Floods would most likely be the result of La Niña – a powerful weather pattern influenced by cooler temperatures in the Pacific
Severe flooding caused by La Niña is predicted for February despite England remaining in drought, the Met Office has said.
Two-thirds of people who are at risk of flooding do not realise they are, the government said on Monday, as it embarked on a major awareness campaign. This is significant, as the average cost to a flooded household is £30,000.
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Chaney ‘not convinced’ IR changes will ‘drive an increase in wages’
On the proposed industrial relations changes, Chaney says she supports the proposal where it will lift wages in low-paid sectors of the economy but is wary of introducing “another layer of complexity” into workplaces and is not convinced multi-employer bargaining will actually lift wages.
I’m completely supportive of the fact that we need to increase wages and increase share of wages to GDP. I think the expansion – the multi-employer bargaining for the supported stream is a good thing, [in] those low-paid industries, and that may well get wages moving.
[It will benefit] childcare, aged care, largely feminised industries, and that seems to make a lot of sense. I’m concerned about the overreach and this extension of multi-employer bargaining to any group that are deemed to have a common interest, as determined by the Fair Work Commission. I think it’s great for IR specialists and lawyers.
I can understand the government’s desire to keep its promises, but when you look at where we are, really there is nothing to take the place of the revenue lost in those tax cuts, so it needs to be part of a broader review of how are we going to pay for the things we need.
I reckon they should be delayed, pending a broader review of the tax system and it may be that a result that have could be trimming them at the top, or it could be looking at different sources of revenue that mean we can rely less on personal income tax as we see our population age.
Continue reading...‘Total destruction’ and dozens of people still unaccounted for in Texas town while Arkansas and Oklahoma also hit by tornadoes
At least two people have died and dozens more are injured after tornadoes ravaged parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Several twisters caused property damage and physical injury across the various states on Friday. Tornado warnings had still been in effect as of late Friday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting.
Continue reading...Search continued for two people swept off ute near Boorowa as prime minister said he hoped for positive news
Anthony Albanese says he is concerned about two men missing in flood waters after their ute was washed off the road in central New South Wales.
As the Riverina town of Gundagai braced for its worst flooding in 33 years, the State Emergency Service undertook 39 flood rescues in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.
Continue reading...Sixteenth tropical cyclone to affect the Philippines this season caused deadly floods and landslides
Tropical Storm Nalgae swept through the Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 60mph.
Heavy rain caused the most damage, with significant flooding and landslides. Dozens of people have died and 170,000 sought shelter in evacuation centres.
Continue reading...People have been cleared to return to their homes as flood threat eases in Victoria, but the Bureau of Meteorology is warning of renewed flooding in parts of NSW. This blog is now closed
Chalmers on the size of government debt and making it ‘sustainable’
The treasurer is asked whether the government will consider rethinking taxes like GST and PRRT.
We have already found $22bn in savings, $28.5bn in budget improvements overall. We kept real spending growth flat across the forward estimates. We have got the debt down over the forward estimates. We have let 99% of the temporary revenue surge from higher commodity prices flow through to the budget.
That is good progress when we have shown in doing that … you can move sensibly on all fronts, restraint, trimming spending, sensible tax reform, you can make the budget more sustainable and that will be the task of the two or three budgets remaining in this parliamentary term as well.
We need to work out how do we maintain a focus on Australians with a disability and their families, how do we put them front and centre, and at the same time make sure that spending on the NDIS is sustainable and important part of that is making sure we get value for money for every dollar that is spent in what is a really important, really, really important service that we provide to Australians.
I do understand there is a substantial part of the community that would prefer that that PRRT take was higher.
We haven’t been working up an option to do that to change the PRRT arrangements but the treasury has been commissioned by my predecessor and by his predecessor to do some of this work around the taxing point in the PRRT.
We do want to make sure Australians get a good return for their resources. We need to balance that against the investment that’s been made into the sector. When I get that advice from I will engage in it a meaningful way and I will listen to it.
