison during question time in Canberra this afternoon
Scott Morrison during question time in Canberra this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Budget to include $250 payments for low-income Australians: reports

AAP reports that tonight’s budget is expected to include one-off payments of $250 for low-income Australians.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said while Labor will not stand in the way of such payments, the timing is suspicious in light of a looming election.

Albanese spoke to the ABC earlier today:

What we need is a plan for the economy, not a plan to get the Coalition a fourth term in office.

That’s all we’re seeing from this government - it’s long on politics and short on plans.

News Corp has also reported the plans. It reports pensioners will get the one-off cash bonus of $250 and that “Services Australia is putting in place systems to pay the money within weeks as Prime Minister Scott Morrison prepares to call an election”.

News Corp has reported that the bonus will not be paid to parents on family payments, but will go to others on income support, including pensioners.

Updated

Defence minister Peter Dutton was attacking Labor’s record on defence spending earlier. It prompted an interesting exchange, as noted by our reporter Josh Butler.

More on the floods. Morrison is asked why families in Queensland who have lost everything only get one-third of the disaster allowance that a family in NSW would receive.

Morrison says the experience of the floods in Queensland and the Northern Rivers was “materially different”. That’s why the assistance in the Northern Rivers went above and beyond what was available in Queensland.

It was a one in 500 year flood, and it was some 2m higher than the highest flood ever experienced in the northern rivers. It was an inland tsunami.

He says flood responses should be above “partisan politics”.

Scott Morrison is asked about NSW Liberal MP Catherine Cusack’s comments on the floods. Cusack resigned from the party in protest of the differing treatment of flood victims, according to whether they lived in a Liberal, National, or Labor seat.

Labor’s Justine Elliot, the member for flood-ravaged Richmond, asks why it took the resignation of Cusack to ensure equitable access to flood assistance across the NSW Northern Rivers.

Morrison disputes the suggestion. He said he had already told Elliot when they spoke in the aftermath of the floods that other LGAs were being considered for boosted assistance payments, before Cusack’s resignation.

I told her that further assessments were being done on other LGAs in that region and once those assessments were complete, then a decision would be made.

The New South Wales State Emergency Service has listed an evacuation order for the Lismore CBD, Lismore Basin, low lying areas of East Lismore and Girards Hill as a low pressure trough makes its way down the coast. Residents have been ordered to evacuate by 4pm today.

It comes as Aon analysis has found the current flood protection in Lismore only reduces flood risk by less than 10% compared to if it were left entirely undefended - significantly below the national average of 25%.

The existing levee system in Lismore was built in 1999 to protect the CBD and South Lismore and first breached in the March 2017 floods, causing widespread property damage. Aon says the “relatively low standard of flood protection” means the benefit of the Lismore flood defences is “significantly less” than the national average.

The Wilsons River at Lismore is expected to exceed the moderate flood level around 3pm today, peaking near the major flood level of 9.7 metres this evening if rainfall intensifies.

There are currently eight active evacuation warnings listed across the state, with the heavy rainfall expected to continue into Wednesday bringing the threat of flash flooding, landslides and possible severe thunderstorms.

Anthony Albanese asks the prime minister about the lack of wage growth.

Morrison speaks at length about tax rates. Albanese and then Tony Burke, the manager of opposition business, object to the answer, saying it is not relevant, because he has not mentioned wage growth once.

They’re overruled. The speaker says Morrison is being relevant.

Morrison goes on:

The best remedy for higher wages is a stronger economy, and the way that you get that stronger economy is through responsible economic management.

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Prime minister Scott Morrison makes a statement on Ukraine and Australia’s response during question time in the house of representatives this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
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Scott Morrison described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as ‘... unprovoked, it is unjust, and it is illegal’. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
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Defence minister Peter Dutton before question time in the house of representatives this afternoon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Morrison gets a dixer on the economy.

When he’s done, Anthony Albanese immediately picks up on veterans’ affairs minister Andrew Gee’s strange answer earlier, when he said the backlog of unprocessed claims from veterans had been “building up for years”.

Gee’s government has been in power for a decade, Albanese notes.

Who is responsible for that backlog building up for years?

Gee starts to answer, then stops amid a bit of low-level disquiet in the chamber, and asks the speaker to “bring the house to order”. He’s jeered from the opposition benches.

He then continues:

It’s my job to clean it up, and I have to clean it up for veterans, and I have to clean it up for ADF personnel, and I have to clean it up for veterans’ families.

Question time begins

OK, we are, very belatedly, now into question time.

The first question comes from Labor’s Shayne Neumann, and it’s on veterans and the backlog of veterans claims with the department of veterans affairs.

Andrew Gee, the minister for veterans affairs, said in a media interview recently that the backlog was a “national disgrace”.

Gee is a minister in a Coalition government that has been in power for... a long time.

He’s asked whether he stands by his description of the backlog as a “national disgrace”.

Gee:

We are doing something about it and Mr Speaker you’ll see in that budget funding to reduce that claim in many different ways, including more staff to get the claims processing system going and to get it fixed... I don’t apologise for it now, and I never will.

Updated

The chamber is united in the strength of its condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine. Labor leader Anthony Albanese:

What Russia has done in the Ukraine is almost beyond description. Orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has trampled the fundamental principles that have made the world safer since the end of WWII.

Albanese says Putin’s invasion is based on a “nationalistic lie”.

Vladimir Putin must pay a heavy price for what he has done... he is turning Russia into an international pariah and robbing his own people.

Interestingly, Albanese also condemns China for failing to act with the international community to punish Russia.

Updated

Morrison is back on his feet, now talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He accuses Russia of having “total disregard for civilians”.

What is happening in that part of the world is unprovoked, it is unjust, and it is illegal.

