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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly (now) and Royce Kurmelovs and Tory Shepherd (earlier)

Farmers welcome provision of extra flood relief funding in NSW – as it happened

Josh Frydenberg Australia
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe
Greens senators Dorinda Cox and Lidia Thorpe (pictured) want both major parties to commit to holding a parliamentary investigation into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and children within the first six months of the next government. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

We are going to put this blog to bed now and I am going to enjoy a very cheeky beer.

Before we go I want to firstly, wish all my colleagues luck tonight who are nominated at the Quill Awards for excellence in Victorian journalism, and secondly re-cap the big stories:

We will see you all tomorrow!

Updated

The commonwealth and New South Wales governments have announced an extra $742m for flood-affected communities in the state, including support for business and demolition of damaged buildings.

The federal government will also dip into its Emergency Response Fund to pay for flood mitigation measures in NSW and Queensland, after months of escalating criticism from Labor that the Coalition was ignoring the $4bn pool as it accrued hundreds of millions in interest.

From AAP:

NSW farmers have welcomed the provision of additional grants of $25,000 available to help producers in the flood-affected north of the state.

Primary producers were already eligible for $75,000 grants, but some smaller farmers missed out because of earning an off-farm income.

On Friday, during a visit to Ballina in northern NSW, federal emergency management minister Bridget McKenzie announced “the fourth tranche” of funding, which she said is a combination of state and federal money.

Rural landholder grants of up to $25,000 will be available to producers who earn less than 51% of their income off property.

The grant includes funding the removal of debris and deceased livestock, maintenance of livestock health, and repairing or replacing fencing, with a total of $35m available.

“The smaller landholder package ... recognises that not everybody is getting 100 per cent of their income off their property,” Ms McKenzie said.

Asked why the grant did not match the $75,000 available to other producers she said “it’s the disaster recovery assistance process”, and that the response is being adapted as issues arise.

A total of $150m will be used to assist primary producers to protect supply chains, and boost recovery and rebuilding efforts.

Updated

A Northern Territory judge found constable Zachary Rolfe lied about a violent arrest that left a man unconscious and gave evidence that “lacked credibility” and parts of which were “pure fabrication” in a criminal case before he was involved in the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.

In November 2019, Rolfe shot Walker three times during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu. He was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges earlier this month after he argued that he had acted to protect his safety and that of his colleague after Walker had stabbed him with scissors.

Updated

A giant mural of cricketing legend Shane Warne is going up on a wall close to where Sydneysiders will celebrate his life and career in 12 days’ time.

The painting in County Avenue, which runs down the side of the Paddington RSL in Sydney’s east, is about a kilometre from the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The three-metre high work, by artist Callum Hotham, portrays Warne gazing into the distance.

On 30 March, Sydneysiders are expected to gather at the SCG for a live stream of a state memorial service being held for Warne at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Warne died two weeks ago at a resort in Thailand, aged 52, of a suspected heart attack.

He will be laid to rest by his family on Sunday after a private funeral.

Updated

Julian Burnside AO QC has locked himself in a cage outside the Park Hotel on Swanston St in Carlton, Melbourne, in solidarity with the 18 refugees who are spending their ninth year of indefinite detention there.

Burnside is one of a growing number of prominent figures taking part in The Freedom Cage campaign, a grassroots movement calling for the immediate release of all medevac refugees and asylum seekers detained across the nation and offshore.

Other notable figures to lock themselves in the cage include Craig Foster, Adam Bandt, Tim Costello, Cathy McGowan, Samantha Ratnam, Arnold Zable, and Bishop Philip Huggins.

Updated

Inquest into death of Kumanjayi Walker announced

Acting Northern Territory coroner, Judge Elisabeth Armitage, will be presiding over an inquest into the death of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker, to commence on 5 September 2022, in Court 1 of the Alice Springs local court, it has just been announced.

A directions hearing is scheduled at 10am on 29 March 2022, to take place in Darwin local court.

Updated

Constable Zachary Rolfe’s father spoke to a witness about their evidence and stared at them in an intimidating manner during his son’s trial for murder, counsel for the Department of Public Prosecutions claimed during Rolfe’s trial.

The court did not consider or make any finding as to whether the alleged incident occurred and no explanation from Rolfe’s father was sought, but he has denied the allegation. Instead, justice John Burns issued a general warning to all people present at the court about the importance of not speaking to witnesses.

Updated

Chief medical officer urges booster shot uptake ahead of winter

From AAP:

Australians are being encouraged to get a booster dose ahead of an expected future wave of Covid-19, as cases begin to increase across the country.

Chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, says the federal government has approved a winter plan alongside states and territories for the expected Covid spike and flu season in winter.

Kelly says more Australians need to get their third shot as booster rates stall.

Around one in three people who are eligible for their booster have not yet had their third shot, commonwealth health data shows.

“Quite a lot of people have had Covid this year, I think there is some uncertainty or complacency about, ‘Oh look I’ve had Omicron, it wasn’t that bad and now I’m protected’,” Kelly told the ABC on Friday.

