Non-essential activity on Murray River banned in South Australia with flood waters to peak at Christmas

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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Union fury over Labor decision to split aged care pay rises – as it happened

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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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Wong urged to raise human rights concerns on Beijing trip – as it happened

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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.

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Victoria police to prosecute pitch invaders; more contaminated spinach cases in Queensland – as it happened

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.

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Boy rescued after jumping into Adelaide zoo’s giant panda enclosure to retrieve phone

The teenager was using his phone to film the animals when he dropped it into their bamboo forest compound

A South Australian teenager has been rescued after he jumped into Adelaide zoo’s giant panda enclosure to retrieve his phone.

The boy was using his mobile to film the animals when he dropped it into the bamboo forest on Monday.

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Covid-19 Australia data tracker: coronavirus cases, deaths, hospitalisations and vaccination

Guardian Australia brings together all the figures on Covid-19 cases, as well as stats, charts and state-by-state data from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, the ACT and NT. Here you can also find the numbers on the vaccine rollout and fourth dose booster vaccination rates.

In September 2022, federal and state governments began releasing data once a week, on Fridays, rather than daily. As a result, Guardian Australia has aggregated the data released before that date to weekly values, to make the new figures comparable with the old.

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Rocket launches pose extinction-level threat to SA’s tiny southern emu wren, conservationists warn

Tanya Plibersek could list the bird as endangered amid concerns about proposed rocket launch site

A tiny southern emu wren, which conservationists fear is under threat from rocket launches, could be listed as endangered within days.

Conservationists say planned rocket launches on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia pose an extinction-level threat to the wren, one of Australia’s smallest birds.

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News live: Penny Wong condemns Russia’s deadly missile attacks; Deliveroo to end operations in Australia

Foreign minister says ‘Australia stands with Ukraine’ following reports a Russian missile landed in Polish territory killing two people. Follow the day’s news

ABC Radio asked Simon Birmingham about reports from this morning that a Russian missile has hit Poland near the Ukraine border: The shadow foreign affairs minister says:

This is deeply, deeply troubling news.

If an accident occurs it can result in a real escalation ... it shows just how dangerous a game Russia is playing.

We can’t expect instant miracles, but the ultimate test of dialogue will be the outcomes that are received if this dialogue is successful, to see breakthroughs in regard to those trade barriers... and also critically the just treatment of Australian’s detained in China.

And then of course challenges in terms of engagement within the region, that we must continue to argue for China to respect international law, international rules and norms

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PM’s meeting with Chinese president confirmed – as it happened

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Andrews rules out deal with the Greens and independents in event of minority government

Dan Andrews was also asked what would happen if Labor finds itself in a minority government situation – will it do a deal with the Greens?

No deal will be offered and no deal will be done.

And independents – no deals with independents?

No deal will be offered and no deal will be done.

So if you’re in a minority situation and you hold more seats than the Liberal party, what happens? You go back to another election?

Well, I think what the best thing to do, and what happens, Michael, is we work hard for the next 13 days, we work hard to put a positive and optimistic plan out there, and we’ll see what the verdict of Victorian voters is. I’m arguing, I’m urging people to vote for a strong, stable majority Labor government, to vote for your local Labor candidate.

The new SEC – government-owned, not private for-profit, but government-owned electricity, so owned by every single Victorian – creates nearly 60,000 jobs – 6,000 of those will be apprentices. It will be 100% renewable electricity. These companies can’t be relied upon to replace themselves. They’ll just put another profit machine in place. We need to make sure that we’re looking after pensioners, we’re looking after families and, indeed, businesses. And without electricity, there is no economy, so we have to replace them. And we choose to replace them with a public option – a government-owned option. An option that’s owned by every single Victorian.

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South Australia suffers biggest blackout since 2016 as weather system brings more flooding to inland NSW

Severe storms continue to drench exhausted communities as a humid air mass prompts flash flooding alerts in eastern Australia

Wild storms have caused the biggest blackout in South Australia since the entire state went dark in 2016, as flash flooding caused havoc in parts of New South Wales and Victoria.

More than 423,000 lightning strikes were recorded in SA on Sunday. Heavy winds downed trees and SA Power Networks received more than 500 reports of fallen wires.

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Covid-19 case numbers exploding across Australia as fourth wave takes off

Chief health officers urge people to take up protective measures as Covid hospitalisations double in some states

The number of active Covid cases has exploded across the country as Australia enters its fourth wave, prompting renewed warnings to protect vulnerable aged care residents.