He says everything is pointing to a “bloody and protracted” war.

Morrison is talking about Australia’s aid to Ukraine. He praises Whitehaven, the coalminer, for providing 70,000 tonnes of thermal coal, which the government has purchased to help Ukraine’s energy security.

Australian coal, powering up the resistance in Ukraine. This is a tangible way the Australian government can assist the Ukrainian people.

Anthony Albanese is speaking on the floods.

He says disasters that are supposed to be one in 500 year events, or one in 100 year events, are happening more and more regularly. He says:

It’s called climate change.

The events are more extreme, they are more regular and we need to get that message and act. Not just ourselves, we know we need to be a part of global action. We need to be better prepared on emergency responses, we need to act on flood mitigation.

ADF 'forward deployed' to northern NSW flood zones: PM

Morrison is now speaking on the renewed flooding risk in northern NSW and south-east Queensland. He says the government is ready for any eventuality.

He makes a point of noting that Australian Defence Force and other federal resources have been made available, “as they always are”.

Already ADF helicopters have been forward deployed to Ballina and surrounds to assist the SES with search and rescue capacity.

He likens what happened earlier this month in the NSW Northern Rivers and Lismore, in particular, as an “inland tsunami”, and thanked everyone involved, including those “neighbours helping neighbours”.

He lists the federal assistance provided in the wake of the floods, which totals $2.4bn. It includes $291m support for mental health, financial counselling, and business recovery, and $1.3bn paid directly through disaster allowances and payments.

Following criticism of the sluggish defence response, Morrison says the ADF was “always” pre-positioned for the floods, flew hundreds of missions, and have continued to help with the ongoing clean-up.

We have seen the best of our community again in response to these terrible floods.

He goes on to say no one could have expected what happened, but that:

Too much support can never be enough in these circumstances.

Updated

In the lower house, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese speak to a condolence motion for Moss Cass, a minister in the Whitlam government and leading progressive. Cass was Australia’s first minister for environment and conservation. He ushered in the first set of Australia’s environmental protection laws, and laid the groundwork for the end of sandmining on Fraser Island and government protection for the Great Barrier Reef.

But he achieved much more. He was a leader in advocating for the decriminalisation of homosexuality and marijuana and the legalisation of abortion. As media minister, he was crucial in setting up community radio networks and convincing big media companies to join the Australian Press Council.

Cass passed away late last month.

Morrison quotes a tribute from Cass’s son, Dan.

He demonstrated a purposeful life... he could imagine a green and fair world and did as much as anybody to bring it about.

Updated

The ACTU have been busy today. They were also involved earlier in a campaign launch near Cobargo, which was hit hard in the 2019 bushfire disaster.

The campaign features corflutes picturing Morrison, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, with the slogan “doesn’t hold a hose”.

The launch was helped by Danielle Murphy, Pixie the Goat and Zoey Salucci McDermott. The latter was pregnant at the time she met Morrison and famously refused to shake his hand at the Cobargo Showground in 2019.

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Photograph: Jimmy Logue- Crewcible Studios

Sticking with the budget, Michele O’Neil, ACTU president, says she has no faith in treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claims of a forecast wage rise

O’Neil:

The government has never got their wage forecast right, in every single budget they’ve delivered since they’ve been in power. Every time, they’ve got it wrong.

Asked about temporary measures to ease cost of living pressures, she says:

One-off payments in this budget, which seems to be what they think will get them through, will be seen pretty cynically by working people as an election bribe.

Updated

Gabriela D’Souza, CEDA’s senior economist, is on the ABC, predicting a lot of fiscal stimulus through cost of living measures in the budget tonight.

She says the cut to the fuel excise – a well-publicised measure contained in tonight’s budget – will help ease cost of living pressures. But D’Souza says she hopes it is only temporary:

It will help people in the short term ... obviously there are other reasons why we have a fuel excise, we do need to fund the cost of running governments. It also effectively does act as a bit of a deterrent for trying to get people to go into electric vehicles.

Updated

National Covid update

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 26 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 1,063
  • In hospital: 49 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 9
  • Cases: 21,494
  • In hospital: 1,283 (with 53 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 408
  • In hospital: 12 (with 2 people in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 9
  • Cases: 10,326
  • In hospital: 325 (with 14 people in ICU)

South Australia

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 4,201
  • In hospital: 170 (with 7 people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 2,324
  • In hospital: 22 (with 0 people in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: 5
  • Cases: 10,916
  • In hospital: 284 (with 33 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 8,910
  • In hospital: 219 (with 6 people in ICU)

Updated

Our photographer extraordinaire Mike Bowers was in the lower house a little earlier for Anthony Albanese’s condolence motion for senator Kimberley Kitching.

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Updated

With that, I shall hand you over to the fantastic Christopher Knaus, who will take you through the afternoon’s news.

Evacuation order issued for Lismore CBD and surrounding areas

Just to recap, there are three major evacuation orders currently in place in the Richmond Tweed region.

These include stress in North, South and East Lismore, the Lismore CBD basin, Girards Hill, low lying areas of Kyogle, Billinudgel and Mullumbimby.

You can find the full details of all the evacuation orders across the state here.

Updated

Narramore:

As we move further down the coast, we’re currently seeing the rainfall that we saw last night in the Northern Rivers is now around the Grafton to Coffs Harbour area. Of particular concern over the next 12 hours to 24 hours is the Coffs Harbour area.

So we’re talking both the Aurora and the Bellinger River and also the creeks, streams, in this part of the world as well.

We’re likely to see heavy rainfall continue there through today and into tonight. And that’s likely to lead to moderate to major flooding on both the Aurora and also the Bellinger Rivers. And we could even see moderate flooding on the Clarence Rivers as well.