“Those are partially true statements but having a booster is still really important. It does give extra protection against severe disease (and) there is also increasing evidence that it protects against long Covid.”

Updated

It looks like the insurance claims for the big floods in Queensland and NSW are flattening out, with the total estimated insured losses topping $2.6bn, the ICA says.

Updated

There is also an Antarctic heatwave underway, if you can imagine such a thing.

We know sea-ice levels have hit a record low this summer (climate change has probably had a say in that), and now Weatherzone is reporting Australia’s Casey Station has beaten its March maximum temperature records by 1.5C.

That might not sound much, but in some eastern parts of the icy continent, temperatures are a mere 30 degrees above average.

Updated

Those earlier posts about the possible mass coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef are alarming not just in their own right, but because it’s extra worrying that such things are possible in a La Niña year.

Globally, La Niñas are typically cooler and, for northern Australia, stormier. If we can get mass coral bleaching in such years, we can get them pretty much any year. The next El Niño year might not be pretty at all.

Anyway, as we noted earlier, there is a chance we’ll get a third La Niña year in a row, which won’t provide much comfort to flood-hit areas, or those that might just have missed out lately.

Dams, for instance, might stay full for a while, and spill too. During the recent floods near Sydney, Warragamba dam – the city’s largest by far – spilled for more than two weeks and technically continues to spill, WaterNSW tells us.

As of Friday, it was still 100% full, and the spill rate was about 14 gigalitres a day.
There will be more precise figures later, but Warragamba’s total spill was about 1200GL, or close to 2.5 Sydney Harbours. At its peak rate, the dam was spilling at the pace of about 355GL a day.

While some parts of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River rose more than during the March 2021 floods, the actual spill rate and totals from Warragamba were higher then than during this month’s floods. (At its peak last year, the spill rate reached about 440 GL/day and about 1300GL ended up spilling, WaterNSW says.)

Those figures are a reminder that a lot of water enters the floodplain downstream of the dam, so raising the dam wall by 14m at the cost of $2bn or more, won’t remove the “flood-prone” descriptor for that region.

The bridge of the M4 motorway over the swollen Nepean River in Penrith in early March
The bridge of the M4 motorway over the swollen Nepean River in Penrith in early March. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Updated

Scott Morrison will discuss the push for a free trade agreement in a virtual meeting with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Monday.

There is speculation Australia and India could be close to reaching an interim trade deal, with a more comprehensive agreement to follow at a later date. Morrison issued a statement this afternoon saying the pair would hold a virtual annual leaders’ meeting on Monday:

Prime Minister Modi and I will discuss deepening our trade and investment relationship and harnessing new economic opportunities to support our mutual economic recovery and growth.

Central to these endeavours are strengthened cooperation in defence and security, science and technology, and critical minerals and clean energy.

We will also discuss a range of regional and multilateral issues, including the situation in Ukraine and its implications for the Indo-Pacific, and Myanmar.

I look forward to reaffirming our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and advancing our shared bilateral and regional agenda.

Notably, the Australian government has stopped short of criticising India for abstaining from UN votes deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The peak body for Ukrainians in Australia has begun to welcome displaced Ukrainians with offers of temporary accommodation, food, clothing, medical/mental healthcare, and opportunities to meet the local Australian-Ukrainian community.

Around 500 displaced Ukrainians have arrived in Australia, with the Department of Home Affairs advising the community it had expedited the issue of around 4,000 visitor visas for Ukrainians seeking temporary safety in Australia.

Kateryna Argyrou, co-chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations:

Displaced Ukrainians arriving in Australia have faced what few of us can imagine – under the threat of invasion, shelling, and bombing, they have been forced to flee their homes and all they hold dear. This has most heartbreakingly included in many cases their husbands, fathers, and brothers, who have stayed behind to defend Ukraine.

To assist these predominantly women and children, the AFUO has created a central national database to collect requests/offers of accommodation, aid, and volunteers. In just a few weeks, over 350 offers have been received for temporary accommodation and assistance related to donating basic goods, clothing and shoes, free medical services from medical professionals, and education. Over 100 people have registered as volunteers, and we are now allocating them into groups so they can work on various community initiatives.

Updated

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering severe and widespread coral bleaching with higher temperatures during a La Niña year, when average ocean temperatures are typically cooler, is clear evidence of the Morrison government’s failure to protect the reef from the impacts of climate change, Greenpeace Australia Pacific says.

Earlier today the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority confirmed that the reef had experienced widespread and severe coral bleaching, with the central reef most impacted by marine heatwaves and temperatures in parts of the reef up to four degrees above average.

Greenpeace Australia Pacific climate impacts campaigner Martin Zavan:

Warmer oceans caused by climate change have seen our precious Great Barrier Reef suffer severe and widespread coral bleaching during a La Niña year when average ocean temperatures are cooler. This is a sure sign that climate change caused by burning coal, oil and gas is threatening the very existence of our reef.

