Nine major NSW flood warnings in place: SES
Nine major flood warnings are in place across New South Wales, as authorities brace for worsening conditions in some communities across the central west, west and southern parts of the state.
At a NSW flood update a short time ago, New South Wales emergency services minister Steph Cooke said that in the hours between midnight and 5am, 140 flood rescues were performed in the small town of Eugowra alone. More than 100 of the rescuers were from a roof.
With a population of 700, Cooke said that more than one in five residents have had to be rescued by helicopter or by boat.
Cooke also said 12 flood rescue operators from New Zealand are arriving in Sydney tonight and will head to Parkes on Tuesday to support emergency services. The State Emergency Services is appealing to its counterparts in Singapore and the United States to secure additional support.
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China ready to meet Australia ‘half way’, premier says after meeting Albanese
Chinese premier Li Keqiang told Anthony Albanese that China is ready to meet Australia half way in strengthening bilateral relations, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reports.
Li and Albanese spoke during a brief meeting after arriving at a dinner in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on the weekend, on the sidelines of the Asean summit. Before the dinner, Albanese had said he was prepared to have a conversation without “preconditions”.
According to the Xinhua report published on Monday, Albanese noted the upcoming 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Australia forged under Gough Whitlam’s Labor government.
The Xinhua report said “noting that he has visited China several times, Albanese said his country is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges with China and jointly promote the healthy development of bilateral relations”.
Xinhua paraphrased Li as saying “Chinese and Australian peoples enjoy traditional friendship, however, bilateral relations have gone through a difficult patch”.
The report also attributes one direct quote to Li: “Taking office as the prime minister of the new Labor government, you expressed Australia’s readiness to work with China to bring the bilateral relationship back on track”.
Xinhua also paraphrased Li as saying “China is ready to meet Australia half way, and work with Australia to seize the opportunity of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations to promote sustained, sound and steady growth of China-Australia relations”.
SES perform 204 rescues across NSW in 24 hours
State Emergency Services have performed more than 200 flood rescues across New South Wales in the past 24 hours, after widespread rainfall and thunderstorms triggered dangerous flash flooding across much of southern and western parts of the state. Overnight, over 120mm of rain fell in the Central West.
SES NSW said more than 204 flood rescues had been performed across the state, and that it had received more than 855 requests for assistance in the past day.
Warnings for 116 locations have been issued by the SES, including 16 current emergency warnings for residents to evacuate now to higher ground that are in place in Cowra, Canowindra, Derrinwong and Eugowra.
Nine major NSW flood warnings in place: SES
Nine major flood warnings are in place across New South Wales, as authorities brace for worsening conditions in some communities across the central west, west and southern parts of the state.
At a NSW flood update a short time ago, New South Wales emergency services minister Steph Cooke said that in the hours between midnight and 5am, 140 flood rescues were performed in the small town of Eugowra alone. More than 100 of the rescuers were from a roof.
With a population of 700, Cooke said that more than one in five residents have had to be rescued by helicopter or by boat.
Cooke also said 12 flood rescue operators from New Zealand are arriving in Sydney tonight and will head to Parkes on Tuesday to support emergency services. The State Emergency Services is appealing to its counterparts in Singapore and the United States to secure additional support.
Banks to pay $126m over dodgy insurance
Up to one million ANZ, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank customers will share in settlements worth $126m after being sold consumer credit insurance of little use, AAP reports.
The CBA has agreed to pay $50m, ANZ $42m and Westpac $29m, without admitting any wrongdoing, over the sale of insurance when customers took out credit cards or personal loans. A $5m payment is being made by QBE Insurance regarding policies sold in relation to ANZ products.
The settlements remain subject to court approval and follow similar action against National Australia Bank in 2019 which netted 50,000 customers $49.5m.
Lawyers Slater and Gordon said many of the banks’ customers were unlikely to be able to make a claim because they were already unemployed or had pre-existing health conditions or disabilities.
Some never provided their consent to purchase the policies, were not informed that the insurance was optional, or were not told they would be charged for it.
Paul Karp
‘We’re open to possible off ramps’ in trade disputes with China, government says
The trade minister, Don Farrell, has delivered a speech to the Australian APEC Study Centre, warning that “great power rivalry is undermining international rules based order”.
He said:
“It is no longer possible – if it ever was – to insulate our trade policy from geopolitics.