Updated

Narramore:

Now if [the flooding] will go further [in Lismore] ... that’s highly dependent on any further rainfall later today.

And at this stage, we’re expecting showers and possible rain areas in that area but not the widespread persistent heavy rainfall that we saw. But regardless, even if it does not rain, we’re still expecting flood levels to reach near or exceed the major flood level near Lismore later today into this evening.

Updated

Major flooding in Lismore possible this afternoon, BOM says

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Dean Narramore is laying out where flooding is expected across the next day.

So starting from the north last night we saw widespread heavy rainfall in the Tweed and also the Wilsons catchment, we saw widespread falls in excess of 200 millimetres in the Tweed catchment, and we saw photos of 50 to 150 millimetres in the Wilsons catchment.

Now these kinds of rainfall have led to moderate to major flooding on both rivers. At this stage we’re expecting minor to moderate flooding, I should say on the Tweed as it moves closer to the coast today and into tonight.

And obviously, a lot of focus is on the Wilsons River. So at this stage, we’re currently experiencing minor to moderate flooding.

And in Lismore right now, that’s going to continue to increase as we move into the afternoon and evening hours with major flooding possible later this afternoon and continuing into the overnight hours.

People are seen looking at rising flood waters in Lismore.Residents in parts of north and south Lismore and low-lying parts of Kyogle in northern NSW are evacuating from their homes as life-threatening flooding hits the region again.
People are seen looking at rising flood waters in Lismore.Residents in parts of north and south Lismore and low-lying parts of Kyogle in northern NSW are evacuating from their homes as life-threatening flooding hits the region again. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Updated

Anthony Albanese has challenged the Coalition to not continue an “underspend” on the National Disability Insurance Scheme in tonight’s budget, calling on the government to pour more resources into the system. He also has not ruled out increasing the Medicare levy to help meet demands if elected to government.

Albanese and Labor’s shadow NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, met with disability advocates in Parliament House this morning, receiving an open letter calling for the system to be strengthened. Recent budgets have seen the Coalition criticised for billions of dollars in underspend on the NDIS, which helped improve the budget bottom line. The government put that down to a lower-than-expected demand for disability support places, but Shorten has previously accused the government of presiding over “a national shame”.

Shorten and Albanese said Labor was “absolutely committed to defend the NDIS”, and said tonight’s budget should show a greater spend on the system.

Shorten said:

If the government tries to dodgy up its budget on the back of cuts to people with profound and severe impairment, shame on them.

Asked if Labor would introduce increases to the Medicare levy to pay for the continuing price tag for the NDIS, Albanese twice would only say that he was critical of the underspend of existing resources.

That is what is so extraordinary here, you have a clear demand and everyone as local members is receiving representations from people who are having their programs cut, at the same time as the government says this is a costly exercise ...

There have been underspends.

Following a bit of confusion during an hour when the press conference was scheduled for 11.15am, rescheduled to 11.45am, postponed/cancelled and then reinstated at 11.45am after all, Shorten also suggested changes including paying fewer consultants, and cracking down on service providers engaging in price gouging.

Updated

Many buildings in Lismore 'expected to flood again', says NSW emergency minister

Cooke:

In relation to Lismore, as you’ll shortly hear from Dean from the [Bureau of Meteorology], the situation with flooding is that we are expecting the Wilsons to reach somewhere between moderate to major flooding.

And this means that in those lower lying areas of Lismore, many buildings, particularly those that were inundated just one month ago, are expected to flood again. And this is of course very disappointing, but it’s an unfortunate reality of the current situation that we’re facing.

Updated

Emergency services minister Stephanie Cooke has urged people in the north of the state to heed flood evacuation orders as heavy rains pour down on the region once again.

To the north, the key message for communities is that it’s a rapidly evolving weather and flooding situation. And I’m respectfully encouraging people right across the state particularly in the northern rivers and the mid-north coast to heed the warnings of Emergency Services organisations.

Pay attention to the revised warnings put out by the Bureau of Meteorology at this time, because with our saturated landscape, when we see heavy falls, particularly in isolated areas, it can increase the risk of flash flooding, of course, riverine flooding, with falling trees and our road network under incredible pressure at this time impacting the opportunity for people to evacuate.

I’m really asking for people to pay attention and if in doubt, relocate to somewhere where you feel safe and where your family will be safe during this time.

Updated

Let’s jump over now to NSW where the SES and emergency services minister is providing a flood update.

It seems that Victorian opposition leader, Matthew Guy, still isn’t too happy with Victoria’s Covid-19 restrictions.

Updated

Foreign minister announces 'Magnitsky-style sanctions' targeting 39 Russians

The foreign minister, Marise Payne, has confirmed Australia will enact its first tranche of “Magnitsky-style” sanctions, targeting Russians that the Ukrainian-born Russian lawyer and tax advisor, Sergei Magnitsky, exposed for corruption as well as those allegedly involved in his death.

They will be done under the government’s thematic sanctions framework. These Magnitsky-style laws were passed through parliament in December, however, this is the first time they will be used. (All the other Russian sanctions imposed up until now have used the pre-existing legal framework.)

Here is what the minister had to say in a statement today:

Mr Magnitsky ... uncovered widespread corruption by Russian tax and law enforcement officials. He was imprisoned and mistreated, and died in custody in November 2009, after being refused medical treatment.

In this first tranche, the Government will honour Mr Magnitsky and all who defend the rule of law, with targeted sanctions and travel bans against 14 Russian individuals responsible for the serious corruption that he exposed and a further 25 Russian perpetrators and accomplices of his abuse and death.

These individuals will be subject to targeted financial sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans. This will ensure that Australia does not become a safe haven for those already locked out of like-minded countries and their financial systems.