This latest bleaching event has once again exposed the Morrison government’s failure to protect the Great Barrier Reef, throwing billions at band-aid measures while failing to address climate change, the biggest driver of catastrophic coral damage.

The catastrophic bleaching comes on the eve of a UNESCO reactive monitoring mission arriving in Queensland to survey the health of the Reef. UNESCO delegates must be taken to see the bleaching and witness the climate damage to our Reef at current levels of warming.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s working group II report has warned that coral reefs, like the Great Barrier Reef, are already at their adaptation limits and will not be able to withstand further pressure like rising ocean temperatures.

Bleached coral from an earlier event, in 2017.
Bleached coral from an earlier event, in 2017. Photograph: Brett Monroe Garner/Getty Images

Updated

Senior Labor members Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher have denied allegations they contributed to “bullying” against the late Kimberley Kitching, calling the claims “untrue” and “hurtful”.

Amid an ugly public debate playing out in the wake of the Victorian senator’s death last week, Senate frontbenchers Wong, Keneally and Gallagher had been named in media reports as having allegedly “ostracised” Kitching, by leaving her out of meetings and not allowing her to ask questions during parliament’s question time.

Updated

Asthma warning for flood clean-up

The National Asthma Council Australia is advising people with asthma who live in areas hit by flooding and heavy rains in Queensland and New South Wales to be extra cautious when starting the clean-up of their homes.

Any flood-affected residents and volunteer cleaners will face difficult conditions including mould that could trigger asthma and allergy symptoms.

National Asthma Council Australia spokesperson, Professor Sheryl Van Nunen, said the recent rain, high humidity and warm temperatures provide excellent conditions for the growth and spread of toxic mould that can be damaging to health.

When mould is present, small particles called spores are released in the air, which can trigger asthma and allergy symptoms. The symptoms can include nose, eye and skin irritation, coughing, sneezing or wheezing and severe reactions in some people.

Reducing the amount of moisture as soon as possible is the best way to control mould growth, so do a thorough clean and open all the doors and windows to dry out the area as quickly as possible. If you can, use fans or dehumidifiers to speed up the process.

Updated

Call for inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women

We have this from WA Greens Senator Dorinda Cox, who wrote to us prompted by today’s story about the Durack reprisals in the Kimberley:

Our people were massacred on these lands. Women and children were slaughtered. It was a genocide. There is no shying away from this reality.

But the colonial project has not ended. Only yesterday, we learned that attempted Aboriginal massacres took place as recently as 1981. Despite a Royal Commission, more than 500 Aboriginal people have died in custody without a single conviction being upheld.

Our people grieve and our people mourn, yet we have survived. There is so much reckoning to be done.

Cox, a Yamatji Noongar woman, said she was looking forward to holding an inquiry into contemporary acts of violence through a parliamentary investigation into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and children.

For too long, the lives of First Nations women and children in this country have not been valued as equal. Too little of the necessary work has yet been done to achieve justice, truth and healing.

This inquiry will be the first of its kind in this country, and will investigate the systemic causes of violence, including underlying social, economic, cultural, institutional and historical causes contributing to the ongoing violence and particular vulnerabilities of First Nations women and children.

Cox and Greens colleague Lidia Thorpe want both major parties to commit to holding the inquiry within the first six months of the next government.

Thorpe, a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, said Aboriginal women should have the right:

to live their lives in safety, with full human dignity and free from all forms of violence, including family violence. I pay my respects and I honour our women and the struggles and the trauma that they face every day, and I particularly honour those who have lost their lives.

The very foundation of this country was paid for by our blood.

All of us need to understand the truth of Australia’s history and its ongoing impact on First Nations people before we can all move forward as a healed country. Together we need to explore, understand, and reckon with our past and the impact it continues to have on First Nations people and their cultures so we can build a future together.

Greens Senator Dorinda Cox.
Greens Senator Dorinda Cox. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Another sales pitch will be “look how much our projected budget deficit” has shrunk.

At December’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook, the federal deficit for 2021-22 was revised lower to $99.2bn. Jeremy Thorpe, PwC Australia chief economist, forecasts the budget will say the deficit has narrowed further to $80bn (and others may go lower still).

Still, that’s almost $1bn in spending exceeding revenue every four days, even if it is half the previous year’s record black hole. (Not to be confused with “back in black”.)
Soaring commodity prices – due to the Russian invasion of late – have been a big help for the budget, as has the “particularly strong” labour market, Thorpe says. “A sugar high” of $200bn-plus cash that people have saved up during the pandemic is also helping the economy.

Thorpe downplays the effect any “targeted support” is likely to have as people battle to cope with rising costs, compared with huge swings in global oil prices. Crude prices are down $US25 a barrel in a couple of days (although sites such as Fuelcheck aren’t showing any falls in petrol prices yet).

“The government is really playing at the margins in trying to bring some of those costs down,” he says, adding that many of the issues are anyway in state hands.

