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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly and Natasha May (earlier)

Police investigate looting of flood-affected Melbourne property – as it happened

Flood Victoria Australia Shepparton
Australian Defence Force personnel load residents’ cars with sandbags in Shepparton
Australian Defence Force personnel load residents’ cars with sandbags in Shepparton on Sunday. Over a hundred ADF are working to assist amid the Victoria floods, mainly in north of the state around Bendigo, Echuca and the ‘significant effort’ in Shepparton. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

What we learned today, Monday 17 October 2022

With that we are going to close the blog – thank you for spending part of your day with us.
Before we go let’s go through the big headlines:

  • Victorian rivers to peak as flooding worsens

  • Opposition accuses government of ‘blatant politicisation of infrastructure funding’

  • Medicare rorting is ‘shocking’, government says

  • 9,000 homes to be inundated in northern Victoria, minister says

  • Treasurer says to brace for cost-of-living impact of floods

  • New approach to community infrastructure grants to go through local government

  • NSW regulator suspends Star’s casino licence and issues $100m fine

  • Liberal challenger for Andrews’ seat apologises for echoing conspiracy theorists

  • Victorian premier commits over $300m for flood clean-up and road repairs

  • $15m committed to helping Victorian families with housing, health and legal aid

  • SES Victoria responds to over 650 flood rescue calls

  • Police investigating looting of flood-affected property

  • Top medical body says reports of Medicare rorts are ‘unjustified slur’ on the profession

  • Government launches new national plan on family violence

We will back tomorrow morning to do it all again! Until then – stay safe

Updated

Activists hand-deliver messages to social services minister’s office in Adelaide

Today welfare recipients delivered messages from across the country to the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, in Adelaide to mark International Day to Eradicate Poverty.

Activists from the Antipoverty Centre, Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union and Anti-Poverty Network SA, as well as supporters, gathered at Victoria Square in the Adelaide CBD to share stories before travelling to the minister’s office to hand over dozens of messages, which a staff member accepted.

Antipoverty Centre spokesperson and disability support pension recipient Kristin O’Connell said:

The welfare system is killing people. We delivered our messages directly to Amanda Rishworth’s office so she cannot say she didn’t know.

It is the International Day to Eradicate Poverty, and next week the government will deliver a federal budget that consigns us to worse poverty, while protecting tax cuts for the rich.

How many more people will die before they do the right thing, do what the community supports, and raise all Centrelink payments so that no one is forced to live in poverty?

Updated

Severe weather warnings are in place for parts of SA – please check the warnings and stay safe:

Singapore researchers to access science facility in Melbourne under new pact

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto) and the National University of Singapore have signed an agreement to enable Singapore researchers to access Ansto’s state-of-the-art facilities at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne.

The minister for industry and science, Ed Husic, attended the ceremony with Singapore’s minister for trade and industry, Gan Kim Yong.

Husic welcomed the bilateral agreement as an opportunity to advance Australia’s and Singapore’s science and research collaboration.

This agreement demonstrates that Australia’s strong track record in operating the Australian Synchrotron in Clayton and the Australian Synchrotron Research Program is recognised internationally.

As custodian of some of Australia’s most significant science infrastructure, Ansto makes an important contribution to science outcomes across the fields of human health, energy, advanced manufacturing, food science, and the environment.

Singapore’s PM Lee Hsien Loong is due to meet Anthony Albanese for dinner in Canberra tonight.

Updated

From AAP:

A man has sustained severe burns after a small plane crashed in the NSW Hunter Valley.

The Cessna aircraft crashed around 2pm on Monday near Luskintyre Airfield, a private aerodrome northwest of Maitland.

The pilot, aged in his 40s, was treated for burns before being flown to Royal North Shore hospital.

The crash has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Updated

Aboriginal tools returned to community from Israeli museum

Aboriginal stone tools found in a museum in Israel have been returned to their community at a ceremony in Canberra, AAP has reported.

The five tools were initially collected in Victoria by non-indigenous people and form the first tranche of items from an extensive collection to be returned to the relevant traditional owners.

The tools were returned to the care of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation at a ceremony on Monday.

“I don’t call them artefacts, I call them the best Aussie tools ever made,” Wurundjeri Elder Ron Jones said.

“They last for thousands of years.”

He said finding a single tool is proof that Indigenous people passed through an area over thousands of years.

“The tools tell us that our people were occupying this land. It is very significant that a lot more of our younger generation want to learn about stone tools and things like that,” he said.

Updated

We mentioned earlier the toll the floods have had on Victoria’s wildlife. I have a statement now from Wildlife Victoria – they received 997 calls in 48 hours over the weekend.

Wildlife Victoria:

There have been multiple calls from the public reporting mobs of eastern grey kangaroos trapped by rising flood waters in the north of the state.

Wildlife Victoria took to their socials to urge members of the public to avoid approaching any kangaroos encountered near flood waters.

After days of flooding, the roos are exhausted and if approached are likely to move back into flood waters and drown.

Some Kangaroos have been hit by vehicles after moving out of flood waters and onto the road.

Multiple calls reporting wombats on the road and in flood waters were also recorded.

Species most reported over the period include ringtail possums, eastern grey kangaroos, magpies, echidnas and wombats.

As most of our native wildlife are currently with young, many reports included injured or orphaned young including fledgling birds blown from nests, and waterlogged possum joeys found alone on the ground.

If a flood-impacted animal is encountered, Wildlife Victoria urges people to call their emergency response service on 03 8400 7300 and our trained operators will be on hand to assist.

Updated

Victorian Government to waive flood waste disposal fees

The Victorian Government has announced the waste levy for flood waste will be completely waived, and landfill operator gate fees covered, in flood-affected local government areas until the end of the year – ensuring all flood waste can be disposed of at landfill free of charge.

In collaboration with councils and the waste industry, the Government will work to ensure that all impacted communities have access to a facility or site to dispose of their waste quickly and safely.

The waste levy for flood waste and the gate fee usually charged by the site operator will be waived for the 46 worst-affected local government areas until 31 December.

Other LGAs impacted by floods will be added to the list as required, ensuring affected communities can undertake clean-up and recovery activities without paying for the disposal of their waste.

Premier Daniel Andrews:

We’re not wasting any time to clean up flood-affected communities – we’re working with councils and communities to remove any barriers to getting on with our recovery.

Updated

The defence minister, Richard Marles, will meet with Pacific counterparts during a trip to Tonga to discuss “collective responses to regional security challenges”.

Headshot of Richard Marles wearing a suit and pink tie
Richard Marles is scheduled to attend the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Marles, who is also the deputy prime minister, will travel to Tonga and Fiji this week.

While in Tonga, Marles is scheduled to attend the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM), which includes Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, France and Chile. He said:

Our region is increasingly facing both traditional and non-traditional threats to our shared security. The Pacific family is stronger when we respond together, by enhancing coordination, sharing information and improving interoperability between our countries and our defence forces.

During his trip to Tonga, Marles is also expected to tour tsunami-affected areas.

He will then head to Fiji for a meeting with the country’s minister of defence, national security and policing, Inia Seruiratu. Marles is also scheduled to visit the Blackrock Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Camp.

Marles said:

Australia and Fiji’s defence relationship is enduring and strong – highlighted by the success of joint exercises, co-deployments, and shared infrastructure projects like the Blackrock Camp. I look forward to opportunity to visit Fiji and meet with Minister Seruiratu again, as we work to enhance our defence partnership.

Updated

Australian share market drops

The local share market has suffered another plunge, with all sectors closing lower, AAP has reported.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Monday closed down 94.4 points to 6664.40, a drop of 1.4%. The broader All Ordinaries fell 94.3 points, or 1.36%, to 6854.3.

The Australian dollar was buying 62.37 US cents, from 63.33 US cents at Friday’s close.

Updated

Consumers warned price of fruit and vegetables could rise after flooding

From AAP:

Consumers are being warned the price of fruit and vegetables could rise after flooding across NSW, Victoria and Tasmania impacted key agricultural areas.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has been touring flood-impacted areas in Victoria and NSW and said the continuing rain will drive prices higher.

“Tragically, there had been such a good harvest anticipated in wheat, in fruit and vegetables, in so many of the products that the Victorian food basin ... is such a rich area [in], as well as in areas like poultry,” Albanese told ABC Melbourne.

The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, joined the PM on Monday to assess the flood damage around Forbes in central western NSW. He told a media conference prime agricultural regions had been “very badly impacted by the repeated floods”.

“It’s likely that these floods are going to have a cost of living impact on people because of the impact of prices of fruit and vegetables,” Watt said.

The federal department of agriculture is trying to work out what financial impact flooding across parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania will have on agricultural production.

