Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Large numbers of easily exploited temporary migrants could have a ‘corrosive’ effect, says Kristina Keneally
Australia’s reliance on temporary migration is creating a new economic underclass that risks having a “corrosive” effect on the nation’s society, Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, says.
In a major speech to the Curtin institute on Thursday night, Keneally will step up Labor’s attack on the government for its reliance on temporary migration, saying current trends could see as many as 3 million people – or 12% of the population – living in Australia on a temporary basis.
Huge fires to the south smother city with smoke amid weather forecast for heatwave and searing temperatures as Scott Morrison prepares to address National Press Club today. Follow live news and latest updates
From Tuesday night. A lot of ACT residents are comparing this fire to the devastating 2003 blaze.
Just a reminder of where we’re at. On Monday, a defence helicopter landed in the Namadgi national park, south of Canberra, and accidentally sparked what authorities have called the city’s “most serious” bushfire threat since the city’s devastating 2003 fires.
Tuesday saw dramatic images of the fire approaching Canberra’s southern suburbs, but conditions eased throughout the evening and the fire was downgraded from emergency level to watch and act just before midnight.
The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, lets a phone call from her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, go to voicemail during a press conference. Ardern was speaking about the idea of cooperating with Australia on an evacuation of citizens from Australia and New Zealand from coronavirus-hit Wuhan, China
Seat became hotly contested once the then National MP quit after allegations of improper conduct on a work trip
The Morrison government awarded a $500,000 sports grant in the rural Victorian seat of Mallee a year and a half after it was first rejected – when the seat became hotly contested due to the resignation of Nationals MP Andrew Broad.
The Northern Grampians shire council applied for the grant in September 2018 and was rejected in the first round of the controversial community sport infrastructure grant program, only to see the $500,000 Lord Nelson Park project in St Arnaud approved in April 2019, just weeks out from the election.
Acoss calls on government to boost the Disaster Recovery Payment after fires destroy more than 2,000 homes
Australia’s peak welfare body is calling on the federal government to immediately boost emergency payments for those affected by bushfires, saying it is concerned the current amount is “seriously inadequate”.
The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has written to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, with a range of recommendations the organisation says are urgently needed to help provide relief to those affected by the bushfire crisis that has destroyed more than 2,000 homes.
The prime minister is clearly under pressure as the bushfire crisis lays bare the consequences of a warmer planet
It’s too early to say whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking with a forked tongue when he says the government will “evolve” its climate change policy.
What appeared on Sunday to be a shift in rhetoric on the government’s emission reduction targets may be meaningful – or it may yet prove to be deliberately duplicitous.
Prime minister acknowledges he could have handled things better in the ‘strained’ emotional environment on the ground
Scott Morrison has indicated the government could bolster its carbon emission reduction efforts as he flagged a royal commission into Australia’s horror bushfire season and warned of a “new normal” that will require a greater role for the commonwealth.
Speaking at length about the government’s response to the bushfires which have claimed 28 lives and more than 2,000 homes, the prime minister also acknowledged for the first time that he could have done better in the “strained” emotional environment on the ground, despite visiting affected communities “in good faith”.
“There are things I could have handled on the ground much better,” Morrison told ABC Insiders’ host David Speers on Sunday.
We will leave our coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis here for the night. A mercifully quiet day on firegrounds across the country.
Here is where things stand:
We have a bit more information about the man who was burned while defending his property near Tumbarumba in New South Wales yesterday.
The man was an RFS volunteer, but he was not engaged in RFS work yesterday. Instead, Guardian Australia understands, he was driving a quad bike around his own property defending against spot fires when he received burns to his leg.
This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning
We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.
As of 9pm, this is what we know.
There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.
There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.
Alpine areas of Victoria and NSW among those most under threat, while climate protesters take to the streets in major cities
Thousands of climate protesters flooded the streets of Australian state capitals on Friday night as fire authorities warned of another dangerous night ahead in four states.
Firefighters in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia continued to battle fires, with gusty winds expected to create hazardous firefighting conditions late into the night.
Australia appears set to remain in Iraq, even as other US allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out
Scott Morrison has told the chief of the Australian defence force “to take whatever actions are necessary” to protect Australian troops and diplomats in Iraq after Iran began bombing allied military bases. All defence and diplomatic staff in the country were now safe, Morrison said.
Australia’s military appears set to remain in Iraq as long as the US does, even as other allies such as Germany and Canada pull their troops out of the country.
Rain falls on some NSW, Victorian and South Australian bushfire-affected areas, but worse fire conditions are forecast to return. Follow all today’s latest news and live updates
Andrew Crisp:
Speaking with the incident controller here at Bairnsdale a short time ago, some of our concern is the fires up in the alpine area, around Omeo, and the potential for them to travel south with the northerly and join the fires down in this part of the world.
We saw, only a few days ago, where there were more than 300 people on the oval at Omeo where some helicopters were there to take people out.