Thorpe will be looking at what the budget reveals about longer-term efforts to bolster economic growth, including how to wean Australia off fossil fuels. In any case, the budget repair effort is going to be a long one.

“[A]s we head towards the 2022-23 budget, we project that the commonwealth budget will not return to balance until 2036-37,” Thorpe says.

“In the 2010 commonwealth budget it was projected that we would reach zero net debt in 2029-30,” he says. “We now forecast this to not occur until 2056-57.”
Or only about 11 election cycles away.

2/2

Updated

In the 10 days or so left before treasurer Josh Frydenberg releases his fourth (and he hopes, not his final) budget, we can expect a daily drip of what may or may not be in the august paper.

The treasurer is today outlining his “fiscal strategy”, which our colleague Sarah Martin previewed here:

Other media reports have predicted we’ll get a “bonus”. (“Bonus: a sum of money added to a person’s wages as a reward for good performance,” the Oxford dictionary says.)

Or, as the AFR put it, the economy may recover so quickly “taxes may need to be cut within several years”. (Or we could pay off the debt that’s expected to hit $729bn by June, in net terms, or almost $1tn in gross ones.)

We do know the government has a vexing problem: how to trumpet the booming economy, including the lowest jobless rate in 14 years, without reminding people their wages are lately not keeping up with price rises ...

1/2

Updated

Reporter: We have got no shortages of jobs here at the moment but we do have a shortage of, is housing and there are concerns that with mining companies through the fringe benefits tax exemptions gives them the upper hand in local housing markets and often squeezing out local families. Is that on the agenda to look at that?

Morrison:

I understand we’re about to have a round-table with many of the mining community leaders here and I note this is an issue for them and I’m looking forward to having those discussions with them. The 50% exemption that currently applies was certainly an improvement to assist with that.

Morrison says his government has helped 300,000 Australians to own their own home. He says we need more houses built across the country. He says the government’s 5% deposit has helped people get into the housing market.

I tell you what it means – I met a young woman in Melbourne who was able to save eight years – eight years – on getting into her first home because of that assistance that we provided through the home guarantee scheme. It’s what we promised at the last election. It’s what we delivered. But the channels in regional communities are also there – housing is just not a metropolitan issue in our capital cities, it’s a real issue in our regions, but, Rick, did you want to say anything about that.

Updated

Reporter: Prime minister, are you heartened by the fact that your approval rating across all key electorates in WA is 42% compared to Anthony Albanese’s 28%?

Look, what I’m heartened by is that what we’re doing in Western Australia is working because Western Australians are working. What I’m heartened by is when I can come to mine sites, when I can walk into manufacturing businesses in Western Australia.

The manufacturing businesses that build the buckets that go on those big mining trucks and I can see the integration of the Western Australian economy and I can see just how important, as I have always known, the Western Australian economy is to our national economy.

And this is why the premier and I do work closely together on so many issues. We both get it – that Australia needs a strong resources sector, both in Western Australia and around the country. So, you know, there’s a big difference between Albanese Labor and McGowan Labor. They’re not the same thing.

Scott Morrison in Perth on Thursday.
Scott Morrison in Perth on Thursday. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Updated

Reporter: prime minister, Labor Senate leadership team has addressed bullying claims by the late Senator Kitching denying any involvement. Do you believe there should be an investigation into the claims or is that the end of the matter?

Morrison:

Well, I think this is a matter for Anthony Albanese. And I think he’s the one who need – one who needs to answer these questions. And he’s gone into hiding. I mean, the first – where is Anthony Albanese? I mean, where is he on this issue?

Richard Marles was – didn’t answer any questions on this yesterday either. I mean, there are many questions that have been put here and, frankly, as soon as things get a bit difficult for the leader of the opposition, he goes missing. He vanishes.

As prime minister, as you know, I’m regularly up in front of you and I deal with the hard questions that are put to me and all the many issues we have had to deal with over many, many years.

You know, if you’re prime minister, that’s what you have to do. And he’s got some uncomfortable questions that he needs to answer in relation to the conduct of his own party, but that’s for him to address.

Updated

Morrison speaking in WA

Morrison:

That’s what our government has been doing whether it’s on delivering on the GST that Western Australia needs, but particularly supporting there resources industry – whether it’s changes to environmental legislation to see it gets projects up, changes to occupational licensing which enables us to go and get people in trades to where we need to get them to, or – you know, the simple processes of ensuring the industrial arrangements that you need in greenfield sites that drive investment to be a reality.

He says the government will be represented at Senator Kitching’s funeral on Monday by the leader of the government in the Senate, Simon Birmingham.

I have some important announcements I’ll be doing up in Brisbane on that day and that’s where I’ll be.

I think it’s appropriate that the Government’s representation be led by Senator Birmingham who obviously knew Senator Kitching well. I did not know Senator Kitching well personally but I know many members of the government did and they will be there and we have, you know, been absolutely mortified by Senator Kitching’s death.