We have seen I think as you acknowledged in your first question, on this topic, company taxes are up quite substantially. That’s a good thing and we have let that flow through to the budget. The PRRT, there’s a modest increase. I will wait to see what the treasury advises us on the conclusion of the review that my two predecessors put in place.
Continue reading...Officials revise death toll after fast-moving waters sweep away entire families and damage almost 500 houses
The Philippines has significantly revised down the death toll from a tropical storm ravaging the country, saying only 45 people have been killed.
The civil defence office had earlier reported 72 dead, 14 missing and 33 injured, but civil defence officials acknowledged rescue teams sent to the country’s flood-hit south on Friday had erred in their reporting, leading to some deaths being counted twice.
Continue reading...If residents choose not to move their home or if it is not possible, they will be sold or stripped for materials
In the nine months since floods gutted Harper Dalton’s South Lismore home, he has been waiting for two things: a land buyback and the ability to pick up the redwood home and move it to higher ground.
On Friday it emerged that northern rivers residents eligible for buybacks under a new joint federal and state $800m housing scheme will be allowed to do just that.
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Continue reading...Leader of the opposition to give his reply to the treasurer Jim Chalmers’ first budget. Follow the day’s news live
The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi will give notice of a private senator’s bill she will introduce today aiming to halt the indexation on student loans and increase the repayment threshold to above the median wage.
Faruqi says it is one way which would help ease the cost of living burden on people with student debt:
Student debt is no small problem. About three million people in Australia have the burden of student debt.
At a time when the cost of living is biting hard, governments can no longer ignore the student debt crisis and its impacts.
What we have said all the time is that we want wages to grow, and we want them to stay growing. Not to have a short-term growth and then have at the expense of potentially higher unemployment.
So that’s the first thing. The second thing is we’ve got to get an IR system that drives productivity. That’s not about working harder for less, it’s about working smarter. It’s about creating the environment where people use new technology, where they innovate, where they share ideas, where they open new markets, where they have more skilled people.
Continue reading...Over on Sky News, the questions were all about the next budget:
Host: Joining us live now in Canberra is the prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Prime minister, good morning to you. So, a safe budget to pay for your election commitments. Are tax increases and spending cuts next?
Hang on, Pete. We’ve just had the budget last night. You’re now talking about future budgets. Let’s talk about what we did last night. What we did last night was to fulfil our election commitments, provide cost-of-living relief with cheaper childcare, cheaper medicines, more paid parental leave, more support for affordable housing. And we want to get wages moving again. We did all that without putting pressure on inflation by targeting our investments in things like infrastructure, improving the National Broadband Network, making sure that there’s that growth in the economy without putting pressure on inflation. That was our focus last night. And we managed to achieve it.
Look, we inherited a trillion dollars of debt, Peter, as you know. We inherited a trillion dollars of debt with not much to show for it. What we did last night was to make $22bn of savings. We took the revenue gains that have come through, 99% of those revenue increases from the higher costs of fuel and energy, we put them straight to the budget bottom line, 99% of them. So it was a responsible budget that saw a significant drop in the deficit to $37bn from what was anticipated. That is a responsible thing to do. Because we want to make sure that we fight inflation because that is necessary if we’re going to get real wages moving in the way that we want them to.
Continue reading...Nearly 10,000 homes were destroyed or damaged by storm that flooded cities and forced a million to evacuate
At least 24 people have died and millions were without power after Cyclone Sitrang struck Bangladesh, forcing the evacuation of about a million people.
Most of the deaths were from falling trees, police and government officials said, with two dying in the north on the Jamuna river when their boat sank. A Myanmar national working on a ship also died by falling off the deck, an official said.
Continue reading...Maricopa county’s 359 heat-associated fatalities this year outpace 339 deaths confirmed in 2021, figures show
This summer was the deadliest on record for heat-related deathsin Arizona’s largest county, with public health statistics this week confirming 359 such deaths just days before the end of the six-month heat season.
The jump comes amid a growing homelessness crisis in the area and raises questions about how to better protect vulnerable people in the desert south-west as temperatures soar.