Mr Magnitsky’s case inspired an international movement of sanctions laws to hold those responsible for his death to account, and to enable sanctions to be applied to other perpetrators of serious human rights violations and abuses, wherever they occur in the world.

This is the first of what will be ongoing sanctions using the Magnitsky-style reforms we passed in December.

Updated

Scott Morrison has addressed the Coalition party room for the last time before the May election in a speech full of ra-ra about how this is “our room, the government party room”.

Morrison expressed confidence the Coalition would be re-elected due to the wisdom of the Australian people, and the sharper focus on the “consequences” of voters’ choice closer to the election; he also spoke about the hard work of his MPs.

The prime minister said that Anthony Albanese, if elected, would be guided not by the principles he’d espoused in speeches “pretending to be John Howard”, but by 30 years of his own philosophy – and that he would be the most leftwing Labor leader since Doc Evatt.

Morrison dropped two big hints about the budget:

  • That after Australians had “worked hard, sacrificed and pushed through” the pandemic, the government would “give them the support they need” and this would not amount to “giving people anything” but redeeming “what they’d worked for”. This narrative would be a “strong counterpoint” for what critics might say about the budget. So, expect handouts.
  • That it will “transform regional Australia” and deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, should be proud of what he’d sought for regional Australia. So, big investment in the regions.

Joyce himself compared electing a government to choosing a dentist. “I don’t care if the dentist is my friend, I care that he or she knows what they’re doing,” he said.

Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison in the House of Representatives chamber at Parliament House on March 29, 2022 in Canberra, Australia.
Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison in the House of Representatives chamber at Parliament House on March 29, 2022 in Canberra, Australia. Photograph: Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Updated

ICAC investigating the arrest and charging of Zachary Rolfe

The Northern Territory police have announced that the territory’s Independent Commission Against Corruption will investigate the “process that led to the arrest and charging of Constable Zachary Rolfe,” the officer who was, this month, cleared of murdering Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker.

They released the following statement:

Northern Territory Police have been advised that the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption will investigate the NT Police will cooperate fully with the inquiry. As the matter is now before the ICAC there will be no further comment.

Updated

Parliament is kicking off for the day and Scott Morrison has begun by moving a motion of condolence for the late Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.

Above all, and most importantly, particularly in a place such as this, I believe Kimberley Kitching was a great Australian patriot, a voice for democracy and human rights, a voice for Australia’s place and security in the Indo-Pacific and standing up for what that required – a voice for a world order that favours freedom. Mr. Speaker, Kimberley Kitching had a great sense of Australia’s place in the world.

Updated

A protest has broken out in Canberra just as the federal budget lock-up begins.

Queensland records nine Covid deaths and 7,738 new infections

As per that earlier post about those inflation expectations ...

Let’s say the RBA does “lose its patience” with both rising prices and consumers’ expectations, and starts raising rates as investors are currently expecting from June.

If the rates rise as the CBA forecasts (and they are the biggest mortgage issuer in the country and so have an eagle eye on this bunny), there will be a rising interest rate toll for those majority borrowers who are on variable rates.

RateCity.com did some number crunching for us (we did ask nicely) based on the CBA’s prediction that the RBA’s cash rate will rise from the record low 0.1% now to 1.25% by next February.

They found the average new home loan customer in Australia would see their monthly repayments rise by an estimated $381 by February next year.

In NSW, repayments would rise by an estimated $495 a month by February, assuming their loan size is $804,675. (That’s the average recorded by the ABS for January.)

The calculation also assumes the mortgage holder is on the average RBA new customer variable interest rate of 2.52% and has a 30-year owner-occupier principal and interest home loan.

Those tallies are worth contrasting with the cost-of-living handouts we’ll learn about later today when we get our mitts on the budget.

Updated

Oh yeah, state politics is still going on. Even on budget day apparently. Who knew!

Down in South Australia, the newly elected premier has announced a recruitment drive for an extra 300 nurses, 100 doctors and 350 ambulance workers, as well as promising to introduce legislation to ensure a nurse-to-patient ratio in hospitals.

Updated

Tasmania reports record high 2,324 new Covid infections, one death

Tasmania has recorded 2,324 new coronavirus cases, the state’s highest daily figure since it reopened its border in mid-December, AAP reports.

Documented active cases grew to 11,415 on Tuesday, as the state experiences a second wave of Covid-19 after overall infections fell to the low 3,000s in mid-February.

A man in his late 80s with the virus became the state’s 30th fatality since the beginning of the pandemic, health minister Jeremy Rockliff said.

He lived at a residential aged care facility in southern Tasmania.

Twenty-two people with Covid-19 are in hospital, with five of those being treated specifically for the virus. No one is in intensive care.

Tuesday’s active case figure comes after 1,726 were reported on Monday.

Tasmania was virus-free when it reopened to mainland Australia on 15 December.

Updated

NSW Covid deaths include someone in their 30s

NSW Health have provided further details on nine Covid-related deaths reported overnight, which included someone in their 30s.

Six men and three women died within the reporting period, and included one person in their 30s, three people in their 60s, two people in their 70s, two people in their 80s, and one person in their 90s.

NSW Health said “older age” was a significant factor for “serious illness and death for COVID-19”.

Of those who were over 65, three had received all three doses of the vaccine, two were double jabbed and one was unvaccinated.

Of those under 65, one person had three doses of the vaccine while two had received two doses. All three were reported as having “significant underlying health conditions”.

Updated

Parts of northern New South Wales are again being lashed with heavy rainfall, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate for the second time in a month.

Widespread rainfall of up between 50 and 100mm is expected in NSW today, with higher localised falls of 150mm possible.