It has been a great shock to not just obviously the Labor party, but all those who knew her well. And even in those who didn’t know her well. So I’m very pleased that Senator Birmingham will be able to be there to represent the government.

Updated

Morrison:

Let me deal, first of all, with the issues you have raised on the EPBC Act. We tried to move this many times. The Labor party have been crystal clear. I mean, I challenged them to support this last year – last year! And they have consistently opposed it.

When we come back for the few days that we have, we’ll be moving very quickly on important budget legislation. Labor have had their chance to support this legislation and [if re-elected the] Morrison government will be pushing this again and hopefully the Australian people, particularly the Western Australian community, can send a message to Anthony Albanese that he needs and the Labor Party needs to wake up to the needs of the resources industry that support so many jobs here in Western Australia.

You can’t just come to Western Australia and think he’s going to get ticks for just showing up. He needs to show up with an understanding of what Western Australia needs.

Updated

The PM is talking in WA now

The South Australian Labor opposition says the environment will be given “high priority” should it win government despite the last minute announcement of an efficiency dividend that environmental groups say will slash funding.

Conservation Council of South Australia chief Craig Wilkins has warned the announcement, made days out from voting day, would strip $34m in “core funding” from the Department of Environment and Water.

Responding to the criticism, Labor Deputy Leader Susan Close said the party had contributed a combined $18m in new funding for several programs that will be overseen by the department among a suite of other policies.

“All Labor’s commitments will be additional funding for the environment,” Close said.

“While Labor will require efficiencies from many departments to help fund the urgent reform in the health system, the environment under Labor will be given the high priority it deserves.”

South Australians will head to the polls on Saturday.

Suppression orders in relation to Zachary Rolfe trial lifted

The suppression orders in relation to the Rolfe case have been lifted - we will have more on this for you soon.

Updated

A three-year-old girl has been flown to hospital after suffering head wounds during a “terrifying” kangaroo attack in the New South Wales northern tablelands.

Emergency crews from NSW Ambulance were called to a residential street in Armidale about 5.30pm on Thursday with reports the girl had been attacked by a kangaroo.

From AAP:

Australians are “lucky bastards” to be avoiding the gas price crunch in Europe, according to a former British energy regulator.

Dermot Nolan, ex-CEO of the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), said on Friday the soaring gas price in the United Kingdom was now beyond the control of regulators and companies.

Even before the war in Ukraine, UK gas prices were up more than 50 per cent and were now projected to rise another 60-70 per cent over the next six months, he told the Energy Networks conference in Brisbane.

Most British homes are still heated by gas, leaving the population vulnerable to price spikes, while Australians enjoy the power bill buffer of world-leading rooftop solar and more renewable energy in the electricity grid.

“You are, pardon my language, lucky bastards for not having that level of increase in terms of your gas prices,” Nolan said.

“I’m very glad I’m not head of OFGEM anymore.”

Updated

Hello everyone, thank you, Royce – for taking us through the morning and for the honorary SA status.

I will be with you for the rest of the afternoon. If you want, tweet me @cait__kelly.

SA premier Steven Marshall was just on the ABC. He was asked about the polls, which suggested he is about to lose the election.

This is what he had to say:

I think we’ve got to be very sceptical about polls. They haven’t been very reliable in recent times. Bill Shorten would have been the prime minister of Australia if the polls were correct. I think that he was already loading up the trailer and had to do a U-turn on the way to Kirribilli.

Hillary Clinton would have been the president of the United States, and in fact, at the last state election, we would have had Nick Xenophon installed as the premier of South Australia. That didn’t happen and he didn’t win his own seat. So tomorrow is polling day. It’s an important poll for the people of South Australia.

Updated

National Covid-19 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: 1,123
  • In hospital: 37 (with four people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: six
  • Cases: 20,050
  • In hospital: 1,060 (with 32 people in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 11
  • Cases: 6,103
  • In hospital: 245 (with 20 people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 1,779
  • In hospital: 23 (with three people in ICU)

Victoria

  • Deaths: nine
  • Cases: 9,036
  • In hospital: 199 (with 23 people in ICU)

And that is it from me! I’ll be handing over the blog to my colleague Cait Kelly to take you through the rest of the afternoon. She may not be a South Australian, but I’m pretty sure that between Tory Shepherd and myself we have the pull to get her honorary status.

Updated

QLD records 11 Covid deaths and 6,103 new cases, ACT records 1,123 cases

Queensland has reported 6,103 new Covid-19 cases overnight with 11 deaths, 245 hospitalisations and 20 people in the ICU.

The ACT has also recorded 1,123 new cases, with 37 people in hospital, 4 in ICU and 1 on ventilation.

Updated

The Conservation Council of South Australia is “ringing alarm bells” today about last minute budget cuts proposed by the Labor opposition a day before the state goes to the polls.