Jurisdictions collectively recorded more than 58,000 new cases of Covid in the past week, with some states reporting a doubling in the number of people hospitalised with the virus.

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Remains of 18 Indigenous people held by UK museums return to Australia

Return is part of painstaking effort to recover thousands of ancestors stolen from traditional lands who now lie in more than 20 countries

The remains of 18 Indigenous people have been returned to Australia by two British museums, part of the laborious and painstaking effort to recover thousands of ancestors stolen from their traditional lands which now lie in more than 20 countries around the world.

At midnight Australia time on Wednesday, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum returned 17 ancestors to the custodianship of the federal government, which will hold them while further research is undertaken “to determine the traditional custodians”. Another was given to the custodianship of the south-east First Nations people of South Australia, who were represented by Robyn Campbell.

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Construction of First Nations cultural centre in SA halted amid budget blowout

Initially slated for 2025 at a cost of $200m, the Tarrkarri project is now $50m over budget and will be reviewed early next year

Work on Tarrkarri, slated as “the world’s leading First Nations cultural centre”, has been suspended amid cost blowouts.

The construction of Tarrkarri, which means “the future” in Kaurna, began in December 2021 in Adelaide, and it was due to open in 2025.

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Australia live flood updates: body found in search for woman swept away in NSW; Echuca locals watch levee as they wait for flood waters to peak

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.

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‘He’s a lucky lad’: teenager sent flying into water as shark bites surf ski at Adelaide beach

Nathaniel Drummond, 19, was competing in a race at South Australia’s Seacliff Beach when the large shark attacked his vessel

A teenager escaped unscathed after a “big shark” attacked his surf ski during a race at an Adelaide beach, tearing a hole in the vessel.

Nathaniel Drummond, 19, was competing in a surf ski race at Seacliff Beach in Adelaide’s south on Sunday when a shark, believed to be a great white, sent him flying into the water.

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Australia news live: flood warnings issued as east coast braces for heavy rain and storms

Kieren Perkins has backed diversity in sport at the national press club and Manasseh Sogavare, the PM of Solomon Islands, is due to arrive in Australia this afternoon on a flight from Singapore. Follow the day’s news live

Fire extinguished in Sydney shopping centre

Maria Kovacic elected NSW Liberals president

The election next March will be hard fought.

Our party will be talking directly to our community, including western Sydney and the regions, about how the Perrottet Government can improve their lives and help their families.

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Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide named Australia’s restaurant of the year by Gourmet Traveller

Chef Justin James combines native flavours and exotic botanics to create a 20-something-course menu

Adelaide’s Restaurant Botanic has won restaurant of the year at Gourmet Traveller’s annual awards night, which were announced in-person at a gala event on Tuesday, after being cancelled in 2020 and held online last year.

The restaurant, headed by chef Justin James and located in the middle of the South Australian capital’s botanic gardens, opened just 14 months ago after the gardens’ previous restaurant underwent a transformation. James uses plants from the surrounds, combining native flavours and more exotic botanics to create a 20-something-course menu that unfolds over at least four hours.

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Time is running out on the Murray-Darling plan. Should Tanya Plibersek reach for the big guns?

NSW and Victoria have dragged their heels and now risk the federal government taking over Australia’s most important river system

State governments which have dragged their heels on delivering on their commitments under the Murray-Darling Basin plan are now risking a federal government takeover of water policy after June 2024.

They must judge whether the federal water minister, Tanya Plibersek, will be prepared to reach for the cudgels that are built into the Murray-Darling Basin plan and take over administration of Australia’s most important river system.

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Murray-Darling Basin plan on the brink after NSW says it cannot meet water savings deadline

Failure infuriates other states and may force Tanya Plibersek to impose highly controversial buybacks

New South Wales will seek an exemption from its obligations to deliver the final stage of the Murray-Darling Basin plan, a move that could leave the environment short-changed millions of litres of water.

NSW will not meet a June 2024 deadline to deliver the last 25% of water savings of the plan, to be achieved through water-saving projects.

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Courts lift suppression orders on ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle’s landmark case

Boyle took unprecedented step of invoking Australia’s whistleblower protections after exposing tax agency’s aggressive debt collecting practices in 2018

The South Australian courts have lifted suppression orders that would have stymied the media’s ability to report on a landmark case launched by tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle.

The decision, which follows an intervention by Guardian Australia, paves the way for media to more freely report on the first major test of Australia’s whistleblowing laws, which will likely have significant consequences for the protections available to others who speak out about government wrongdoing.

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