The low pressure system will bring heavy to torrential rainfall over the North Coast until Wednesday morning, with isolated severe thunderstorms possible.

The NSW State Emergency Service warned “life threatening flash flooding” and “significant riverine flooding” was possible as already saturated catchments were lashed with heavy rainfall.

The SES has already responded to 462 requests for assistance including 14 flood rescues over the past 24 hours.

The SES said:

There is a high chance of landslips. Damaging wind gusts are possible from Wednesday afternoon continuing into Thursday. Downing of trees and powerlines is therefore possible.

There were six evacuation orders in place on Tuesday morning and one evacuation warning for the Lismore CBD, east Lismore and Girards Hill.

Some 6,673 people across Tumbulgum and surrounds, low-lying parts of Mullumbimby and the CBD, low-lying parts of Billinudgel, North Lismore, low-lying parts of Kyogle and South Lismore had been ordered to evacuate.

There were 12 flood warnings in place across NSW including major flood warnings for the Tweed, Richmond and Wilsons Rivers.

The wild weather conditions have also caused rough seas, expected to peak at between four and six metres on Thursday, with beach erosion possible at south-facing beaches from tomorrow.

About 4,600 personnel including flood rescue teams, aircraft and high clearance vehicles were on the ground as part of the recovery effort that were being diverted to the unfolding emergency.

Updated

Police find body of a man in flood waters

Queensland police have confirmed that a body was found in flood waters in Queensland’s Southern Downs this morning, although identification is still under way.

Officers said they found the body of a man around 9.15am, but could not confirm if it was the body of a man who went missing on Monday morning.

On Monday, emergency services were called to a report that two vehicles were stuck in flood waters in Spring Creek.

A woman was assisted to safety by members of the public, but initial investigations by police found a man in his 40’s was swept away in the flood.

An extensive search was launched, with police investigations continuing.

Updated

We know the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has a delicate budget balancing act.

That is, how to shower the electorate with sufficient short-term largesse to ease cost of living pressures enough so voters show their gratitude (as they apparently always do, so said the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, yesterday) on election day without fanning rising inflation that makes the Reserve Bank lose its patience and start hiking interest rates.

The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly survey, then, won’t be what Frydenberg wants to see.

Inflationary expectations have climbed another 0.4 percentage points to 6.4%, the highest since June 2012. The rolling four-week average also rose 0.3 points to 5.8%, reinforcing consumers’ worries that prices are headed north and in a hurry.

Consumer confidence, though, mostly held its own, dropping only 0.1 points. Ominously, though, confidence is now worse than the 2020 budget and far below the level of the 2021 budget:

What’s all this mean for interest rates? Well, the financial markets have been betting on an RBA cash rate rise from the record low 0.1% rate to start from June.

If intervestors are right, there will be an interest rate rise EVERY RBA meeting for the rest of 2022 and the rises resume in 2023 when the central bank returns from the usual January holiday.

One thing to watch tomorrow will be whether the budget raises the prospects of (gasp) a pre-election rate rise by the RBA. Hence that delicate dance Frydenberg must perform.

Updated

Solomon Islands PM slams criticism of China deal

Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, has slammed criticism against the country’s proposed security agreement with China as “difficult to swallow”, in a fiery speech to parliament.

Sogavare told parliament on Tuesday morning.

We find it very insulting Mr Speaker, to be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs.

A draft security agreement between China and Solomon Islands was leaked last week. Australia and New Zealand are worried it could jeopardise regional stability, with China having the opportunity to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast.

Sogavare said he had had conversations with the leaders in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji since the document’s leak and commented that the Islands’ traditional security partners are “always important” to them.

I would like to make it abundantly clear that the Solomon Islands’ security arrangement with Australia remains in place, intact.

But in moving forward ... to achieve our security needs, it is clear we need to diversify the country’s relationship with other partners. What is wrong with that?

Sogavare said the security approach was not done in a vacuum nor without consideration for the country’s partners, adding that it was sad that it had been perceived as being insensitive to external issues.

We are now having this discussion, Mr Speaker, because some lunatics and agents of foreign regimes in the government system have no regard for secrecy. There are people who exist only to undermine the work of legitimate authorities.

The proposed security cooperation agreement is yet to be finalised.

Updated

Australia’s leading vaccine advisory group is considering whether to approve Covid-19 boosters for 12 to 15-year-olds, AAP reports.

As the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation last week moved to approve a fourth dose for elderly and at-risk people, the group is also weighing up whether to expand the vaccine rollout for young people.

A statement from the federal health department said Atagi was reviewing data on the use of Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds as a booster.

Currently, boosters are only approved for those 16 and over.

The review of Pfizer data will include information on serious illness, epidemiology and international rollout among the age group.

The health department said in a statement:

ATAGI is continuing to look at emerging evidence on the use of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments as part of its ongoing review of current recommendations.

It comes after Atagi last week approved a winter dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to those over 65, Indigenous Australians over 50, those in aged or disability care, along with those who are immunocompromised.

The fourth dose, or second booster, will be rolled out among the cohort from 4 April, with people eligible for the dose four months after their first booster shot.

However, a second booster was not recommended for the broader population.

The new Atagi advice was put in place ahead of a predicted surge of Covid-19 cases in winter, coinciding with a likely spike in flu cases.

Case numbers of Covid-19 have been increasing across the country in recent days due to infections linked to an Omicron subvariant.

Updated

Anthony Albanese:

Well, we [Labor] offer a much better alternative. We offer an alternative as well, that’s about a secure future ...

We are the party of John Curtin. We are the party that Australians turned to during our darkest hours in World War Two, and we made sure that we obtained a national interest and that we have a secure future going forward.