Labor has promised introducing an “efficiency dividend” of 1.7% that will will be applied across government departments excluding Health, Education, Police, Child Protection, Tafe, Courts and Emergency Services in order to offset the cost of its election commitments.

Conservation Council SA CEO Craig Wilkins said the measure would cut $34 million in “core funding” from the Department of Environment and Water.

“After $34 million was ripped from the core environment and water operating budget over the last few years, it is a shock to find out at the last minute that Labor are planning to make further cuts if they are elected tomorrow,” Wilkins said.

“With SA’s unique and precious wildlife, rivers and landscapes under enormous pressure now is the time to be investing far more in the protection and restoration of our environment, not cutting funding further.

“While we strongly welcome the modest additional funds Labor has committed to a number of specific environmental projects and priorities ahead of the election, this announced cut reflects the pattern over recent years of funding for specific projects and short-term programs, while core funding for the department has been reduced year after year.”

The move factors into a campaign where climate change and the environment has taken a back seat during the South Australian election campaign.

  • This post was amended on 18 March. An earlier version incorrectly stated that Labor’s “efficiency dividend” would cover health, education, police, child protection, Tafe, courts and emergency services. Those areas are exempt.

Updated

Senior Labor members Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher have denied allegations they contributed to “bullying” against the late senator Kimberley Kitching, calling the claims “untrue” and “hurtful”.

The three Senate frontbenchers had been named in media reports as having allegedly “ostracised” Kitching, by leaving her out of meetings and not allowing her to ask questions during parliament’s Question Time.

The Victorian senator died last week, aged 52, after suffering a suspected heart attack - a condition some of her supporters have claimed may be linked to stress over her Senate pre-selection remaining under consideration.

Senior Labor figures disputed the reports, with leader Anthony Albanese calling for “respect” in the wake of Kitching’s death.

On Friday, Wong, Keneally and Gallagher released a joint statement to refute the claims - saying they had so far declined to comment “out of respect” for Kitching and her family.

“Given the hurtful statements that continue to be made we feel it necessary to respond,” the three senators said.

“The allegations of bullying are untrue. Other assertions which have been made are similarly inaccurate.”

The Australian reported “Kitching and some of her supporters” and referred to Wong, Keneally and Gallagher as “the mean girls” - a phrase Albanese said was “extraordinarily disrespectful”.

On Friday, Albanese claimed Kitching’s death had been “politicised”, and that he was “very proud” to have those three senators on his team.

Wong, Keneally and Gallagher said politics was “a challenging profession” where “contests can be robust and interactions difficult.”

“All of its participants at times act or speak in ways that can impact on others negatively. We have and do reflect on this, as individuals and as leaders,” they said.

One specific allegation raised was that Wong had told Kitching “if you had children, you might understand why there is a climate emergency”. In the joint statement, Wong said she had apologised to Kitching for the remark, and said she believed that apology had been accepted.

“The comments that have been reported do not reflect Senator Wong’s views, as those who know her would understand, and she deeply regrets pain these reports have caused,” the statement read.

Wong, Keneally and Gallagher said they would attend Kitching’s funeral, following discussions with Kitching’s family.

SA cases of Japanese encephalitis rise to eight

The number of confirmed Japanese encephalitis cases in South Australia has grown to eight, AAP reports.

The Department for Health and Wellbeing says that includes one person who died earlier this month.

Of the remaining seven, five are still in hospital and two have been discharged.

A further two people in hospital remain under investigation.

“It is crucial that we all continue to take extra precautions against mosquitoes,” executive director of health protection Chris Lease said.

“People planning activities around the River Murray are warned to be especially vigilant, particularly between dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.”

Most people who are infected with flaviviruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus, Kokobera virus, West Nile virus, and Murray Valley encephalitis virus are asymptomatic or develop a mild febrile illness.

A small proportion of infected people will develop encephalitis, which may be fatal or cause long-term neurological damage.

Symptoms include confusion, headaches, neck stiffness, tremors, drowsiness and seizures.

Updated

ACCC takes Meta to court over scam ads on Facebook

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking Meta to court over celebrity scam ads on Facebook, claiming the company “aided and abetted” the scams that have cost some Australians hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The ads, which promote investment in cryptocurrency or other investment scams, have plagued the platform since 2020. Each ad depicts an image of a prominent Australian such as David Koch, Dick Smith or Andrew Forrest, claiming to have made it big with the investments in a fake news article that directs people to the scam investment website.

Meta has struggled to keep the ads off its site, with the scammers frequently changing the URLs for the scam sites, and the text of the ads to escape Facebook’s ad filtering.

The ACCC has said Meta has not done enough to stop these ads, taking the company to the federal court for engaging in alleged false, misleading or deceptive conduct in publishing the ads, and aiding and abetting the false conduct by the advertisers.

ACCC chair Rod Sims said:

The essence of our case is that Meta is responsible for these ads that it publishes on its platform.

It is a key part of Meta’s business to enable advertisers to target users who are most likely to click on the link in an ad to visit the ad’s landing page, using Facebook algorithms. Those visits to landing pages from ads generate substantial revenue for Facebook.