Updated

Australia has quietly dropped its recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, unwinding language adopted by Scott Morrison’s government after the US moved its own embassy from Tel Aviv.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has retained the bipartisan position that Australia “is committed to a two-state solution in which Israel and a future Palestinian state co‑exist, in peace and security, within internationally recognised borders”.

Works by Ukrainian artists to headline this year’s Sculptures by the Sea

From AAP:

Works by Ukrainian artists will be on display at this year’s Sculpture by the Sea at Sydney’s Bondi, in support of refugees fleeing the Russian invasion.

“We’re trying to reach out to our friends and keep the conflict and the needs of the refugees very much front of mind in Australia,” said the event’s founder, David Handley.

The world’s largest free outdoor sculpture show launches on Friday and features four large works by Ukrainian artists as well as six smaller ones.

Oleksii Zolotariov’s Wind Rose is 2.5 metres high and formed from triangles of corten steel, while Dmitriy Grek’s bronze Contemplation shows two figures balanced on a curve, bringing to mind a journey by boat.

Nikita Zigura’s Global Warming is a pair of giant yellow cherries more than 3m high, with red areas alluding to global warming hotspots.

The large-scale sculptures have been shipped from Hamburg to Sydney and are yet to be installed.

Updated

Law enforcement defends ‘temporary exclusion orders’ that can stop Australian citizens from returning

From AAP:

Law enforcement bodies have defended powers that can block an Australian citizen from entering the nation if they are a suspected terrorist risk after serious concerns were raised.

Temporary exclusion orders can be made to prevent an Australian from returning for up to two years if the home affairs minister reasonably suspects the person could become involved in terrorist activities. Eight orders have been made since the laws were put in place in 2019.

ASIO’s head, Mike Burgess, said the biggest risk to Australians remained a lone actor terrorist attack without warning. He said foreign fighters who had joined terrorist organisations could still hold extremist views and lean towards violence.

“If they return to Australia they’re likely to bring home capabilities learned in a conflict zone,” he said.

“Some ... may pose a latent threat to the security environment.”

Updated

Good Shepherd ANZ on the national plan to end family violence

The social services organisation Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand has welcomed the release of the national plan to end violence against women and children 2022-2032, commending its focus on addressing financial abuse and housing instability as crucial to ending violence against women.

Good Shepherd’s CEO, Stella Avramopoulos, said that the national plan’s commitment to end violence was needed to ensure women and children are safe, well, strong and connected:

Family and domestic violence is a national crisis that requires an audacious response across the entire sector including prevention, early intervention, response, recovery, and healing, in partnership with business.

As a family violence services provider, we are acutely aware of the dangers to women who do not have enough money or financial support and cannot access secure housing to enable them to escape and recover from family violence.

90% of Good Shepherd’s financial services practitioners are seeing an increase in economic abuse during the pandemic, the effects of which we know will compound in the years ahead.

The national plan’s focus on housing as a structural barrier to achieving change is another important step in ending family violence, the organisation says.

Good Shepherd practitioners report that affordable, sustainable housing is one of the main barriers to client survival and recovery, with 34% of Good Shepherd clients receiving family violence case management at risk of homelessness during 2020-2021.

Updated

Psychologists say those affected by floods should be able to access mental health services under Medicare

For the past two years, the Australian Association of Psychologists (AAPi) has been calling for Medicare item numbers, originally introduced after the 2020 bushfire crisis, to be reinstated and extended to include any large-scale disaster, pandemic or traumatic event.

AAPi’s executive director, Tegan Carrison, said it was vital for people impacted by a natural disaster like the floods to be able to access quality psychological care quickly and easily:

This current flood disaster means that unfortunately, demand for the kind of mental health care covered by these item numbers is again evident. These Medicare item numbers, once specifically created for bushfire victims, must be reinstated and expanded to cover any form of disaster.

While disaster relief payments might help victims in the short term, the ongoing mental health impacts of a disaster can be devastating.

We are calling on the Federal government to be proactive in establishing trauma and disaster recovery item numbers so people can receive the support they need, when they need it.

Updated

Australia and New Zealand issue joint statement after defence force meeting

Australia and New Zealand are aiming to increase exchanges of personnel between their two defence forces. They have also vowed to “strengthen the joint operational capabilities of our forces”.

The Australian defence minister, Richard Marles, held a meeting with his NZ counterpart, Peeni Henare, in Geelong today. The ministers issued a joint statement afterwards saying they had “reaffirmed the strength of the Australia–New Zealand defence alliance in an increasingly complex security environment”. The needs of Pacific island countries were a key issue in the talks:

The ministers exchanged perspectives on regional security issues and reiterated their shared ambition for a safe, stable, and prosperous Pacific. The ministers discussed growing strategic competition in the Pacific, and noted the region’s long tradition of working together in a transparent and consultative way to advance regional priorities.

The Australian government is currently carrying out a defence strategic review while New Zealand is also working on a defence policy review. The two ministers decided that officials should “remain closely engaged in our respective policy and capability planning”.

They also vowed to “refresh” dialogue between the two countries’ defence organisations to “respond to the increasingly complex challenges of our strategic environment”. This will include a working group on defence industry access to deepen Australian and New Zealand defence industrial base collaboration.

The ministers also agreed on “increasing personnel exchanges, postings and secondments at junior and senior levels” and “strengthening the joint operational capabilities of our forces”.

Australia and NZ also plan to develop “complementary and inclusive efforts and protocols with the region to enhance coordination on humanitarian assistance and disaster response”.

Updated

Australia risks plunging into ‘dangerous populism’ unless political donation laws are urgently addressed

From AAP:

An inquiry into this year’s federal election is exploring if campaign funding laws need to be tweaked.

Existing laws mean only donations more than $14,500 must be publicly disclosed, and there are no spending caps. The government is considering lowering that figure to $1,000 and ensuring those donations are declared in real-time.

Belinda Edwards, a political researcher at UNSW, said Australia should be concerned wealthy individuals can “distort” the political process, adding billionaire Clive Palmer could have made a much bigger impact at the election if he’d used his resources more effectively.

Palmer spent an estimated $100m on his United Australia party campaign, securing a single Senate seat.

“We had a reasonably populist government being challenged by … people not using their resources that well,” Edwards told the inquiry.

“The scope for the sorts of outcomes we’re seeing in the US, if we look forward two or three years and the likelihood we’re going to go into a severe economic downturn and the context of a more dangerous international environment and a growing set of social challenges … the risks of the rise of dangerous populism are really very evident.”

Updated

Opal card readers to be disabled across Sydney and NSW between 3-7pm on weekdays

Sydney commuters will be riding for free at the end of this week as the industrial stoush between Unions NSW and the government drags on.

Here is the Unions NSW announcement:

Updated

Further flooding predicted in northern Tasmania

Hello everyone, this is Cait – I will be with you for the rest of the afternoon. Before we get into it, a big thank you to Natasha. First up, I have this update from Tasmania’s floods:

Almost 100 properties have been damaged by flooding in north and north-west Tasmania as authorities keep a close watch on further predicted rain, AAP is reporting.

Significant floodwaters are expected to continue to subside in coming days following record rainfall across the top half of the island state last week.

The State Emergency Service had on Monday identified damage to 53 homes, 18 businesses and 21 community facilities, as well as bridges and roads. The SES’s acting director, Leon Smith, said the information would be further assessed and used to plan recovery efforts.

Further rain is expected to hit northeast parts of the state on Thursday or Friday, which could deliver broad falls of 50-60mm and up to 100mm in parts.

“There is a window of good weather over the next few days. However we are actively watching another weather system,” Smith said.

“Because it’s extremely wet, any rain will not soak into the soil. 50mm ordinarily would not be of concern but given the soil … it is concerning. It’s got to go somewhere.”

Updated

On that sad note of wombats and kangaroos doing it tough amid the floods, I leave you in the wonderful hands of Cait Kelly who will hopefully bring you better news.

Updated

Animal Justice party calls for suspension to wildlife culling during Victorian floods

The Animal Justice party is urging on Daniel Andrews and Lily D’Ambrosio to call a moratorium on Victoria’s commercial kangaroo slaughter program as native animals struggle in Victorian floodwaters.

Since the start of the floods, Victorian wildlife rescuers, carers and shelters have been struggling to keep up with calls to help wildlife.

Just yesterday, a wombat was spotted trying to swim to safety in Echuca, while SBS shared the story of Bohollow Wildlife Shelter’s attempt to save a kangaroo who arrived in their care in shock, covered in mud and freezing cold. The volunteers cleaned out the mud from his eyes and ears but infection from pneumonia remained a concern.

The weather conditions are also resulting in bird nests being blown from trees, burrows becoming waterlogged and kangaroos becoming landlocked on higher ground, at risk of drowning if they try to move, according to the Animal Justice party.

