Wild weather, including Cyclone Alfred and floods in NSW and Queensland, significantly slowed retail trade and household spending
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Six months of natural disasters in 2025 have cost the economy $2.2bn, largely in slower retail and household spending, according to new federal Treasury analysis.
Wild weather has repeatedly battered the Australian east coast this year.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Twenty-three people hospitalised with fire ant stings amid an increase in reports of the highly invasive pest in south-east Queensland
Twenty-three people have been hospitalised with serious fire ant stings amid a surge in reports of the invasive pest in the aftermath of Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred and a new $24m package targeting suppression of the insect.
The National Fire Ant Eradication Program has received notifications of 60 serious red imported fire ant (Rifa) stings in south-east Queensland since 1 March, with 23 serious enough to warrant hospital care. Separately, a puppy stung to death 15 months ago was reportedly the first pet killed in Queensland by the ants.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Kirsty McKenna filmed entire colonies clinging on to debris, ready to make nests on dry ground in Queensland and beyond
Fire ants are forming rafts to survive and travel on flood waters caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred in south-east Queensland as experts warn extreme weather events could sweep the highly invasive species into other parts of Australia.
Footage captured in the Scenic Rim and northern Gold Coast in recent days shows red imported fire ants (Rifas) grouping together and floating on flood waters. Clumps of the ants can then be seen forming nests on previously uninfested land after waters receded.
Continue reading...Laura Leaf had a sick possum for company when she spent three nights in a spare room at Mallory Wilson’s Nerang home
Laura Leaf, a rescued koala, was the last surgery of the day at Currumbin wildlife hospital, just hours before its doors were due to close to ride out Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
But after undergoing emergency abdominal surgery on Wednesday, Laura Leaf needed round-the-clock care – and the Gold Coast hospital’s intensive care unit was about to be shut.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...The prime minister has more reason than most to be the boots on the ground after 63% of voters said he is not in tune with ordinary Australians
Anthony Albanese might have expected to have been on his campaign plane on Monday, flying between marginal seats on the first day of the election trail proper.
Instead he’s sloshing around in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred – the weather event that was meant to bear his name and blew his election announcement plan right off course.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Opposition leader says critics seeking ‘political advantage’ after Murray Watt says Dutton ‘sold out his constituents’ by attending Sydney soiree
Peter Dutton has defended his decision to attend a lavish fundraiser in Sydney as then Tropical Cyclone Alfred approached Queensland last week, claiming those criticising his decision were seeking “political advantage”.
The opposition leader’s Monday morning interview on Sky News came after Queensland Labor senator Murray Watt claimed Dutton had “sold out his constituents” by not staying in his Dickson electorate.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...South-east Queensland and northern NSW face further heavy downpours
More than 230,000 households and businesses are without power and flash flooding alerts have been issued for coastal areas in the aftermath of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.
The warnings follow heavy rain across southeast Queensland overnight and are clustered around the Brisbane, Gold Coast, Logan and Ipswich council areas.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Two personnel in serious condition after accident near city lashed by torrential rain brought by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred
Twelve soldiers remain in hospital – two in a serious condition – after two army trucks carrying troops rolled on a country road near Lismore on Saturday evening as ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred lashed the northern New South Wales coast and southern Queensland.
Thirty-two defence personnel were involved in the crash – members of the 2nd Combat Engineer Regiment, part of the 7th Brigade based at Gallipoli Barracks in northern Brisbane – just after 5pm on Tregeagle Road, 9km south-west of Lismore.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...One truck rolled several times into a paddock and another tipped onto its side, attempting to avoid the first vehicle, at around 5pm on Saturday
Thirty-two people were involved in an incident in which two Australian defence force vehicles rolled off the road at Lismore on Saturday that has left 13 injured, some seriously.
Emergency services were called to the scene in northern New South Wales shortly after 5pm with initial reports that 22 people had been injured. NSW police said on Sunday that 13 personnel were injured. Six are in a serious condition.
Continue reading...Almost 100,000 homes in Queensland and NSW were without power on Friday evening as cyclone crawled towards the coast
Millions of people are sheltering from Tropical Cyclone Alfred as it crashes into the coast of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales bringing destructive winds and heavy rain.