Attempts at economic coercion and unfair targeting of Australian goods in recent years have demonstrated the risks to our economy when the rules of the road are ignored.
Increasingly, economic policy and national security policy are intertwined – a resilient Australian economy underpins national security.”
Farrell also reprised comments he made to Guardian Australia in July suggesting a “compromise situation” or “alternative way” to settle trade disputes might emerge in talks with China.
On Monday Farrell said that “as with any WTO disputes, we’re open to possible off ramps that result in a mutually agreed solution”.
Farrell set out a series of principles of Australia’s trade policy, including:
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To “deepen and diversify trading relationships in our own region” because “overreliance on any partner is a significant risk”
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Reform the international trade system, particularly the functions of the World Trade Organisation
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Use trade to help create jobs and higher wages
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The benefits of trade must be shared amongst the community
Farrell confirmed that Labor won’t include investor state dispute mechanisms in future trade agreements, and will review the use of ISDS clauses in existing deals.
Farmer found in mud dies in hospital
A Queensland farmer who survived for more than two days stuck in mud after falling off his tractor has died in hospital on the Sunshine Coast, reports the ABC.
Emergency services found Tom Killen covered head to toe in mud and took him to hospital last Tuesday morning, after a friend of the 95-year-old discovered him by a dam on his property in south-east Queensland when going to check on him after days of silence.
Killen remained in hospital. The ABC reports that police today said he died over the weekend.
AFL umpire one of four arrested in Brownlow betting probe
An AFL umpire was one of the four men arrested in relation to suspicious betting activity connected to this season’s Brownlow Medal.
On Monday, Victoria police detectives from the Sporting Integrity Intelligence Unit arrested and interviewed four men as part of an investigation, with one person with inside knowledge of the Brownlow medal tallies accused of leaking the information to a betting ring.
Police are investigating how many matches may have had votes released and exactly how much money was awarded from the bets, reports AAP. At this stage, police have no information to suggest that the outcome of the votes was impacted as the allegations relate solely to the distribution of information.
On Monday afternoon, a statement from the AFL said that “one of the four persons arrested this morning is an AFL umpire”.
“The suspicious betting activity, on bets placed on round-by-round vote getters, triggered a response and notification by one of the AFL’s betting agency partners,” the statement said.
“The AFL and Victoria Police have no information to suggest that the awarding of match day votes was impacted in connection with the suspicious betting activity, as the allegations relate solely to the distribution leaking or improper communication of the 3,2,1 voting outcomes post some specific matches during the season to unauthorised persons,” the statement said.
AFL EGM Football and General Counsel Andrew Dillon said: “I want to stress that neither Victoria Police, nor the AFL have information to suggest that the outcome of the Brownlow Medal was impacted”.
“Post-game, the Brownlow votes are sealed and stored in a secure off-site location and not opened until they are delivered on stage on Brownlow night. The sealed vote cards are audited throughout the season by KPMG,” Dillon said.
Victoria flood emergency ‘far from over’: SES
Tim Wiebusch from the SES says the emergency is “far from over”, with parts of the Murray not to peak until the end of the week.
There are 85 warnings active across Victoria as river systems respond to heavy rainfall across the state.
Overnight, we saw flash flooding … at Mount Martha through to Mornington all the way across to Hastings around 300 requests for assistance as a result of flash flooding through a storm cell that went through, leading to around 40mm of rain in a couple of hours. SES volunteers and other emergency services are still in the area assessing those impacts and still responding to around about 80 requests for assistance.
There are seven homes that have been flooded above floor level, while parts of the Hume Freeway remain closed between Purnell and Chilton.
We have also seen a range of roads that remain closed in the north of the state, there are almost 450 roads closed at this time. In particular, the Murray Valley Highway is currently closed as well. Across the state, we are now starting to see a range of our river systems reach the major flood levels. We have the Murray River at major flood level in various areas … we also have a range of rivers at the moderate flood level.
For our Murray River communities, there is still some time to go with the flooding that is occurring.
Rainfall totals up to 150mm in north-east Victoria
Christie Johnson from the Bureau of Meteorology said there had been rainfall totals up to 150mm in north-east Victoria including 147mm in Mount Hotham.
With that system that came in from the west, we saw some severe thunderstorms with that and did have warnings issued for parts of the south-west district, the central district and in particular, we saw some severe storms … that intensified as it moved over the bay and over the Mornington Peninsula.