Georgie Purcell, an Animal Justice party candidate for Northern Victoria, said:

The Victorian government called a moratorium on commercial kangaroo slaughter during our devastating bushfires. They must do the same now, or our native animals may not recover.

Bronwyn Currie, the Victorian convenor of the party, said:

Extreme weather events take a terrible toll on wildlife and they deserve a similar response from the government as they did in the terrible fires of 2020. These events once uncommon are now happening more frequently with the impacts of climate change becoming all too real. Those attempting to save wildlife and other animals deserve support and relief from government in this trying time, a halt on culling is the very least government can do in the circumstances.

I call on the Victorian premier and government to provide immediate financial assistance packages to wildlife shelters and rescuers to cover the cost of urgent medicines and treatments.

Andy Meddick, an Animal Justice party MP in western Victoria, said:

Wildlife rescuers deserve so much more government support than they currently receive. They are volunteers that offer up their own time and pay their own expenses. The very least the Victorian government could do is lighten their load to ensure they aren’t cleaning up the mess of culling on top of flood cases.

Updated

Aboriginal community of Cummeragunja evacuated

In Cummeragunja, the local Aboriginal community on the banks of the Murray on the border of NSW and Victoria has now been evacuated after urgent calls by the authorities to evacuate by noon today.

Around 200 residents at the Cummeragunja community have now been evacuated as roads will be closed, with emergency accommodation being set up at Moana recreation reserve on Kirchhofer Street.

The community of Cummeragunja reserve is banding together with remaining residents sandbagging the banks of the Murray river to try and protect properties at risk of flooding as waters are expected to peak as the community of about 200 is evacuated.
The community of Cummeragunja reserve is banding together with remaining residents sandbagging the banks of the Murray river to try and protect properties at risk of flooding as waters are expected to peak as the community of about 200 is evacuated. Photograph: Belinda Day

Belinda Day works for the local Health and Development Aboriginal Corporation there and told Guardian Australia that residents initially feared leaving their homes and wanted to stay:

The majority had elected that they were going to stay on country but we’ve had New South Wales police out this morning doing doorknocking, advising that it is actually a mandatory evacuation.

She said most residents have now decided to stay with family and friends until the danger subsides or will be accommodated safely at nearby Moama. Day said:

They’re going to either relocate themselves to family or friends or they’re going to go into Moama and access the evacuation center there and seek some support.

She said there were a handful of residents who wanted to stay and that they’re working with about seven or eight people to ensure they are supported. Day said the residents and those that are able to are all banding together to try and shore up the banks of the swollen river.

Everyone is supporting each other and coming together, we’ve got a group of men here doing the sandbags, getting them filled up to try and protect houses.

The community of Cummeragunja reserve is banding together with remaining residents sandbagging the banks of the Murray river to try and protect properties at risk of flooding as waters are expected to peak as the community of about 200 is evacuated.
The community of Cummeragunja reserve is banding together with remaining residents sandbagging the banks of the Murray river to try and protect properties at risk of flooding as waters are expected to peak as the community of about 200 is evacuated. Photograph: Belinda Day

Updated

Animals flee floodwaters in regional Victoria

Amidst the human suffering wrought by the recent floods, spare a thought for Australia’s wildlife.

Indicators to measure success of domestic violence plan ‘really important’, minister says

Q: What measures will the government use to evaluate success over the 10-year period the plan is implemented?

Rishworth:

It is really important that we do have indicators. That … demonstrates whether or not we’re making progress. And the plan outlines some of those potential indicators.

The plan will be backed up by an outcomes framework and work is under way to look at what other measures that best represent progress. But also, what are the measures that there is actually data to back up? So these are critically important elements to make sure we’re making progress. That work will continue on what that outcome framework looks like.

But I think as Simone correctly outlined in our discussions before, we can’t just always rely on prevalence. Because we want reporting to go up. But we do want incidents going down. So making sure we’ve got the data that accurately measures the progress we want to make, whether it’s in prevention, early intervention, in response or healing or recovery.

There’s a range of indicators. We need to make sure we’ve got access to the data and that’s a continuing piece of work. But we do need to measure and demonstrate we’re making progress.

Updated

Rishworth: plan outlines clear roles and responsibilities between states, territories and federal government

Q: Will there be shared financial commitments between the federal government and the states and territories?

Rishworth:

Well, what this does is it drives investment into the areas that make a difference. The states and territories in their different ways are actually already changing laws and driving investment, but we need to make sure we’re all working together, that this investment works together.

All of the states and territories have plans that … are driving change. But making sure we are all in alignment is critically important. … it’s not just the investment, but [so] the role and responsibilities are clear. And that’s what this plan outlines.

… it’s a much more [coordinated] and focused approach. But importantly, [it] also shows that we’re coming from a shared understanding. Gender inequality is one of the main drivers … that leads to gender-based violence. It’s important, that shared understanding, shared vision, shared commitment.

Work has already started on both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan and the mainstream action plan, and as a ministerial council, we’ll continue to work through that action plan.

Updated

Domestic violence funding to be driven by action plans

Amanda Rishworth is now back at the mic taking questions from reporters.

Q: Will the federal government be committing extra funding?

When it comes to the funding, the investment will be driven by the action plans. Our government has already committed not only the $1.3bn investment over the forward estimates, but also took a commitment to the election to invest and boost front-line services and we’ll be working through with my state and territory colleagues over coming months.

But this commitment, along with the commitment to the domestic, family, and sexual violence commissioner, these are all really important investments already. And the action plans will continue to drive and ensure that the investment is going in the areas that make a difference.

But I also would make the point that some of the change that needs to happen is within systems. And within broader society. That’s why I’m very pleased that the first action that the new federal government took was to introduce universal 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave. That will go through the parliament, which will support ensuring that women don’t have to choose between their job and leaving or attending to a violent relationship. So, that is really important steps we’re taking. But the action plans will drive investment over the coming years.

Updated

Victim survivors’ voices are front and centre in this plan: Fentiman

Queensland’s minister for justice, women, and the prevention of domestic and family violence, Shannon Fentiman, highlighted that coercive control will be tackled in the plan and paid tribute to Hannah Clarke.

In Queensland as a community we are beginning to understand just how dangerous coercive control and those controlling behaviours can be, tragically as a result of Hannah Clarke’s story and the tragic loss of Hannah and her three children. As a community, we need to do more, and the victim survivors, their own statement in their plan very clearly says we shouldn’t have to die before we give them attention.

This plan, Hannah’s legacy, the legacy of all of those brave victim survivors is to have a system that recognises and responds to the red flags before more blue police tape surrounds another family home.

That’s why we have put together this ambitious plan to end violence against women and children in a generation. And to those victim survivors whose voices are front and centre in this plan, we have seen you, we have heard you, and we have believed you. We have listened and now we’re taking action.

Updated

Northern Territory minister says new domestic violence plan will focus on helping First Nations women

Kate Worden, the minister for the prevention of domestic, family, and sexual violence in the Northern Territory, says the plan comes as a collaborative effort by ministers from all over Australia.

For the first time this plan says that domestic, family, and sexual violence is not a women’s issue. This has a huge sense of purpose in putting prevention and early intervention at the centre of everything that we will do as a nation.

We need to make sure that perpetrators are held to account, we need them to also recognise their behaviours and also get them to seek that assistance and support. That is [what] we’re committing to through this plan.

Worden stresses the importance for her state of the plan’s focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women:

Particularly from the Northern Territory, we’re particularly very, very glad that it has a focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, because in the Northern Territory, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 18 times more likely to be the victims of domestic and sexual violence. They are also 40 times more likely to end up in hospital as a result of that violence. So we really welcome that new focus.

We look forward to the action plans that are coming as the work goes forward. This is just the beginning. We’re all heading into the right direction.

Worden thanks the women who have contributed to the plan:

Before I finish, I just want to, as a victim survivor myself, I want to thank every single woman that has been part of this plan, it is a bold and brave step they have taken to contribute to this plan, and I want to make sure that at this particular point in time, that their voices have been heard, they recognise their voices have been heard.

Updated

Responsible ministers at the state level follow Rishworth in speaking.

Natalie Ward, the NSW minister for women’s safety and the prevention of domestic and sexual violence, said:

We have brought in affirmative consent laws in New South Wales. We’ve heard loudly about what consent in education means to ending violence against women and children. We have led the way in our funding for women’s shelters, almost doubling the number of women’s shelters in New South Wales with our core and cluster program, ensuring we have legislative responses; we’re the first in the nation to have introduced a standalone offence for coercive control as a criminal offence, knowing it’s a contributor to family and domestic violence, it’s something in New South Wales we say no to.

[We are] working with our colleagues across the nation to ensure we’ve [got] this comprehensive response in this national plan we’ll all be able to implement across the nation, and working together so closely to do that.