The slow-moving weather system was finally expected to make landfall after speeding up overnight on Friday and into Saturday morning as it moved towards Brisbane.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...BoM path track map predicts TC Alfred will cross coast on Saturday near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates today
Welfare recipients told to perform mutual obligations as cyclone bears down
We have a news story this morning about the impact the cyclone is already having on life in Queensland.
Fallen trees and giant stands of bamboo blocked the single road to our farm until the army and council brought heavy machinery to clear a path some time after.
We were without running water or power for days, maybe weeks, the packing shed a makeshift kitchen where we ate meals cooked off a gas barbecue and drank instant coffee made with rainwater and UHT milk to the hum of a generator.
Continue reading...Disability employment provider Help asked jobseekers to perform telephone appointments before later clarifying they were voluntary
Private employment agencies across Queensland have given jobseekers the impression they still need to perform their mutual obligations, despite there being a pause across large swaths of the state while it prepares for Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The mutual obligations scheme forces jobseekers to complete tasks such as applying for jobs or attending training, or risk their payments being stopped.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...BoM path track map predicts TC Alfred will cross coast on Friday near Brisbane, the first storm of its size to do so in decades. Follow the latest updates today
Speaking of preparations, adjunct senior lecturer at the Centre for Disaster Studies at James Cook University Yetta Gurtner gives advice here:
Chalmers confident insurance companies ‘know their responsibilities’
I’m confident they know their responsibilities and obligations to people.
Continue reading...BoM warns of hazards from ‘erratic’ storm and forecasts show it slowed again and downgraded to a category one storm when it makes landfall between Friday and Saturday morning
Millions of people in Queensland have hunkered down while residents in parts of northern New South Wales have been ordered to evacuate as Australia’s east coast prepares for wild weather brought by Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The slow-moving storm is now expected to make landfall in Queensland late on Friday or on Saturday morning, later than was forecast earlier in the week, after the category two system “spun around on itself” and briefly stalled overnight on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Parts of Queensland and NSW prepare as BoM weather forecast shows Alfred making landfall between Maroochydore and Coolangatta
Schools, airports, public transport and most businesses are beginning to shut down in Brisbane and across south-east Queensland, as authorities advised Tropical Cyclone Alfred will likely arrive later than expected.
Advice to residents is now that Alfred’s track to the coast has slowed, and that it will likely cross the southeast Queensland coast at some point on Friday.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Read the latest Cyclone Alfred news update here
Sandbag queues ‘about an hour’ in Brisbane – Wells
The federal sports minister, Anika Wells, also spoke on the Today Show this morning from Brisbane and said it was the “calm before the storm”.
At the moment that’s the shortest it’s been in 24 hours. It’s a big couple of days ahead for south-east Queensland. We’re more than up to the task, but everybody’s doing their bit.
So everyone’s doing their bit and we thank them for it.
We know that there’s going to be damaging winds, there is going to be powerful surf, coastal erosion, and it will be followed by significant rain that can last a couple of days. So we’re really urging people to be alert, to be prepared, just like the SES is.
Continue reading...Up to 20,000 homes could be flooded, with beachside and low-lying suburbs most at risk, city council flood map shows
Queensland authorities are advising some residents to leave coastal properties in the path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, amid warnings that a storm surge of up to 1 metre higher than typical tides could inundate communities.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Australian Defence Force assets have been placed on standby to respond to the looming storm, which was tracking towards the heavily populated coastline between the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Why should Australia trust president Donald Trump, given how he’s treated Ukraine’s president at the Oval Office? Richard Marles said the government’s focus was on supporting Ukraine:
That’s where Australia lies. That’s the decision that we have to make. And Ukraine can absolutely rely on Australia’s ongoing support in their defence, and we will work with international partners.
We’ve obviously worked with the United States over the last three years, and we’ll continue to do that, but we’ve worked with the United Kingdom, and we’ll continue to do that as well, and with European partners, and look at the best way in which we can provide support.
We have established a timeline with [the] Ukrainian government about the delivery of those tanks to Ukraine. Now, for operational reasons, won’t go into the detail of that timeline.
Continue reading...Weather system bears down on south-east Queensland with BoM forecasting landfall between Brisbane and Sunshine Coast
Tropical Cyclone Alfred has made a dramatic right turn, and is now “heading towards the Queensland coast”, the state’s premier has warned.
Alfred had been gradually heading in a generally southerly direction for 12 days, but changed course on Tuesday as expected.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...