But part of that has to do our standing in the world. And we continue to have a prime minister who attends international conferences to speak to empty rooms with empty rhetoric, because he’s in the naughty corner when it comes to the action that can be taken.

Updated

Albanese:

[The Coalition] has made 54 predictions about wages and 52 of them have been wrong. And tonight, of course, I’ll have another prediction.

But the Treasury’s already out there saying, ‘well the pre-election forecast might be a bit different to the figures, because we now want to gild the lily’.

But we know that real wages declined by over a percent in the last year. We know the last budget not that long ago predicted real wages to decline, over the coming four years.

And what we know is that they themselves have said that it’s part of the design feature and their economic architecture. This is not an accident. This is a government that attacks penalty rates, that supports insecure work, supports small casualisation, that won’t even say when we’ve asked them in the parliament if they support people getting the minimum wage. The response to that is ‘it’s complicated’. Well, it’s not complicated. It’s not complicated, at all.

Updated

Albanese has stuck into Morrison over his handling of the floods:

He once again had a pattern of behaviour ... and now we’ve seen it more recently with the floods.

It is remarkable that given the bushfire crisis and given the criticism that was levelled at the government during that period, that none of the lessons were learned.

Once again, he failed to even use the legislation of going back to give the federal government emergency response powers. He waited and waited and waited until it was almost – not over, but when the worst had passed – and then got out a colour coded map to determine where support would go to.

And then went to Lismore and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Shutting off streets so that people couldn’t talk to him. And the press conference in Lismore was on every issue, it was someone else’s fault, no responsibility.

Well, I went to Lismore. And I went to Ballina. And I went to Murwillumbah and I went to all of those communities.

Updated

Opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, is speaking to his party at Parliament House now. Let’s have a listen in.

This is why our plans, our strategy for the next three years, is a strategy to win government and to move into the future. We did that and we stuck to it, and you gave me the support to do just that.

It has been a tough time for so many Australians. So many have lost loved ones through the pandemic, but so many more have lost their livelihoods.

It has been a sharp reminder of the important role that governments can play. And we have been completely constructive. I think we’ve got [the approach right] during this period of opposition. The same can’t be said of this ‘too little, too late’ government.

Updated

Crown Resorts have released a statement today confirming that the Commonwealth’s foreign investment review board “has no objection” to the Blackstone firm’s proposed take over.

Anthony Albanese has rubbished the government’s latest overnight budget drop, casting scorn on the latest promises of wages growth.

“They’ve had 55 projections about wage increases during their terms in office. And 52 of them, they have missed,” the Labor leader said this morning.

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said tonight’s budget will project an unemployment decrease to 3.75% in September, which his office claimed would deliver the strongest wages growth in a decade. No further evidence or modelling was provided for that claim.

Shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused the Coalition of “a decade of attacks on [Australians’] wages”.

Asked about the 3.75% unemployment promise that is leading the newspapers this morning, Albanese replied: “We will wait and see.

“The reality out there is that there are almost two million Australians who want more work. What we see is growth in the gig economy, a growth of casualisation, the growth of contracting out and labour hire companies. What we don’t see is a growth in secure work,” he said.

Chalmers said Labor would address wages growth by cracking down on labour hire firms, making the Fair Work Commission “empowered” to see casual jobs converted into more secure work, through the opposition’s policies on skills training and childcare.

Insecure work is like a cancer in our labour market. It’s one of the reasons why we haven’t been seeing the wages growth that we want to see.

Updated

Extinction Rebellion are also out and about this budget morning.

Paramedics protest, nurses vow to defy Industrial Relations Commission

NSW paramedics are taking industrial action in a bid to force meetings with the government to secure pay rises and more staff, Jack Gramenz from AAP reports.

Members of the Australia Paramedics Association will throughout Tuesday refuse to transfer stations from the one where they start their shift to fill roster gaps, as well as not undertaking non-urgent patient transfers.

Those in the north of the state are being excluded from the APA’s industrial action due to the flood recovery effort.

Multiple unions represent paramedics and the Health Services Union, which claims to represent “the vast and overwhelming bulk of the state’s ambulance workforce” says it has no industrial action planned.

APA NSW assistant secretary Alan O’Riordan told AAP he expects “probably very, very little” will actually come out of Tuesday’s industrial action and “we will just be ignored yet again”.

Although “the government just keeps ignoring us,” O’Riordan said paramedics will still take action, seeking an extra 1,500 paramedics and a “meaningful pay increase” in the neighbourhood of 3% to 5%.

He said the extra paramedics would help replace those leaving the workforce, but more would be needed to meet the state’s requirements.

There’s also a need for more specialist paramedics in regional and rural areas, O’Riordan said, and the government needs to acknowledge the problems in the paramedic workforce and begin meeting with the union to provide NSW with a “well resourced, well staffed ambulance service”.

The office of health minister Brad Hazzard has been contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association is planning industrial action for Thursday, when members will go on strike and rally around the state in protest over what it calls inaction on nurse-patient ratios by the government.

Members of NSWNMA previously took strike action in February and held rallies around the state and outside parliament house as politicians returned for the first sitting day of the year.

More union branches have voted to join the strike on Thursday since the February action.

The Industrial Relations Commission ordered the union to cancel the action by the end of the day on Monday however the union said it will push on and told members only the union can be fined, not individual members.

Updated

Victoria records five Covid deaths and 10,916 new infections

NSW records nine Covid deaths and 21,494 new infections

Singapore Airlines' Darwin flights take off

Singapore Airlines is restarting passenger flights to the Top End for the first time in more than two decades as international tourism begins ramping up following a pandemic-induced collapse, AAP reports.

Flight SQ251 from Singapore is scheduled to arrive at Darwin international airport about 2.45pm on Tuesday.