I want to thank my predecessors in this area for the work they’ve done and the Perrottet government for ensuring we have record funding in New South Wales in this area. I’m really pleased to be part of a government that is putting this at the centre of ensuring we’re preventing family and domestic and sexual violence and working with our colleagues to put an end to this in Australia.

Updated

Government launches new national plan on family violence

The minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, is speaking in Melbourne, launching the government’s new plan to end family violence.

Rishworth says the plan covers all of the four domains to end violence against women and children:

[It will] focus on prevention, early intervention, response, and healing and recovery. What we know is that if we don’t focus on these areas equally, then we won’t see an end to violence against women and children.

Importantly, there is some cross-cutting principles that are essential in achieving this plan. And we heard very strongly through the consultation, through the launch today, that holding those that choose to use violence against women and children to account is critically important.

It shouldn’t be left to the victims [or] survivors to explain or feel shame when it comes to violence against women and children. It is about working with men and boys. It is about working on respectful relationships. It’s about ensuring that businesses, community groups, sporting groups: everyone in the community has a role.

So this is an ambitious plan, but it’s an incredibly important plan and one that will help drive investment, drive response [and] drive system change into the future.

Updated

The PM has shared some images from his visit to the flood-affected town of Forbes in NSW today.

Updated

Construction costs climb at a record pace – even before the floods

In news that won’t be welcomed in the flood-hit regions of south-east Australia, CoreLogic‘s regular construction cost index showed the cost of building new homes rose at a record pace in the year to September.

The Cordell Construction Cost Index rose 11% in the past 12 months, accelerating from a 10% rise in the year to June. On a quarterly basis, the hike in costs was 4.7% or roughly double those in the June quarter.

The scramble for construction materials is nationwide, but especially acute in Victoria, where the quarterly rise was 5.6%, and in NSW, where it was 5.8%. Both states have lately been hit by widespread flooding and the near-term outlook is for a lot more rain in eastern Australia. Rivers are certain to rise again soon.

Annually, Victoria recorded the largest growth rate of all states, with residential construction costs increasing by 12.3% over the 12 months to September 2022, CoreLogic said.

Apparently, supply chain issues related to Covid have started to ease – only to be replaced by the rising cost of raw materials, labour and fuel, according to John Bennett, a CoreLogic construction manager.

This quarter has also shown a larger increase in the cost of wall linings, including plasterboard and fibre cement, which previously had been relatively stable. It will cost more to literally get into a house too, with the price of doors showing a sharp rise in the September quarter.

Also not promising for those areas hit by floods is an increase in price of getting rid of stuff.

We’re seeing a large increase in waste disposal fees across most states, and volatility in professional fees and services, with Victoria and Queensland showing the highest cost increases.

Updated

Residents from Barnadown to Rochester warned to move to higher ground

Updated

The Australia Institute says the Chubb Review into Australia’s carbon market looks like it is favouring a “business-as-usual” outcome, rather than a more thorough assessment of the validity of carbon credits.

The independent review headed by the former chief scientist Ian Chubb is due to report to the government by the end of the year. We noted last week here that the government has released draft legislation for a new type of carbon credit for its so-called safeguard mechanism that is intended to give industry incentives to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Unhelpfully, the legislation and expected regulations will be presented to MPs to consider before the government’s response to the Chubb review is known.

That’s part of the concern raised by the Institute, which we understand has yet to be approached by the Chubb review despite having done much research on the weaknesses of the current proposals, such as here and here.

Another key worry is that the panel itself might not be sufficiently “independent’” given two of the four panelists are involved in carbon markets and so are “potentially conflicted”, the thinktank said in a submission to the review.

Steve Hatfield-Dodds, for instance, is an associate principal at Ernst & Young (EY) Port Jackson Partners, and recently coauthored a report touting carbon credits as “front and centre” and “an essential part of the business toolkit”.

“Dr Hatfield-Dodds’ report not only avoids discussion of the integrity problems inherent in all offset programs, but it actually assumes them away in its analysis,” the TAI submission states.

The submission also notes another of the four review members, Ariadne Gorring, is active in the sector as the co-CEO of Pollination Foundation, part of Pollination Group. The submission notes that Pollination advises on, and invests in, carbon credit projects and in partnership with HSBC Asset Management develops strategies that generate “returns, both financial and in the form of carbon credits”.

The Pollination Foundation itself also “incubates” a biodiversity credit business, “Marketplace for Nature”.

Beyond that, the thinktank said it also understands the review secretariat includes a government official who was instrumental in the design and administration of the “avoided deforestation” method (one that has been challenged, such as here) and an individual who is employed by the Clean Energy Regulator.

The submission said:

It seems inappropriate that the secretariat of the review would include representatives from the agencies that are subject of the review itself and who were involved in the design of the methods under consideration.

Polly Hemming, a senior TAI researcher who specialises in carbon credits, said the review “might not help reset Australia’s climate policy given the potential conflicts of the review panel members”.

Hemming said:

It’s disappointing the safeguard mechanism will be reformed without proper consideration of the integrity of the carbon offsets it will be relying upon.

We should instead be talking about the big-ticket items of decarbonisation – eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, stopping new fossil fuel projects and phasing out fossil fuel consumption.

Updated

Looks like singer Kate Miller-Heidke has become the latest victim of the Qantas baggage issue:

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Budget criticised for including $1.5bn for proposed Middle Arm petrochemical hub

Environment groups have criticised a federal government announcement that next week’s budget will include $1.5bn for the proposed Middle Arm petrochemical hub in Darwin Harbour.

The Environment Centre NT has denounced the grant as a fossil fuel subsidy because the plant would be used for gas processing and carbon capture and storage and would be a demand source for gas from the Beetaloo Basin.

The centre’s co-director Kirsty Howey said:

There’s absolutely nothing sustainable about the Middle Arm Project. It’s about toxic petrochemicals and plastics production in Darwin Harbour using fracked gas from the Beetaloo Basin.

The minister’s commitment of funding for the Middle Arm Industrial Precinct is simply shovelling huge amounts of taxpayer funds to the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry.

The Protect Country Alliance said if the precinct was built it would “exist predominantly to service the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries.”

Hannah Ekin from the Arid Lands Environment Centre said the funding announcement was “a terrible outcome for the Territory and Australia”.

Publicly funded fossil fuel developments will drive the climate crisis and worsen the extreme heat already being experienced by many Territorians.

Updated

Summary: $351m Victorian flood recovery package breakdown

Also just to summarise the spending from the Victorian government, that’s a total package of $351m, including:

  • $165m to repair damaged roads

  • $150m for an immediate state-coordinated clean up

  • $15m for housing, health and wellbeing, financial and legal counselling

  • $6m to station Community Recovery Officers in affected LGAs

  • $15m to boost capability of Emergency Management Victoria, the State Control Centre and Emergency Response Victoria

Additionally, under the Personal Hardship Assistance Program will provide up to $42,250 for uninsured properties, helping to pay for clean-up, repairs, rebuilding and replacing household contents.

Summary: Victorian flood heights

We brought you a lot of information from that media conference in Melbourne. So here’s a more digestible summary of where river heights are at in Victoria:

  • Shepparton: the Goulburn River is still at its peak of 12.05m, where the SES expects it will stay for another four to five days.

  • Echuca: the Murray River is levelling out just below major flood level.

  • Seymour: the Goulburn River is at the moderate flood level at 6.5m and continuing to recede.

  • Allansford: the Hopkins River is expected to peak in the next 24 hours.

  • Rochester: the Campaspe River is at moderate flood level and starting to recede.

  • Kerang: the Loddon River is at minor flood level but expected to reach major flood level Wednesday into Thursday.

  • Charlton: the Avoca River is at major flood level where it has peaked at 7.9m, just below the forecast peak of 8m.

Indigenous communities affected by Victoria floods

The devastating floods are having a big impact on the local Indigenous communities nearby Shepparton, Moama and Echuca, according to local residents and the Njernda Aboriginal Corporation in Echuca.

The chief executive, Tracy Dillon, said she has been meeting with local organisations and the local government to get a sense of how the community is faring but she said things are “extremely worrying” and that Njernda is working with local authorities to support people who are being evacuated.

She said:

We’ve got extended family members and don’t have the funds to sort of get hotels and things like that, so the government is helping out organis[ing] things there for us and that’s really beneficial.

Dillion said the community is on edge with concerns the inundated waterways and rivers could break with more heavy rains expected in the coming days.

We’re doing OK, right at the minute. But that can change in a minute because it’s in pockets where the flooding is happening so if it breaks the levee, then that can be much more serious and more families impacted.

Merinda Slater lives on the western side of Echuca which is currently “cut in half” as the flooded river splits the town in two.

Echuca has been split into pretty much two towns so I need to cross the Campaspe River to get into town and so both sides have been blocked off by police and SES, it’s just water over the roads.