Continue reading...Hydrologist says flood levels similar to last year but this time the water has nowhere to go, prolonging the disaster
About 1,500 residents in Narrabri, in the north-west slopes of New South Wales, have been told to evacuate as the flooding crisis continues across swathes of eastern Australia.
There were 121 current emergency warnings in place across NSW on Tuesday, including 22 directing people to evacuate or move to higher ground, as swollen rivers threatened homes.
Continue reading...Estimates growth will lose about quarter of a percentage point during the current quarter, or about $5bn in economic activity, because of flooding
The increasing frequency of weather disasters will take its toll on the economy in the near term and force the government to fork out hundreds of millions of dollars to build resilience for more to come.
As Australia endures its third La Niña event in as many years, the budget estimates growth will lose about quarter of a percentage point during the current quarter, or about $5bn in economic activity, because of the flooding across the country’s south-east.
Continue reading...Another low pressure system is moving towards Victoria down the NSW coast, which is likely to bring rain to Gippsland
Daniel Andrews says there will be a flood update at 11.30am
Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is at a school in Seaford in Melbourne’s south-east, announcing $1.6bn to upgrade schools and kindergartens. Before he goes into the details, he’s providing a short flood update.
It’s not expected that they will go higher than the peaks that were recorded during the beginning of this flood event. But it is an anxious time out there.
Continue reading...Flood waters in Victorian border towns reach record levels as residents of several NSW towns are urged to evacuate. This blog is now closed
Taylor: potential inflation decrease ‘a good thing’
Taylor is now discussing inflation and says the Coalition believes inflation will be down to 2.5% in the next financial year according to Labor’s forecasts.
I’ve got to say many of the investments I’ve seen out in regional New South Wales have added to productivity, very significant impact.
Continue reading...Volunteers place 195,000 sandbags in and around Echuca, which could reach devastating 1993 flood levels. This blog is now closed
Australian ultrarunner on pace to break daily marathon world record
Did you know that you have the genes to be a long distance runner?
If you go back to our early genetics, basically, everyone has the genes to be a distance runner. Back 50,000 years ago, our survival depended on us being able to walk and jog long distances to be able to get food, and catch animals.
Continue reading...Water is spilling over a levee in the Murray River border town of Echuca-Moama, as residents anxiously wait to see if it will hold back flood’s peak
Lismore residents have been warned to brace for another round of flooding as heavy rain falls along the east coast, and the Murray River town of Echuca-Moama anxiously waits to see if its levees will hold back the forecast peak on Sunday.
The Murray River at the Echuca Wharf gauge was expected to exceed the 1993 flood levels of 94.77 metres AHD on Saturday afternoon, and reach a peak of 95m on Sunday or Monday.
Continue reading...Large parts of both states put on notice as emergency services forecast large hailstones and heavy rain
Severe thunderstorms will bring large hailstones and a flash-flood risk to large parts of New South Wales and Queensland, with coastal regions in both states to be hit by heavy rain belts.
“We’re bracing for significant rainfall right across NSW,” the NSW flood recovery minister, Steph Cooke, said.
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Continue reading...Victoria is expecting the worst flooding from Sunday as NSW braces for more extreme weather. This blog is now closed
Plibersek is asked to explain a little bit more about the funding. Labor pledged a similar amount before the election, so is this new money?
This is additional because it’s in our first budget, so it’s delivering on the promise we made.
We agreed with that billion dollars of spending and we’re saying that’s not quite enough.
We need to spend $1.2bn over coming years and it’ll mean things like a new research centre in Gladstone, employing scientists to do really critical work on coastal ecosystems.
Well, it means that we can do important projects like stabilising riverbanks, replanting mangroves, reed beds and seagrass meadows to improve the water quality that’s coming from the land into the reef.
It means that we can work with traditional owners who are controlling crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.
Together we hope to these measures can start to turn around the health of the reef, it is a still a beautiful natural wonder of the world. We’ve got a little bit of a breathing space in the last couple of years. We’ve seen some of those corals come back because we’ve had cooler weather and we need to build on that to protect and restore.
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