Meta has said it intends to defend the proceedings and has said in the last three months of last year alone, the company took down close to 2bn scams from its site, over 99% of which were removed before someone else had reported them.

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Hello! I’ll be taking over the *everything* blog for the next hour or so. Just getting situated and we’ll keep this thing rolling into the afternoon.

More to come on ... well, everything. I am now handing over to my colleague down here in the “middle bottom bit” (as we like to call South Australia) Royce Kurmelovs. And yes, we share the occasional Magic Mountain joke. Until next time!

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Penny Wong, Kristina Keneally and Katy Gallagher issue statement on Kimberley Kitching

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Victorian trade unions are pushing for Melbourne’s Curtin hotel – a venue with historical ties to the state’s union and Labor movement – to be safeguarded with heritage status.

The Victorian Trades Hall Council, which represents Victorian unions, and Victoria’s National Trust, have nominated the live music venue for the state’s heritage register. The hotel was a popular meeting spot for unionists and Labor figures, including former prime minister Bob Hawke.

Last month the Curtin became the latest live music venue in Melbourne to announce it would close its doors – for the final time in November – with the owners of the almost 150-year-old building deciding to sell the space.

Inclusion on the state’s register would not prevent the sale of the venue but would establish legal obligations on the owner to maintain the property in accordance with its heritage values.

Luke Hilakari, secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, said the Curtin had been a part of the “fabric of working-class history” in Victoria for over 100 years:

We think that history is worth preserving. We think it should be protected for future generations of workers to enjoy.

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Technology including GPS tracking of offenders will be used to keep domestic violence survivors safe.

The federal government has announced $104m over five years for the program.

People with apprehended violence orders against them will be monitored. Survivors will too – alerting police if the two people are in the same area.

Technology checks will look for tracking programs installed on survivors’ computers and phones, and will look for cameras that could be hidden in their homes.

According to AAP, Anne Ruston, women’s safety minister, said technology should be used to combat abuse, not perpetrate it. She said:

We want to support women and children to remain in their home or a home of their choice – where it is safe and appropriate to do so – through safety planning and the provision of personal safety alarms, security cameras, dash cameras and other technology solutions.

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Tasmania has recorded 1,779 new Covid cases and there are 23 people in hospital with Covid, including three in intensive care.

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“The community is taking on all the responsibility and the brunt of the load in terms of finding these people accommodation and getting them settled.”

“We’ve genuinely missed everybody,” New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says as Aussie tourists return.

According to AAP, Ardern told Today the arrival of Australians will help make NZ feel whole again.

“I can tell you that anyone who comes here this year is just going to experience such joy from Kiwis,” she said.

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Two Russian oligarchs have had sanctions slapped on them by the Australian government. Daniel Hurst and Ben Butler have the details:

On those rising Covid numbers – experts say (and I can’t believe they have to say this) now is not the time to relax mask rules. Benita Kolovos and Adeshola Ore take a look:

The ABC’s trying to get both premier and opposition leader to write down their election predictions, and they’ll reveal them once the numbers are actually in. Gimmicky or actually fun? It could be interesting.

That all got pretty scrappy. We’ll bring you the election outcome when it comes (it could be next week), and what it could mean for the looming federal election.

Premier Steven Marshall takes a crack at Labor leader Peter Malinauskas: “He’s never held an economic portfolio”. ABC host Stacey Lee points out: “Well, neither have you.”

Malinauskas and Marshall have moved on to their election costings. The reigning Liberal party says Labor has nicked a bunch of cash from contingency funding for its election announcements.

The ABC host David Bevan makes the point that (I’m paraphrasing) a contingency funding is there for the raiding.

But Marshall says the money is earmarked for transport and infrastructure, so if Labor uses it for anything else, roads won’t be built.

Ambulance wait times are important, of course – people have died. But in SA they’ve become a symbol of all the problems with the health system. So it’s one of the deciding factors in tomorrow’s election.

The SA premier, Steven Marshall, is up against Labor leader Peter Malinauskas on ABC Adelaide.

The debate has kicked off on ambulance ramping, which has been a dominant theme in the campaign. There’s a bit of a barney about whether it’s getting worse – Labor has pulled an ad that says it is, the electoral commissioner says it isn’t, Malinauskas says it got much worse and has only slowed because of the slow down in elective surgery.

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NSW reports one case of Japanese encephalitis

If those Covid numbers weren’t enough to worry about, NSW Health has confirmed another case of Japanese encephalitis.

A man in his 50s has been discharged from hospital. NSW Health is warning that the mosquito-borne disease situation is “evolving” and now it will report on cases every day.