Merinda said that once the alerts came through warning of evacuations and flood warnings the supermarket shelves were “stripped bare”.

It’s doomsday behaviour, there’s no bread, it’s like Covid.

As a joke I’ve been saying, ‘Should we go back to making our own bread again? get out a sourdough starter like everyone did in Covid’.

Slater, who works in Shepparton, said that there “everything is just gone under” with rising flood waters and rains adding to the stress.

They are not good at all. Some of them are like it’s in their house. My work family were telling me like ‘it’s in their house’ . I’m the only one that works outside of Shepparton so it’s a big worry there.

Updated

Father of murdered Melbourne woman to run as Justice party candidate in Victorian elections

The father of a Melbourne woman who was beaten and murdered in 2019 will run as a candidate for Derryn Hinch’s Justice party at next month’s state election .

John Herron, a navy veteran and lawyer with practices in regional Victoria. will run for the party in the upper house, alongside Simone O’Brien, a domestic violence survivor. Justice party MPs Tania Maxwell and Stuart Grimley – elected in 2018 – will also recontest next month.

Herron said he was an “accidental candidate” who wanted to fight for his daughter and other female victims of crime. He said in a statement:

The killer was released early from prison and was on bail – like so many other stories. I saw the Andrews’ government’s indifference to victims, violent crime and violence against women.

My daughter would have wanted me to fight for her and other female victims of crime to ensure both her killer and others are not allowed to perpetrate these crimes in the first place, and to level appropriate punishment and treatment, so Victorian society can again be a functioning democracy.

Herron’s daughter, Courtney was beaten to death in Melbourne’s Royal Park in May 2019. The perpetrator – who was on a community corrections order – was later found not guilty due to mental impairment but was ordered to 25 years in a psychiatric facility.

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Top medical body says reports of Medicare rorts are 'unjustified slur' on the profession

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) have released a statement expressing their disappointment at allegations from the joint Nine and ABC investigation that up to $8bn is being defrauded each year from Medicare by health professionals including doctors.

The statement says:

These claims are an unjustified slur on the medical profession, with the vast majority of doctors doing the right thing by their patients and by Medicare rules.

Our health system is built around universal access to healthcare that Medicare supports, and the AMA supports effective stewardship of this Medicare funding.

The Department of Health has extensive data at its disposal and the AMA believes that this should guide Medicare compliance activities as opposed to the anecdotal evidence of a small number of individuals.

Where evidence of fraud is found, the AMA fully supports efforts to stamp this out including referral top the Professional Services Review when required.

The president of the AMA, Prof Steve Robson, said:

Australia’s doctors have worked incredibly hard through Covid – treating Australians during lockdown, rolling out the nation’s vaccine efforts, putting themselves at risk every day to treat Covid patients on the front line – so today’s coverage is as appalling as it is inaccurate.

Doctors will be sickened by today’s reporting which is an undeserved attack on the whole profession based very much on anecdotes and individual cases.

The vast majority of doctors do the right thing, and are working hard for their patients under tremendous pressure within the system.

The AMA works closely with the Department of Health on compliance and we have never seen any concerns or numbers that would support the figures reported today.

We do not tolerate fraud and examples of fraud should be tackled and stamped out - but the figures reported today are grossly inflated.

Updated

Rollover on the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane’s north

Sandbagging working in Shepparton

Victoria police acknowledges ADF and Lifesaving Victoria support

Over a hundred ADF are working mainly in north of the state around Bendigo, Echuca and the “significant effort” in Shepparton. Crisp says they are undertaking a range of tasks, including filling sandbags, moving sandbags, door-knocking in places authorities are asking people to evacuate.

We sincerely thank the Australian defence force for what they’re doing. They’re committing a number of planners and logisticians. We have another two working on relief planning. We’ve submitted an addition al report for aviation. We have aircraft undertaking a wide variety of roles, but given the circumstances at the moment and what we’re looking at in the next couple of weeks, we’ve made this request and we’ll have additional aviation support in the state from tomorrow.

I would suggest it is probably not the last time that we’ll be standing up and talking about the Australian defence force.

Australian defence force personnel load residents’ cars with sandbags in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday.
Australian defence force personnel load residents’ cars with sandbags in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

Crisp also says that Victoria police have been working in the air, traffic management, swift water rescue as well as patrolling areas that have been impacted by flood events.

All of our emergency services have been working so strongly together and it’s been such a strong partnership. But there’s one particular organisation that doesn’t usually get a mention or seen in these situations and that’s Lifesaving Victoria. Again, they do incredible work. We see them a lot during the summer. But in this particular event, they’ve used the rescue helicopters so working in cooperation with Ambulance Victoria and police and a number of tasks with rescues. They’ve got a drone capability, so when we want to understand the impacts from this particular event, been working in Metropolitan Melbourne and also in Geelong. And the boat crews have been up in Rochester and going into the Shepparton area to work side by side with the SES. So an incredible effort by Lifesaving Victoria.

Updated

Police investigating looting of flood-affected property

Andrew Crisp from Victoria police has just spoken at the press conference.

We brought you the news on the blog earlier about the Channel Nine weatherman seeing looters in the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong. Crisp now provides more details about that incident.

During emergencies such as this, we see the absolute best in behaviour across all of our Victorians. Sadly, we also see the absolute worst in behaviour.

And I’ve seen this in a number of emergencies over many, many years. Victoria police at the moment are investigating a burglary at a premises in the Maribyrnong area.

The situation being where someone has left during the flood event and their home has subsequently been burgled.

There is information on the police website but I know that they’re looking for information in relation to a blue Ford Territory seen in that area. If you can support police, then please do so. If you’ve got information, call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Updated

SES Victoria respond to over 650 flood rescues

Wiebusch:

We continue to see a significant number of rescues occurring. We have now seen over 650 flood rescues have to occur during this event. We have had another hundred or so overnight in and around the Shepparton-Goulburn Valley district. Some of those are still being responded to this morning with the sheer volume of calls.

Our emergency services, both SES, by rescue services Victoria, Shepparton search and rescue squad, are all doing an amazing effort there.

We will see additional support today from a range of other government authority such as fisheries Department of transport through their transport safety marine division, providing additional boats to that area.

A police officer places a bollard at the start of a flooded road in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday.
A police officer places a bollard at the start of a flooded road in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

Updated

Princes Highway expected to be cut off at Camperdown and Allansford from flooding: SES

Wiebusch:

At Seymour, the Goulburn River is continuing to recede despite the releases that are coming out of Lake Eildon and we are now seeing a level at the moderate flood level at 6.5m and that is continuing to recede.

Over in the south-west of the state, the Hopkins River at Allansford is expected to peak there in the next 24 hours. We’re only talking about a handful of houses that are likely to be impacted there.

The most significant impact as to the Princes Highway which is cut at Camperdown and Allansford and so we are advising people that might be travelling in that area to make sure that they are checking VicTraffic in terms of your travel plans.

Updated

Shepparton peaked this morning just above 12m, SES says

Wiebusch:

Moving up to Shepparton, if there is some light at the end of the tunnel, what we were forecasting which was 12m and potentially 7300 homes being impacted in one form or another, the good news on the Goulburn River at Shepparton is that it peaked this morning at 12.05m. That 15cm makes a significant difference to the number of properties either isolated or impacted.

We believe around 4000 properties that are now either isolated or have some levels of inundation. Again, impact assessment will occur over the next week and that is because the Goulburn River will still be at the major flood level for another four to five days.

The causeway in particular between Maroopna and Shepparton will only see the water drop below the causeway. We believe Thursday and Friday and then that will need to be assessed before it can be reopened. But it will be some time yet before we see the major flood level which is around let 11m being below that level at Shepparton and surrounds.

Campaspe River receding, but major flood levels to persist for up to 48 hours in Echuca

Wiebusch:

At Rochester, we are slowly starting to see the Campaspe River recede. It has now reached the moderate flood level but even at the moderate flood level there is still significant inundation of the township. It is still too early for our impact assessment teams to be able to get in there and do a detailed assessment of the impacts but as we have seen through aerial footage and our assessments, around 85% of the township we believe has had inundation of properties in that space.

Moving to Echuca – we have seen the peak yesterday afternoon at Echuca at 96 point to 5m. It is slowly receding on the Campaspe River. Now back around 96m at that location. But it is still going to be at that major flood level for another 24 -48 hours. That means there is still around 1,200 properties either isolated or some levels of inundation, either on the property and a number of homes above floor. Again impact assessment will occur once that major flood peak has gone through.

Noting that the second flood peak is coming from the Murray River and the Murray River is expected to peak at 95m.

Updated

Kerang could be isolated for up to seven days, SES say

Wiebusch:

The flood waters on the Loddon River are now starting to affect all of the communities upstream of Serpentine as the waters moved towards the Murray River.

