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Ferry services resume in Sydney as fog clears
The fog looks to be clearing in Sydney, or at least the sun has just broken through the clouds where I’m sitting.
Passengers should continue to allow extra travel time and check information displays for service updates as services return to timetable.
Continue reading...SES evacuates Walker Flat, east of Adelaide, after it was cut off by the deluge on Christmas morning
Dozens of homes and two caravan parks have been evacuated in South Australia as the flood levees continue to fail along the Murray River.
The State Emergency Service has evacuated the island village of Walker Flat, east of Adelaide, after it was cut off by the deluge on Christmas morning.
Continue reading...The Riverland faces its worst flooding in half a century as communities await the slow-moving disaster
A total ban on non-essential activity on the Murray River in South Australia has been put in place, as the Riverland faces its worst flooding in half a century.
Flood water from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria has been flowing down to the state for weeks, merging into the Murray River, with the peak predicted to hit at Christmas.
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Crossbench say Australia needs to ‘get cracking’ on Cop15 commitments
More reactions are coming in after the close of the biodiversity Cop15 – which leading scientists have called “vastly more important” than the Cop27 climate meeting, because it decides the “fate of the living world”.
We need to get cracking on implementation to deliver on commitments.
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It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.
For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:
Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.
So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.
Continue reading...Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed
‘We will look at the facts’
James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:
There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.
What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.
What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;
A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;
An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.
This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.
Continue reading...Dozens of people injured after heavy rain destroys houses and ruins roads in DRC’s capital
At least 100 people have been killed and dozens injured in widespread floods and landslides caused by heavy rain in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kinshasa.
The prime minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, said officials were still searching for more bodies.
Continue reading...Australians also searched for ‘floods’ and ‘La Niña’ more than any other country in the world
Australians searched for “floods”, “La Niña” and “when will the rain stop?” more than any other country in the world in 2022, according to Google.
As a year of floods and wet weather hit large parts of the eastern seaboard, Google recorded more searches for “mould” in Australia than ever before.
Continue reading...Island near Naples was engulfed by heavy rain, causing a landslide that flooded homes and swept away cars
A woman has died and 10 people are missing after a severe storm triggered a landslide on the Italian island of Ischia.
The island, in the Gulf of Naples, was engulfed by heavy rain overnight, with the landslide hitting the hamlet of Casamicciola Terme early on Saturday morning, flooding homes and sweeping away several cars.
Continue reading...‘We’re now seeing that the system is not able to cope with climate change,’ insurance analyst says
When Kim Sly moved to a lower-lying area of Forbes four years ago, she was asked to pay $12,000 a year for flood insurance.
The bill was a shock. Her new home was built 1.2 metres above the ground to protect it from floods, a factor that did not seem to influence the insurance company’s assessment.
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How can strengthening federal laws stop the destruction of sacred heritage sites?
Tanya Plibersek:
I think I think it’s really worth having a look at the two inquiries that the the parliament undertook into the Juukan Gorge destruction because it describes not just the failure of laws, but the failure of process and the failure of people to listen and that happened at the commonwealth level and it also happened at the West Australian state government level.
The other thing that it describes is a company that paid lip service to consultation and really, you know, really didn’t do what it should have done when Aboriginal people said you can’t blow up caves that are 46,000 years old, that have examples of continuous use and habitation that you know, the site of finds like a 4,000-year-old hair belt, and tools that are tens of thousands of years old.
There’s absolutely a sense of urgency to ensure that this sort of cultural heritage destruction doesn’t happen again.
I completely agree with that, but a very strong message from the the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance is also that they genuinely want to sit at the table to work through these issues in partnership and cooperation.
Yeah, I’m not going to put I’m not going to put a timeline on it yet. I think that’s something that we determined as we work through the complexity of these issues, and there are a lot of complexities involved.
Continue reading...About 85% of the town’s 484 residents chose to stay despite being told to evacuate, with roads out expected to be closed for several weeks
Hundreds of residents of the small Riverina town of Moulamein have elected to stay and defend their properties against the rising flood waters even though authorities have warned they may be isolated into December.
The State Emergency Service warned the whole town to evacuate by 2pm Tuesday or face weeks being cut off as the Edward River, which joins with the swollen Billabong Creek in the town, was expected to peak at 6.2 metres on Thursday.
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Continue reading...Liberal MP Karen Andrews addressed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in parliament. Follow all the day’s news
Independents to launch report on whistleblower protections
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has been arguing for more protections for whistleblowers for years. The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has proposed new laws to boost whistleblower protections, but there are still calls the law needs to go further.
Protecting Australia’s Whistleblowers: The Federal Roadmap draws on landmark research and synthesises three decades of reviews to outline a comprehensive, 12-step roadmap for better protecting and empowering whistleblowers.
Establishment of a whistleblower protection authority to oversee and enforce Australia’s whistleblower protections;
Upgraded whistleblower protections for Australian public servants in line with domestic and international best practice, including a positive duty to protect whistleblowers and steps to make it easier for whistleblowers to enforce their rights;
Consolidation and harmonisation of whistleblowing laws across the private sector in one new single law covering all non-public sector whistleblowers; and
Stronger, simpler protections for whistleblowers who make disclosures to the media and members of parliament.