The four-hour and 45-minute flight will be the airline’s first regularly scheduled passenger service into the Northern Territory since March 1999.

The non-stop flight will initially operate up to three times a week and increase to five times a week by the end of May.

Minister for tourism and hospitality Natasha Fyles said:

Having flights between Darwin and Singapore will provide easy access for international tourists from all our key source markets, and beyond.

The flights are timed to connect travellers with Singapore Airlines’ global route network to Asia, Europe and some North American destinations.

Significant advertising campaigns in the NT’s three largest international tourism markets – the UK, Germany and the US – are under way.

They’re intended to drive the return of high spending tourists and working holiday makers to the NT.

“The return of Darwin to our global network shows our confidence in the Australian market and emphasises the fact that Australia’s recovery since opening its international borders in November continues to gather pace,” Louis Arul, the airline’s regional manager, said.

Singapore Airline also flies into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Cairns.

The airlines’ fully owned regional subsidiary SilkAir previously operated seven flights a week between Singapore and Darwin until the route’s suspension in March 2020 due to Covid-19.

The airline stored some of its planes, including A380s, in Alice Springs during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the dry desert air when passenger services all but stopped across the globe.

Qantas started using Darwin as a hub for its London flights to and from Sydney and Melbourne in November.

Australia reopened its borders to more than a million vaccinated visa-holders on 1 December after closing them in early 2020.

Updated

Morrison, Albanese speeches on US alliance

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, both addressed an event at Parliament House last night to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance with the US.

Continuing his focus on national security-related announcements, Morrison used the occasion to say the government would establish a “cyber and critical technology intelligence centre” within Australia’s existing Office of National Intelligence.

According to the government, this will be a multi-agency centre that “aims to position Australia and the national intelligence community to meet rapidly evolving challenges in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment”.

The government says the agency “will fund, shape and deploy cutting-edge science, research and technology to deliver better capabilities into the future, including investment in innovative research and development relevant to the National Intelligence Community via a range of funding for researchers and academia”. The government has not revealed the cost of this pledge.

Meanwhile, Albanese reiterated bipartisanship on the importance of the US alliance. The dinner was organised by the United States Studies Centre, the American Australian Association and the Perth USAsia Centre.

Updated

Rex Patrick to run for Senate in South Australia again

High-profile independent senator Rex Patrick says he will run for the upper house again in his home state of South Australia, having considered his future in the wake of his former boss Nick Xenophon again throwing his hat into the ring.

Patrick came to parliament in 2017 under the Centre Alliance banner, replacing Xenophon himself when he quit the Senate for an ill-fated run at state politics. Patrick has since quit the Centre Alliance, Xenophon’s old political venture, and was already facing a tough tilt to keep his South Australian Senate seat.

Xenophon’s 11th-hour decision to run for the Senate again, announced last week, potentially makes Patrick’s challenge even stiffer. Patrick said he’d consider his future, saying last week that Xenophon’s candidacy “changes the landscape” and that he had “great respect” for his former boss, with talk that he may run for the lower house seat of Grey.

On Tuesday, Patrick said he would stick with the Senate.

“Parliamentarians should stay the course once they have made a commitment and I’ve committed myself to run for the Senate,” he said in a statement.

Campaigning for integrity and transparency in government and politics isn’t a matter of catchy slogans and sound bites; it requires hard work, persistence and absolute determination to keep going when others give up or are distracted by the latest headline or social media post.

Patrick claimed on Facebook last week that “without me running for the Senate there is a real risk that SA will get a One Nation candidate representing them in the Senate”.

Independent South Australian senator Rex Patrick.
Independent South Australian senator Rex Patrick. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Morrison and Arden discuss China's interest in the Solomon Islands

Scott Morrison had a phone call with the New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, this morning. A readout suggests Beijing’s push for a security agreement with Solomon Islands was a key issue of concern in the call:

They discussed the proposed Solomon Islands-China security agreement and their shared concerns about any actions they would undermine the security and stability of the Pacific region. They discussed their ongoing commitment, as members of the Pacific family, to the Solomon Islands Assistance Force.

Morrison’s call follows talks with his counterparts from Papua New Guinea and Fiji yesterday.

A quick reminder: the proposed security cooperation agreement is yet to be finalised, but it has attracted a lot of attention since its leaking late last week. Australia and New Zealand are worried the draft agreement could jeopardise regional stability, with China having the opportunity to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast.

Here’s how Australia’s high commissioner to Solomon Islands put it yesterday:

Meanwhile, Morrison and Ardern also discussed the situation in Ukraine and how both Australia and New Zealand were cooperating with other like-minded countries to support the people of Ukraine.

Updated

Sound the budget alarms! The papers have arrived!

Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy will have to isolate for a week after one of his sons tested positive to Covid-19 this morning.

Guy, his wife Renae and two other sons have returned negative rapid tests, he said in a statement.

He plans to return to work on 5 April. In the meantime, David Southwick will act as leader of the Liberal party.

It comes after premier Daniel Andrews tested positive to Covid-19 on Monday.

Updated

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers says the Coalition’s financial plan tonight will be a “desperate panic, tapped-out budget from a desperate panic and tapped-out government”.

He is speaking with ABC now:

They can spray around all the money that they want on the eve of an election. It won’t change the reality for Australian working families that their real wages are going backwards.

We don’t have anywhere near enough to show for this trillion dollars in debt and the government is temperamentally incapable of seeing beyond the election. So there won’t be a plan for a better future.

Host Sabra Lane:

How do you compete?

Chalmers:

Well, we’ve got an alternative out there which is not just providing cost of living pressure [relief] in the near term, in areas like power bills and childcare as important as that is, but making sure we’ve actually got a plan to grow the economy the right way and a recovery that works for everyone beyond the election.