In particular, we’re going to see Kerang coming under pressure. Tuesday night into Wednesday where it all start to reach the flood level. We are expecting at this stage for that major flood level to peak that Wednesday into Thursday. The challenge for Kerang is that it will be isolated potentially for up to seven days.

There was a community meeting held that yesterday the community is now readying themselves. The roads will be sandbagged to join levels around Kerang. The height we are expecting of 78m, we expect Kerang … will be isolated and so we are asking the Kerang community to consider where they should now be moving to another location giving that peak expected Wednesday into Thursday.

Updated

Good news for Horsham and Charlton

Tim Wiebusch from Victorian SES is now providing an update:

While we have a number of communities where rivers are starting to recede, there are still many rivers and communities under threat of major flooding in these coming days.

Starting on the west of the state, the Wimmera River is expected to peak at three points 6m tomorrow being Tuesday.

The good news centred around Horsham is that while we won’t see any residential inundation we will see some streets and roadways that will have water through them and we will also see the showgrounds, football fields and things like that around Horsham that will be impacted by that flooding.

At Charlton, some good news. The rivers had now peaked on the Avoca at Charlton. It peaked at 7.9m, just below the forecast peak of eight makers. That puts it in the same level as 2010 rather than the record peak we saw in 2011 of eight points 6m. At this stage, we’re not seeing significant numbers of properties inundated there.

Updated

$15m committed to helping Victorian families with housing, health and legal aid

Andrews says:

We have also spoken about immediately financial assistance to support Victorians forced to evacuate with basics like clothing, food, shelter and things of that nature.

As we move into that recovery phase there is more that needs to be done, we will also invest and announce today $21m package of critical casework support. This is about helping families with housing, health, wellbeing, financial and legal counselling, accessing grants and whose livelihoods have been affected by the event.

We are putting community recovery offices into those flood-affected communities to help people with whatever they need. It can be quite challenging to navigate your way through all the different programs of support and assistance.

Those community recovery offices will help people navigate through all of their issues and their needs and connect them to the best service response backgrounds, other assistance that is there for them.

He also has an announced that Victorians whose homes have been “profoundly damaged” but are uninsured will be able to access up to $42,250.

Finally, we are supporting Victorians whose homes have been profoundly damaged but who aren’t insured with emergency re-establishment assistant fund grants. The fund provides up to $42,250 for uninsured properties. That helps to pay for clean-up, repairs, rebuilding and replacement of some essential household contents that have been lost.

All of these payments that we have been talking about in recent days can be accessed at the following website.

Daniel Andrews and Anthony Albanese sit in a helicopter overlooking flood-affected areas of Victoria over the weekend.
Daniel Andrews and Anthony Albanese sit in a helicopter overlooking flood-affected areas of Victoria over the weekend. Photograph: Supplied

Updated

Victorian premier commits over $300m for flood clean-up and road repairs

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is speaking in Melbourne where he is announcing a financial support package of $351m to aid flood recovery.

In terms of roads, first and foremost, the immediate concern is to repair those roads so that people can start moving around to support emergency services and freight and all our people to get back into community and where they need to be. We have already got crews out doing the repair work right across the state and we have bolstered their efforts and their overall efforts by $165m. I can announce today $165m in emergency road funding has been provided. That will help us to find and fix those potholes, ash melting and repairing road surfaces that have been damaged by this flood event and to make those hardest-hit roads safer trouble again. The package will also cover larger works, like completely rebuilding roads and bridges, particularly in the … Loddon and Loddon Valley regions which have been worst affected.

… We can in some parts of the state move to a clean-up phase. That is why I am also pleased to be able to announce $150m in additional funding for a coordinated cleaning effort in those areas hardest hits and particularly where waters are falling and we can follow that water and support each and every one of those communities, noting that won’t be everybody right now because some waters have not reached their peak in some communities. In terms of the lead contractor for those arrangements, Johns Lyng who have experience in fire clean-up and flood and storm clean-up here and New South Wales have been appointed as the lead contractor … There will be other subcontractors to work with them.

Those are the two big ticket items but the $351m will also cover:

  • $15m for housing, health and wellbeing, financial and legal counselling

  • $6m to station Community Recovery Officers in affected LGAs

  • $15m to boost capability of Emergency Management Victoria, the State Control Centre and Emergency Response Victoria

Local residents deliver sandbags to houses affected by the flood in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday.
Local residents deliver sandbags to houses affected by the flood in Shepparton, Victoria on Sunday. Photograph: Diego Fedele/AAP

Updated

Liberal challenger for Andrews’ seat apologises for echoing conspiracy theorists

The Victorian Liberal candidate in the premier, Daniel Andrews’, seat of Mulgrave, Michael Piastrino, has apologised after he echoed a line used by conspiracy theorists in an interview ahead of the November election.

Speaking to self-described citizen journalist Rukshan Fernando, Piastrino said:

We will be getting rid of all the dodgy policies Daniel Andrews has put through and he will be brought to justice for the murder of 800 people ... We will not be on bended knee. We will rise up, stand tall, chest out every Liberal member and we will knock down Daniel Andrews and his corruption. That is a promise.

About an hour after a clip of the interview was posted on Twitter, the Coalition campaign HQ shared an apology from Piastrino:

Conspiracy theorists claim political leaders will soon be put on trial for their roles during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Andrews is fending off several challenges in his seat, including from the Freedom party and independent candidate, Ian Cook, which he holds by a safe 15.8% margin.

His office has been contacted for comment.

Updated

Weatherman interrupts looters targeting flooded homes

Today weather presenter Tim Davies and his camera crew earlier this morning caught looters targeting residences in flood-affected Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong.

Davies recounted the event for the program:

While we were out reporting for the Today Show live just before our 7.00 news hit this morning myself and my camera crew arrived on scene, in the streets of Maribyrnong, to discover three men acting very suspiciously.

And they knew instantly that, you know, we had cameras and we were there on scene. They couldn’t get out of there fast enough. As the morning progressed we have spoken with Victoria police who arrived on scene when we called them very swiftly.

Unfortunately as the homeowner came back to the property ... He left the property for one evening. It was his wife’s birthday yesterday. They wanted a little reprieve last night. Their home has been completely ransacked. The upper level where everything was safe, where they thought it was safe and dry has been completely ransacked. The kids’ iPads, all their pictures, all sorts of toys, there were bikes, electrical equipment, it’s all been cleared out this morning.

It just so happened that they had more stuff that was sitting by the door, police tell us, it looks as though when we startled them they left that and got out of there. In one of the boxes that was left behind priceless, precious memories, children’s baby photos from every year since their birth. So the family this morning obviously really grateful to still be able to have those but gutted about the way things are.

Updated

Evacuation orders for Charlton, Victoria

Residents of Charlton township in north-west Victoria have been told to evacuate immediately by the SES:

Updated

NSW premier welcomes decision on Sydney’s Star Casino

The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, was asked about Star. Perrottet welcomed the decision by the regulator and said he did not expect Star’s licence to be renewed until the casino was compliant.

He said:

We’re not going to have a situation where any corporation in our state does not follow the rules and regulations that are in place.

What today clearly demonstrates is that the processes that we have in place are incredibly strong, that we have a strong regulator and the decision today I welcome.

My expectation is that obviously the licence won’t be renewed until circumstances are in place where they comply, and that’s what they should be doing.

A sign at the entry to the Star Casino
The Star Casino in Sydney Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Updated

NSW casino regulator defends Star fine

New South Wales’ casino regulator has defended his decision to fine Star $100m rather than revoke its licence after finding it wasn’t fit to run its Sydney casino.

The chief commissioner of the NSW Independent Casino Commission (NICC), Philip Crawford, said that if the regulator had decided to cancel the licence “thousands of Star employees would have lost their jobs overnight”.

He said:

At this point, the commission did not consider this to be in the public interest.

Instead, the NICC has suspended Star’s licence and appointed a manager to oversee the casino’s operations. Crawford said:

The appointment of the manager means that the Star casino will remain open and all staff will remain employed.

Regulators in Australia have consistently refused to revoke the licenses held by Star and its bigger rival, Crown Resorts, despite a series of inquiries finding serious breaches including money laundering and the involvement of organised crime in junkets that brought high rollers in from overseas.

In Star’s case, this included $900m in gambling spending that was disguised as other expenditure by guests using China UnionPay cards and “links to a well known person who, as I now understand it, is in jail in Asia, who was running junket operations”.

Star will also get to keep the profits generated by the casino while the manager is in place.

However, Crawford said he believed a casino licence had not previously been suspended. He said:

I think that you’d have to view it as a very serious step that’s been taken and giving a real message to the industry.

Gambling in this country is not illegal, but it’s got to be done by certain rules, and there’s a really big building piece that needs to be undertaken by the Star to win back the public confidence.