The Victorian emergency commissioner, Andrew Crisp, has an update:
There are three communities we haven’t been able to drive in. When I say ‘drive’ even with those other communities it is basically bushtracks and emergency vehicles to get in, it is where there is no real road access.
We’ve been able to get helicopters and sat phones in to make sure people have supplies.
In Good Morning Britain appearance Australian Liberal MP accuses other politicians of trying to exploit tragedy
The Conservative Liberal MP Craig Kelly – a renowned critic of climate change action – has sparked a storm of controversy and been lambasted as a “denier” and “disgraceful” after telling UK television that there was no link between climate change and Australia’s bushfire crisis.
In a combative television interview with the conservative British commentator Piers Morgan and the meteorologist Laura Tobin, Kelly defended his view that climate change was not driving the bushfire crisis that has so far claimed 25 lives and almost 2,000 homes.
Days of limbo wear down NSW-Victoria communities displaced by blazes ripping through swaths of east coast
Shelley Caban just wants it to be over.
“Sometimes I think, ‘Fuck it, just burn it all, the house and everything,’” she says. “It’s the waiting and the limbo, you just feel like anything has to be better.”
NSW RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons says he was frustrated to learn of ADF deployment from the media. Follow all today’s live news and latest updates
The situation is deteriorating in Eden on the Far South Coast. A bushfire moved quickly up from the NSW-Victorian border last night, as the southerly change moved up the coast and turned fires northward. The fire, dubbed the “border fire”, burnt last night from the Victorian border to Victorian Border to the southern shores of Twofold Bay.
It has already affected the areas of Wonboyn, Kiah, Narrabarba and surrounds. Properties have been damaged in the area and building impact assessment teams will be deployed to assess the destruction.
The border fire is now threatening the town of Eden. An update posted on the Bega Valley Shire Council’s website a short while ago warned Eden residents, including those in Snug Cove Wharf, to leave now and head to Merimbula or Bega. Authorities were still attempting to define the fire line near Eden.
We mentioned a little earlier *that* party political ad put out by Scott Morrison’s office spruiking their response to the bushfires. The reaction to the video has been, er, less than positive. The Australia Defence Association, a non-partisan defence watchdog and think tank, says the video’s use of military personnel is a clear breach of non-partisanship conventions that restrict the use of the ADF in party political advertisements.
1) Party-political advertising milking ADF support to civil agencies fighting bushfires is a clear breach of the (reciprocal) non-partisanship convention applying to both the ADF & Ministers/MPs. 2) Also cliche-ridden. 3) Its "defence force", not "Defence Force". #auspol#ausdefhttps://t.co/RlepHHbIx9
Wow. A self-promotional commercial with cheesy elevator music? This is one of the most tone-deaf things I’ve ever seen a country’s leader put out during a crisis. Shameless & shameful. https://t.co/ISgYEtlsb7
We are getting reports that people are being moved from evacuation centres in Eden, on NSW’s far south coast, towards Merimbula. Fires burning just north of the Victorian border, including the Poole Road fire, are spreading quickly and emergency warnings have been issued. The southerly change is generally moving those fires on the NSW-Victorian border to the north.
#firesNSW The message came through on local ABC there are buses evacuating 300 people and people have been told to evacuate to Merimbula from Eden.
Crazy day at Eden severe N westerly hit Eden this afternoon. Left the house as prepared as it could be and went to Eden evac centre. Ash and smoke severe and it was dark by 6pm. Settling in there then at 8 pm they ordered us to Merimbula as precaution.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews declares state of disaster for East Gippsland, urging people to flee bushfire zones, while Scott Morrison is abused by fire victims in Cobargo. Follow today’s live news and latest updates
Pity the poor #Australians, their country ablaze, and their rotten @ScottMorrisonMP saying, “This is not the time to talk about Climate Change. We have to grow our economy.” What an idiot. What good is an economy in an uninhabitable country? Lead, you fuckwit!!
Greg Mullins says he has never seen a bushfire situation this serious. He was in Batemans Bay on New Year’s Eve in charge of an RFS crew and, “I’m still shocked.”
This is what 29 other fire and emergency chiefs, former chiefs, and I, tried to warn the prime minister about back in April and May. And we weren’t listened to.
Scott Morrison acknowledged the link between reducing emissions and protecting environments against worsening bushfire seasons, but despite mounting criticism maintained his government's current policies struck the right balance. Speaking at his first press conference since 29 December, the Australian prime minister said he understood people's frustrations but urged them to remain calm
Visitors who were told to evacuate a vast area along the NSW south coast before even worse fire conditions return stuck for hours in gridlocked traffic
Tens of thousands of people remained stranded on Thursday evening while attempting to flee bushfire-ravaged areas of the south-east Australian coast – having earlier been urged to leave before the return of extreme and dangerous weather conditions.
The mass evacuation of communities in New South Wales and Victoria is among the largest ever emergency movements of people in Australia. The numbers fleeing the bushfire crisis remain unclear, but are expected to compare to the 60,000 people who were flown out of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy in 1974.