The mortality ratios from Covid in Australia are quite similar to those estimated in other advanced nations. As a share of the population, fewer people died from Covid in Australia than in most other affluent nations. Yet among those who died, the same health inequalities can be seen in Australia as in other advanced countries.
What might have driven the socioeconomic disparities in Covid mortality? And why might many of those disparities have been largest in the Delta wave? As I have noted, disadvantaged people may be less able to work remotely, more reliant on public transport, and more likely to live in crowded households. Uptake of vaccination and antiviral treatments have varied across society as vaccines and treatment became increasingly available. Another factor is that successive Covid waves have had varying degrees of severity. A final factor is that in the years since Covid began, population immunity has steadily risen.”
Across all waves of the pandemic, deaths from Covid were highest among those aged 80‑89 years. The median age of those who died from Covid was 87.4 years for females and 83.6 years for males. Males had a higher number of registered Covid deaths than females. For every 100 female Covid deaths, there were 126 male Covid deaths. Around 3-quarters of all Covid deaths occurred in Victoria and New South Wales.
Continue reading...David Pocock was asked how he would vote on the IR bill, if he was made to vote for it today while on ABC radio RN.
He said he couldn’t “in good conscience” vote for the bill, if it came to the crunch today (which it won’t, it was a hypothetical).
Continue reading...Sydney Water says filtration systems under extreme pressure amid floods, as all Melbourne beaches declared unsuitable for swimming
Just a quarter of Sydney’s largest drinking water catchment, the Warragamba Dam, is safe for consumption, prompting fears residents will need to conserve water.
Ben Blayney, the head of water supply and production at Sydney Water, said the past year’s floods had placed extreme pressure on the city’s water filtration system.
Continue reading...With the deadly devastation fresh in the world’s mind, Pakistan pushed for damage funds with other frontline countries
In early September, after unprecedented rainfall had left a third of Pakistan under water, its climate change minister set out the country’s stall for Cop27. “We are on the frontline and intend to keep loss and damage and adapting to climate catastrophes at the core of our arguments and negotiations. There will be no moving away from that,” Sherry Rehman said.
Pakistan brought that resolve to the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh and, as president of the G77 plus China negotiating bloc, succeeded in keeping developing countries united on loss and damage – despite efforts by some rich countries to divide them. Its chief negotiator, Nabeel Munir, a career diplomat, was backed by a team of savvy veteran negotiators who had witnessed the devastation and suffering from the floods, which caused $30bn (£25bn) of damage and economic losses. Every day, Munir repeated the same message: “Loss and damage is not charity, it’s about climate justice.”
Continue reading...Body thought to be that of Les Vugec, 85, who was last seen at his Eugowra home on Monday
Major flooding is forecast to continue along several river systems in New South Wales as flood-hit communities survey the damage and authorities warn it could be months before the deluge comes to an end.
A second death was recorded in Eugowra on Saturday after a body was found on the outskirts of town.
Continue reading...Forbes mayor criticises decision to base recovery team in Parkes as towns and villages downstream wait days for peak
The New South Wales central-west town of Condobolin is experiencing the worst flood in its history and the expected peak is still days away.
The State Emergency Service has predicted the Lachlan River at the town 100km west of Forbes will peak at 7.8 metres on Monday – a record flood height. On Saturday afternoon an evacuation order was issued for low-lying parts of the town.
Continue reading...Greens senator David Shoebridge has criticised notable absences at a Senate committee looking at privacy laws today. Follow the day’s news live
ADF personnel to help in NSW as government works on dedicated disaster workforce
Murray Watt is asked about a permanent disaster workforce to assist during national disasters and their clean-up, given the pressure put on the defence force.
The ADF does certainly play a role, particularly in the recovery phase. And just yesterday we activated more defence forces to go into western New South Wales to assist so over the next couple of days, we expect to see 200 defence force personnel helping there to top up these state-based services. But the reality is all of this is putting a huge amount of pressure, whether it be on those state-based services or the ADF. And that’s why in this budget, we committed over $30m to a volunteer veteran organisation called Disaster Relief Australia to sort of top up the kind of services that are available for communities, particularly in that clean-up phase.
But we’re going to be keeping on doing some work on this about what we need to put in place as a country to supplement the ADF and I’d be hopeful that we might be able to bring that to a conclusion around about the budget next year.
There’s insurance costs so let alone the huge damage bill that individuals are going to be incurring themselves.
So I think everyone is unfortunately going to be having to put their hands in their pockets for for this unfolding event that just won’t go away.
So even if we weren’t to get any more rain, we’re going to be looking at even more damage from the existing flood waters. And, as I say, I think we’re likely to see more. We’ve also got to remember that we haven’t yet seen the cyclone season start whether that be in north Queensland, Western Australia or Northern Territory. So unfortunately I haven’t got a lot of good news for people except for the fact that there is unlikely to be a lot of rain over the next couple of days. So that’s a good thing.
Continue reading...Stark findings add pressure on Cop27 negotiators to deliver meaningful funding to vulnerable countries
The heavy rain behind recent devastating flooding in Nigeria, Niger and Chad was made about 80 times more likely by the climate crisis, a study has found.
The finding is the latest stark example of the severe impacts that global heating is already wreaking on communities, even with just a 1C rise in global temperature to date. It adds pressure on the world’s nations at the UN Cop27 climate summit in Egypt to deliver meaningful action on protecting and compensating affected countries.
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