He said determining the root causes of Star’s governance failures would be “really tricky”.

Their cultural issues have been there a long time and they might take a fair while to sort out. As you know with the Crown Casino, it’s a similar issue with the culture.

And they’re on an 18-month to two-year plan, and we’re watching their culture and development.

The manager will be in place for at least 90 days.

Updated

NSW regulator suspends Star's casino licence and issues $100m fine

The chief commissioner for the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission (NICC) , Philip Crawford, has been speaking about Star’s Sydney casino.

Insofar as disciplinary action, we’ve decided to impose a fine of $100m on the Star, and secondly, to suspend the Star’s casino licence. In circumstances where the casino licence is suspended under the Casino Control Act, the NICC may appoint a person to be manager of the casino.

So I wish to inform you that the NICC has determined that it is in the public interest that a manager be appointed to the casino business at the Star in Sydney. The suspension of the Star’s casino licence will become effective from 9.00am this Friday, 21 October 2022. At which time, the appointment of Nicholas Weeks, as manager, will become effective.

Updated

New approach to community infrastructure grants to go through local government

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, now answers another question about infrastructure funding for regional areas. As mentioned earlier, the shadow infrastructure minister, Bridget McKenzie, has accused the government of “using any excuse they can to rip regional funding out of the budget.”

Well, I’ve seen some commentary which is ill-founded about our infrastructure investments. Let me make this point – the releases that we put out over the weekend were the new commitments that we gave during the election campaign of where additional new funding will be allocated.

In terms of New South Wales and the regions: $1.75bn for the Coffs Harbour bypass; $1.6bn for the M1 to Raymond Terrace; $752m to the Milton-Ulladulla bypass. Other funding will be for NSW: $5.25bn for Western Sydney airport metro; $1.6bn for the M12; $5.3bn for Western Sydney airport, that will, of course, will be a freight hub, including for our produce to be able to get to the market, to our north. We’ll provide major support.

Albanese goes on to say the government is considering a new approach to community infrastructure grants, which will see them go through local government.

A government that I lead will always deliver on infrastructure…We’ll continue to work with state and territory governments and local government. I’ll make this point as well, that when it comes to regional funding, I believe if you want to know where where my government will approach community infrastructure grants, it will be through local government.

We are reforming the Australian Council of Local Government. I think that the way that you ensure probity and the way that you ensure value for money is by asking local communities through their elected local representatives what their priorities are.

I’m not for one looking which is competition with their neighbour next door. Whether that be a farm or other produce as well. I think that that gets you in real difficulty and probity issues is the polite term to use. What we need to do is to make sure that we deliver for local communities. We’ll do that, including the disaster recovery. Of course, a lot of that will be through local Government to fund local roads.

Updated

Agriculture minister says extra support for farmers being discussed

At that media conference in Forbes, the PM and ministers are now fielding questions from reporters.

The emergency management and agriculture minister, Murray Watt, is answering a question about the budget which is going to be handed down next week. The Nationals have been accusing the government of cutting infrastructure spending in regional areas. Watt says:

We’re happy to deliver on any infrastructure project that stacks up.

Watt also flags that extra support is coming for primary producers:

I’m confidence from the travel that I’ve undertaken in the last few days, whether to Dubbo, Gunnedah and Bendigo yesterday and now here in Forbes, that many of our prime agricultural regions of this country have been very badly impacted by the repeated floods, and indeed, there could well be more coming. Whether it be this week or next week or next month. In fact, this morning, I spoke to the president of the Grain Grower’s Association nationally, and his own farm in Victoria is being affected by these flooding events down there.

We are in discussions with the state governments and with our own authorities about what extra support could be provided to farmers. Even under the support that’s already been triggered between the New South Wales and federal governments, there are low interest loans available for primary producers, small businesses, and there’s a range of other support as well. But should further support be required down the track, then, of course, we’d consider that.

Updated

Government in discussion with Victoria about clean-up assistance

Albanese provides a summary of what the government is offering in terms of support:

We now have 31 [local government areas] in New South Wales that have been disaster declared. The Disaster Recovery Allowance is flowing through to eligible people and will continue to make that available. There’s 12 areas in NSW that are under flood warnings.

As we speak, in Victoria, towns including Shepparton and Echuca are under real pressure. People have been magnificent sandbagging, as we heard here today, the efforts of people here in Forbes has made an enormous difference.

But, there is further rain expected later this week. So it remains a very dangerous situation. We’ve been in discussions with Victoria overnight with the clean-up, and about further assistance that we’ll be made available there.

Here, very early on, immediately, we made helicopters available for NSW, for assistance in the end. They weren’t as required as much as was expected. But we’ll continue to provide that support to be on stand by.

There are over 100 Australian defence force personnel on the ground in Victoria, providing support with evacuations, with sandbagging, with some of the early stages of the clean-up. We’ve made available the Mickleham facility with up to 250 beds, but for those people who have been left without homes to return to, because of the flooding, that has occurred. And we’re prepared that facility, potentially, could be expanded further in the future.

For Victoria, overnight, today, we have made available some heavy helicopters, that’s not about moving people, it’s about moving heavy infrastructure equipment around, through the Australian defence force as well. I thank our ADF personnel for once again showing their commitment to their fellow Australians at this difficult time.

Albanese also says he hopes to visit Tasmania soon:

And we’ll continue to pitch in, I hope to visit Tasmania as well this week, as well as the visits I’ve had in Victoria and NSW, to see firsthand exactly what is needed to talk to people on the ground, to thank them.

Updated

Albanese urges Australians to follow authorities’ advice on floods

He said:

Too many people are not accepting the advice when they’re told to evacuate, they’re saying, no, we’ll be right, what that results in is them having to be rescued, with much greater resources and much greater risk, not just for themselves but the emergency service personnel who are providing that support on the ground.

Yesterday when I was in the chopper over Rochester, with the premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, we watched with just - just incredulous two cars going through what was clearly a flooded road up to the window level. That makes no sense. Do not take a risk. If it’s flooded, forget it. As simple as that.

And please, for your own sake, for the sake of your family and friends, it’s just not worth the risk. Because you don’t know, it might look OK, it might look as though the waters are only a metre deep. But, you don’t know if the road has just disappeared under where you can’t see. And those risks simply aren’t worth it.

Updated

'We’re living in very dangerous times': PM

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has begun to speak in Forbes, where thousands have been affected by flooding.

He says the government is prepared to provider “whatever support is requested” from state and local government.

This community of course has been heavily impacted by this event. Not just in terms of people having flooding of their houses, but also the ongoing impact that it will have. It will have an impact on infrastructure including local roads, it will have an impact as well on the farming community. This is a great agricultural region.

One of the tragedies confirmed yesterday when I was in Victoria is that we’re expecting bumper crops. And many of those have been devastated and ruined by the flooding event we’re seeing.

I do want to say we’re living in very dangerous times in the days and weeks ahead. What we have is a potential of further rain events here in western New South Wales, further rain events in Victoria, and in Tasmania. All of them combining and having an impact. Because you essentially have a single drop of rain has nowhere else to go but stay on the surface because of the flooding that has occurred over a period of time.

And that’s why my government stands ready to provide whatever support is requested in cooperation with state and local government and in co-operation with local communities as well. To build resilience and to build support. I do want to also, though, to give people a reminder, to follow the advice that comes from the experts.

Updated

Budget will contain flood recovery provisions, treasurer says

A reporter asks Chalmers, “will the government be budgeting money for flood recovery from the current disasters in the budget or will it have to wait until later?”

When it comes to the cost of the floods, part of the commitments are automatic. And part of them are discretionary. We’ll obviously have conversations with Murray Watt, the prime minister, myself, finance minister, and others, to make sure that we are there for people as they rebuild from yet another round of natural disasters.

There will be an element of that in the budget. We’ll make sensible provisions where we can. We’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on the budget this week. We’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on the budget this week, to the extent we were incorporate events as they unfold, we’ll try our best to do that.

Updated

More to be done to tackle rorts which ‘thieved’ from people who need it most, treasurer says

Chalmers is asked about the revelations that Medicare rorts cost the government $8bn a year. Will this be addressed as part of the government’s waste and rorts audit?

If these numbers are true, it’s absolutely atrocious. Every dollar rorted, whether it’s Medicare or the NDIS, is a dollar thieved from people who need and deserve good healthcare. And so, the health minister will have more to say about this.

Bill Shorten has been talking about this in the context of the NDIS as well. We do need to do more work here. To make sure that our defences against people who want to rort and thieve from government programs a cracked down on. We’ll do that work.

Very concerning reports, very troubling revelations. And something that we will get to the bottom of, because we don’t want to see a single dollar rorted or thieved from the system when it could go to helping people who are vulnerable, help them with their healthcare or their care.