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NSW reports six Covid-related deaths

Six people have died in New South Wales, 1,060 have been hospitalised and 20,050 new Covid cases have been recorded:

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Victoria reports nine Covid-related deaths

Nine people have died in Victoria, 199 were hospitalised, and the state has recorded 9,036 new Covid cases:

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A nice addendum to news yesterday that acting education minister Stuart Robert was firing up the culture wars in schools – Mostafa Rachwani reports that a solid majority of parents are keen on diversity:

GPS tracking to monitor perpetrators. Interesting. A similar program has been trialled previously in the UK.

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A sixth mass bleaching event is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef, according to a leading coral scientist. Graham Readfearn reports:

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is now paying tribute to Labor senator Kimberley Kitching. Things have got very messy in the wake of her unexpected death with accusations of bullying. Frydenberg says:

I think she was a really serious, wonderful politician who cared deeply about human rights issues and was able to achieve effective significant change, particularly about the Magnitsky laws.

As for the rest, that’s up to Labor, he says.

Katharine Murphy has taken a look at what Labor is planning to do:

Frydenberg is talking about those all-important cost of living pressures. There’s talk he’ll give a one-off boost to people in the budget, but he won’t be drawn on that.

“There will be initiatives to address the cost of living over and above what we’ve already announced,” he says.

He points to childcare, tax relief, and so on, and says there will be more steps announced. Hopefully without increasing inflation further ...

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Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on the telly now (hope he’s saving some juicy bits for his speech later). He’s talking about this idea of returning to some sort of pre-Covid fiscal world. He says:

As you know, we recalibrated our budget strategy when the pandemic first hit and we needed to do that to ensure there was sufficient economic support with programs like jobkeeper, the cash flow boosts, the $750 payments to pensioners, carer, and those on income support. That helped stabilise the economy by opening up the purse strings. Now that the recovery is well underway and the unemployment rate is down to a 14-year low of 4%, it is time to move to the next phase of the budget strategy and that means stabilising debt and then reducing debt as a proportion of the overall economy, and ending those crisis-level, emergency economic support programs.

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When will the wet weather end? Good question, and some answers here from Peter Hannam, who also introduces me to the word “three-peat”:

The federal government has put money aside – “we’ve made a provision” – for dams, including the Urannah Dam project, treasurer Josh Frydenberg says.

It will have to meet environmental approvals, though, he says. Background to that (from Katharine Murphy, Lisa Cox and Adam Morton) is here:

Now he’s talking about delays in rolling out emergency help for flood victims, particularly in Ballina and Byron. Frydenberg says the government has already made lots of payments and that this was a one-in-500-years event. (That x-in-x-years claim is a little murky).

“We are living in an uncertain world,” treasurer Josh Frydenberg says:

What we need to do [is] take steps to stabilise and ultimately reduce debt as a share of the size of the economy and that’s what the budget in a week’s time will actually reveal.

He’s asked about spending cuts. “I’m not calling it austerity,” he says. “I’m calling it responsibility.”

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Patricia Karvelas asks the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, why he doesn’t push up public sector wages (for example, in aged care) to get wages up more generally.

He says the commonwealth “doesn’t take a side” on decisions by the independent umpire (the Fair Work Commission).

“I obviously want to see wages rise,” he says. And he talks about those aged care bonuses, which some people have had trouble accessing:

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Frydenberg is talking to Patricia Karvelas on ABC’s Radio National now, and she starts off with asking about whether the low income tax offset will continue. Frydenberg declines to answer – wait for the budget, he says (or the strategic drops still to come).

But some temporary measures will be needed, he says.

He says he’ll update the inflation forecast (after being asked if rising inflation will offset any cost-of-living relief).

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will also be around this morning talking about the budget, before he gives that all-important speech a bit later. Here’s a preview of his main points:

The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, is doing the media rounds today ahead of tomorrow’s state election. He’s already done ABC television and is now talking to ABC radio. Sabra Lane asks him about the fury after the state government decided to open the borders before Christmas, bringing in Covid just as Omicron arrived.

He says:

There’s no doubt that many businesses, many individuals have made sacrifices... but those sacrifices have kept our state safe and kept our economy strong.

He points out that SA only had six days of lockdown. We’re sure to hear from Labor leader Peter Malinauskas soon.

Here’s an earlier overview of the issues facing SA from Sarah Martin:

Updated

Good morning

It has been a week where too much news is barely enough – and it’s not slowing down.

The treasurer Josh Frydenberg, will deliver the traditional pre-budget speech today, and from the previews he seems set to say everything is getting back to normal (if you ignore the numbers clicking over at the petrol bowser). There will be “targeted” cost-of-living measures, which certainly sounds better than non-targeted measures.

Of course, this pre-budget speech heralds the pre-election budget. Yikes. (And the South Australian state election is tomorrow, which may or may not deliver a sneak peek at the federal election in May).

Covid numbers are clicking up about as fast as petrol prices, we’ll bring you the latest as they land.

And new research has found Australia’s heaviest drinkers down eight drinks a day (that’s not just Fridays, people). The La Trobe University research found 5% of Australians drink more than a third of all alcohol sold – mostly beer and cask wine.

Gulp.

And with that, here we go!

Updated

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