We did see flash flooding and heavy rainfall … we also saw rainfall totals in the north-east over the course of the last 24-36 hours and we have seen 100-150 mm up there. At the moment, the highest rainfall for the system is about 147mm at Mount Hotham.
She said the system was now moving away, with a cold south-westerly moving in bringing showers across the state and isolated thunderstorms across the north.
We’ll see showers continue probably tomorrow also contracting to the south of the ranges but very cold air moving up. We will see snow level drop from perhaps tonight, and perhaps down as low as 800m above sea level. We can also see some small hail with some of those showers in the very cold air … that will continue on Wednesday when we will see snow level above around 1,000 metres and that will continue to move away and the showers.
Another system may develop over the coming weekend but with far lower rainfall totals.
‘Still some time to go’ with ongoing flooding in Victoria
Emergency services are providing an update in Victoria. They say there’s “still some time to go” with the ongoing flooding events.
There have been more than 650 calls for assistance in the past 24 hours, the bulk of which were from the Mornington Peninsula area.
Andrew Crisp said there’d been “significant rainfall” across the state, with a number of flood rescues and a derailed train in Geelong.
What we did see … at about 5.30 this morning near Geelong was a 1.7km train with about 55 carriages, 16 of those carriages derailed down in that area. Fortunately, we have been advised there was no one injured as a result of that particular derailment. We know the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is on scene and undertaking investigation in relation of what caused the development itself. We do not have any further details of this at this point in time and will let them undergo their investigation.
Army helicopter sparked massive Canberra bushfire after crew stopped for toilet break
The crew on an army helicopter that started Canberra’s devastating 2020 bushfires were landing for a toilet break when they inadvertently ignited the monster blaze.
An inquest began at the ACT coroner’s court on Monday with evidence from the man in command of the helicopter that started the fire.
An MRH-90 Taipan helicopter – codenamed ANGEL21 – was scouting remote helipads that could be used by outside firefighting teams on 27 January when its searchlight ignited the blaze in the Orroral Valley.
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Sian Cain
Jackie O steps away from radio show to recover from long Covid
Radio host Jackie O is stepping away from her long-running breakfast show with co-host Kyle Sandilands in order to recover from health issues months after contracting Covid-19.
While presenting the Kyle & Jackie O Show on KIIS FM on Monday, Jackie O, real name Jackie Henderson, said she had been struggling to recover after she contracted Covid-19 earlier this year, and that she had received medical advice to stop working in order to address an enduring cough and fatigue.
“I’ve been not very well ever since I’ve had Covid, I’ve been struggling with this fatigue,” Henderson said. “Ever since picking up that virus, I’ve been to the doctor several times, and he said because I’ve been pushing myself every day, after the show, all I’ve been doing is sleeping, and I’m not getting better.”
“I just have to take some time off, so I’m ending the show today. As in now … you know how much this show means to me; you know how much I push through everything, and I would not be doing this unless I absolutely had to.
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Japan offers to host Australia’s nuclear submarines
Japan has offered to host Australia’s nuclear submarines when they arrive as Tokyo’s envoy extended further defence support to Canberra, reports AAP.
Ambassador Shingo Yamagami said Tokyo stood ready to cooperate on cutting-edge defence technology with the trilateral Aukus alliance between Australia, the US and UK.
Yamagami said Japan’s place may not be obvious in an alliance between three English-speaking nations with a long history of military interoperability and integrated defence industries.
“At first glance, some may argue Japan has no skin in this game,” the ambassador told the Advancing Aukus conference on Monday. “Why should Aukus matter to Japan? Aukus matters to us a lot.”
He said the primary role of the agreement through which Australia will acquire nuclear-propelled submarines was to act as a deterrent in the Indo-Pacific. This included the prospect of hosting Australia’s nuclear submarines when the time came.
“We are a frontline state facing challenging circumstances in the dangerous neighbourhood of Southeast Asia,” he said. “Such submarines will increase regional deterrence.”
While not directly referring to China as a threat, Tokyo’s envoy spoke of the need for alliances to manage a more dangerous region, noting Japan’s future was tied to the west’s force projection. “In other words, what matters to you matters to us too,” he said.
Severe storms caused flash flooding in New South Wales, with the town of Forbes receiving 118mm – its heaviest rain on record this months.
River levels have risen sharply as a result of the recent weather events.
Footage of flooding at Safety Beach on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, according to Channel 7 reporter Paul Dowsley.