And that’s why we’ve got plans for cleaner and cheaper energy for cheaper and more accessible childcare, for a Tafe policy to deal with this skill shortage for the digital economy and the NBN and for a future made in Australia.

Federal shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers.
Federal shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Updated

Another Victorian politician taken out of action by Covid-19, with Matthew Guy being forced into isolation after his son tested positive to Covid-19.

The New South Wales government has approved fewer than 400 disaster relief grants for flood-ravaged northern rivers businesses, despite receiving almost 8,000 requests for help since applications opened almost a month ago.

After the state’s north was left reeling by weeks of devastating floods, the government announced grants of up to $50,000 for small businesses to help pay for cleanup costs, repairs, replace damaged stock and to lease temporary premises.

But one month on, less than 5% of the grant applications – or just 377 of the 7,965 received by Resilience NSW – have been approved by the state government.

You can read the full report from Christopher Knaus and Michael McGowan below:

Updated

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says that the cost of living is the “number one thing” that people are talking about around the kitchen table this morning ... and like, has no one told him about Will Smith?

Frydenberg:

Today it’s been revealed that the unemployment rate will have a friend for the first time in 50 years. This is a remarkable achievement that belongs to 26 million Australians. We’ve avoided the scouring of the labour market so reminiscent of previous recessions in Australia in the 80s and 90s.

We now have an unemployment rate that is very, very low and we are banking that dividend, now with the cost of living.

There are real pressures right now on Australians. It’s the number one topic around the kitchen tables of Australia.

So tonight, in a temporary, in a targeted, in a responsible way, we will provide cost of living relief.

Reporter:

Would you be providing that if Australians weren’t going to the polls in a matter of weeks?

Frydenberg:

We would of course be providing cost-of-living relief given the circumstances that Australia now faces. There’s higher expected inflation, indeed, it’s a global phenomenon. There’s petrol prices rising above $2 a litre and with the other challenges on Australian companies.

Updated

Treasurer says election will be held 'in a matter of weeks'

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is speaking now ahead of a big long budget day. He has promised a “material improvement to the budget’s bottom line”.

In a matter of weeks, the Australian people are going to the polls.

They will face a clear choice between a Coalition led by Scott Morrison which has delivered one of the fastest economic recoveries anywhere in the world and has planned for the future. And a Labour party which puts all those gains at risk.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Karvelas:

The cut to the fuel excise is widely expected to be at least 10 cents a litre. We know there will be a reduction, and it’s pretty much confirmed – so you know you can’t duck this question – will Labor stand in the way of motorists and cheaper prices regardless of how much it might cost the budget?

Albanese:

Well, we’ll see what the proposal is Patricia, but I’ve said very clearly that we believe there’s a need for cost-of-living relief. And there’s a need for that, though, on a permanent basis.

So we’ll be looking as well for something in the budget anything just to sign that this government gets the fact that people have been going backwards, and that they have they just don’t have a plan for that and a one-off temporary relief on petrol like the one-off payments.

Updated

Albanese says that the government’s strong economic numbers aren’t taking underemployment into account.

ABC radio host Patricia Karvelas:

They’re telling us that the low unemployment rate will drive up wages, which is basically just basic economics, isn’t it?

Albanese:

There is massive underemployment, Patricia. The figures hide the fact that people can be working just a few hours a week to get by to get some money. But that’s not a sustainable income.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is out and about this morning sowing the seeds of doubt in the Coalitions’ upcoming budget.

He tells ABC News breakfast that people shouldn’t trust that his opponents will be able to meaningfully raise wages.

This government have promised on 55 occasions different wage forecasts and all 52 of them, guess what, they’ve missed.

And yet again in the lead-up to an election, they’re saying, “Oh, your wages will go up. Just promises. Just trust us. Just give us a second decade in office.”

Host Patricia Karvelas:

I spoke to [economist] Chris Richardson earlier he says with this unemployment rate being driven so low, we will see wages growth.

Albanese:

Well, what that ignores, of course, is the changing nature of the workforce. The growth of casualisation, the growth of the gig economy, the growth of people who are outside the system.

This is a government that can’t even stand up in the parliament and show their support for people getting the minimum wage.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Good morning everyone, it’s Matilda Boseley here with you on this tense budget morning.

Of course, there will be plenty of political and financial news happening this morning but before we get to that, we need to discuss the evacuation orders currently in place for parts of north and south Lismore and low-lying parts of Kyogle in northern NSW as life-threatening flooding hits the region once again.

Emergency services issued several new evacuation orders late on Monday and early Tuesday across the area with moderate to major flood warnings issued for local river systems. Residents in low-lying parts of the northern rivers town of Billinudgel as well as parts of Mullumbimby and Tumbulgum were warned early on Tuesday that they needed to leave.

Lismore mayor Steve Krieg told ABC this morning that residents were suffering from flood fatigue.

Obviously everybody is exhausted. We’ve had a month of clean-up.

Heavy rains are forecast for northern NSW this week with high water levels possible in the flood-wrecked regional centre Lismore.

The relentless rain is hitting a region already reeling from devastating floods that struck just weeks ago. A low-pressure system sitting off the NSW coast will bring showers in the coming days including to Sydney, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jonathan How said.

As the system moves south it will become windy across state’s eastern coastline, becoming strongest on Friday with the potential to bring down trees and power lines, he said.

Thankfully though this rain event won’t be quite [as] long-lasting as the previous rain event so we will see conditions really ease towards the latter part of the week.

But he warned although the rain will stop, flooding may continue for days if not weeks to come.

OK, it’s a huge day ahead, so why don’t we jump right in?

Updated

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