Updated

Aim of budget is to make Australia more resilient, treasurer says

Reporters ask Chalmers about whether he’s changed his mind about Australia being able to avoid a recession, as he said before he left for the US. Does he still believe that?

It’s our hope that Australia can avoid a recession. We have low unemployment, we’ve got relatively solid growth, relatively solid demand. We’ve got a good prices for people – that people are paying for our commodities around the world with a positive impact of that on the budget. But we won’t be completely spared another global downturn. So the job of this budget is to make sure that the budget and the economy is as resilient as it can be. Australians are paying a really hefty price for this wasted decade which has given us stagnant wages and skills shortages and chaos in energy markets and a crisis in aged care and made us more vulnerable to these global shocks than we should be. So the budget begins the hard task of making us more resilient.

Updated

Budget will have ‘responsible cost-of-living relief’, treasurer says

Chalmers moves onto the budget, and he’s reminding Australians the background against which he’s releasing the budget is pretty dire.

It’s also a reminder of the backdrop for this budget, which I will hand down in this building in eight days’ time. High and rising inflation, a consequence now of natural disasters, but also of global factors, the war in Ukraine, issues with our own supply chains here at home, secondly, the persistent structural spending pressures we have spoken about quite a lot, including skyrocketing borrowing costs on the debt we inherited in the budget, and thirdly, of course, the deteriorating global economy.

He speaks about his recent trip to the US where he participated in high level talks with other global leaders about the global economic outlook.

I just got back yesterday, early yesterday morning, from Washington DC, after really valuable opportunity to meet with my counterparts from the US, the UK, Canada, India, Korea, New Zealand, and Ukraine. The council of economic advisors to President Biden, BHP Paribas, JP Morgan, the head of the IMF and European central bank as well. The key take-out is the world is tip toeing a narrowing and more perilous path when it comes to the prospect of another global down turn.

That’s why the budget next week will downgrade the forecast for growth in our majoring trading partners. The US already had two negative quarters and treasury has downgraded the forecast for next year from 2.25% to 1% in the US. It’s likely the UK is in recession already. Euro down graded from 2.25 to 0.5% and China has slowed considerably as well. Our best defences around uncertainty around the world is a responsible budget at home. And that’s what I’ll be happening down next week.

It will be focused on responsibility cost-of-living relief with an economic dividend, it will have targeted investments in a stronger and more resilient economy, and it will be beginning to unwind the legacy of wasteful spending which has given us a trillion dollars of debt and deficits as far as the eye can see. It will be a sensible solid budget and suited to the difficult times that we confront.

Updated

Treasurer says to brace for cost-of-living impact of floods

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking in Canberra. He begins by thanking those who have been helping flood efforts around the country.

This is a human tragedy first and foremost, but it has obvious consequences as well for the economy and for the budget. I think we need to brace ourselves for the impact of these natural disasters on the cost of living, we’re talking here about some of the best growing and producing country in Australia, and it has been seriously impacted whether it’s the destruction of crops or the inability to access some of this farmland, whether it’s livestock, and other consequences.

Australians do need to brace for a cost-of-living impact from these floods. These are likely to push up the cost of living when Australians are already under the pump. It will have obvious consequences for the budget. We’ll be there for Australians in the usual way. I had a good conversation with Murray Watt about that this morning and no doubt more conversations about that, and with states and territories as well. As we get our heads around the scale, the magnitude and the destruction brought by these natural disasters.

Updated

Floods will have inflationary impact on budget, Albanese says

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has conceded the devastating floods swamping much of the eastern seaboard will lead to food prices spiking and have an “inflationary impact” on the federal budget.

Albanese warned of a “very difficult period ahead” for parts of Victoria, and noted that flood waters would eventually make their way down river to parts of South Australia in coming weeks:

More rain is expected later this week ... Shepparton and Echuca face difficult days ahead.

The PM is in Forbes, in central New South Wales, to survey damage there. In an ABC Melbourne radio interview this morning, he thanked volunteers and those working on the emergency response, and said he would be meeting the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, today. Albanese said the federal government was working with the NSW, Victorian and Tasmanian governments to respond to their emergency needs:

The scale of this is enormous and it requires a commensurate response from governments.

Flooded wheat crops
Flooded wheat crops North of Shepparton as the flood waters continue to rise. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, had earlier flagged more support coming for farmers who had lost crops or livestock, and warned this may have an effect on grocery prices. Neither Watt nor Albanese immediately confirmed what help for producers would come, or when but the PM admitted consumers would feel a hit. He told ABC:

Tragically there had been such a good harvest anticipated in wheat, fruit and vegetables, so many products ... areas like poultry will be affected as well.

We have to work with farmers and the sector, they have done it tough in recent years and we’re very hopeful but there’s no doubt there will be an impact on this and the impact will feed into higher prices, most unfortunately at a time when inflation has already been rising.

Just a week out from the federal budget, Albanese said rising costs and vital government assistance would have an impact on the economy:

There’s no doubt this will have an inflationary impact as well as another hit to the budget but these are costs that are necessary in order to provide support for people.

Updated

Family violence a national disgrace, social services minister says

The government has today released its national plan to end family, domestic and sexual violence in one generation. Minister for social services Amanda Rishworth spoke to the ABC’s Nour Haydar:

Violence against women and children including sexual violence is just not acceptable and so our commitment is to say that we don’t want our children and our children’s children to be dealing with the same issues.

So while I’m not going to give a specific number of years, it is a clear commitment that we need it to end to draw a line in the sand and really have a very clear goal on what we’re working towards.

How does Rishworth define a generation?

The national plan is a 10-year plan, obviously what that indicates is we will need sustained effort after this national plan. It is one of states and territories as well as the whole of society, the whole of community, so we want to be driving change. But I think the key message here is we don’t want our children and our children’s children to be still dealing with this in the future.

The previous national plan (in place for 12 years) failed to achieve its key goal of reducing violence against women and children. What will this plan do differently?

Well, look, this plan, I think, has a lot of learnings from the first plan. It builds on some of the positive things that occurred as a result of the first plan. But it also looks at how we need to do things differently. Importantly, it provides a blueprint for states and territories, the commonwealth, but also wider society on how we pull together and work in the same direction.

Updated

Albanese arrives in Parkes

Prime minister Anthony Albanese has arrived in central western NSW where he will be visiting the town of Forbes, where thousands of residents have been affected by flooding. Some were evacuated before the Lachlan River peaked on Friday night and parts of the central business district are still inundated.

Updated

ADF in Shepparton as city prepares for flooding

Shepparton residents bracing for the Goulburn River to swell to 12.2 metres early this morning woke to some minor good news.

The river had swelled just shy of expectations, sitting at 12.05m and steady at 8am, with the possibility of reaching 12.1m later in the morning.

Of concern were properties around Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake, nearby Kialla and parts of Shepparton North, where flood waters were already pooling yesterday afternoon and had shut off major roads.

The Victoria State Emergency Service said more than 7,300 homes and businesses in the Shepparton area could be affected by the rising waters, with inundation possible in about 2,500 of those.

Yesterday evening hundreds of volunteers joined ADF staff at the city’s showgrounds, shovelling sand and distributing sandbags for long lines of cars. Women changed children’s nappies at the nearby evacuation centre, where dozens sheltered in lines of tents or inside the hall.

The ADF, who arrived in droves on yesterday, were stationed in the showground’s animal pavilion. A volunteer said:

It probably still smells like cow shit.

Updated

Food supply and prices will be affected, minister says

Many of the regions being affected by flooding, including Shepparton, are big areas for agricultural production.

Murray Watt, who is also the agriculture minister, says crops being wiped out and power going down, taking out big refrigeration plants, will be “an enormous issue”:

Whether we’re talking about northern Victoria, or western New South Wales, where I was last week, and I’ll be visiting again with the prime minister today, these are some of our key agricultural districts right across the country.

I met farmers in the last couple of days who were getting very close to bringing in bumper crops of canola, and other crops like that. There’s dairy farmers who have been affected and have been having trouble milking their cows. There’s massive impacts there.

We’re starting to work through what sort of support will be needed to assist those farmers. But I think we’ve seen already in the floods we had in Queensland and New South Wales earlier in the year, that can have very dramatic effects on food supply and prices. This will be a serious longer-term consequence of these floods.

Branditt Avenue shops in North Shepparton sandbagged as the floodwaters rise
Branditt Avenue shops in North Shepparton sandbagged as the floodwaters rise Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

ADF supporting Wangaratta, Echuca and Shepparton

9,000 homes to be inundated in northern Victoria, minister says

Minister for emergency management Murray Watt spoke to ABC News Breakfast from the national situation room in Canberra this morning after being briefed by emergency management officials:

There’s been some serious flooding we’re looking at, particularly in northern Victoria in coming days. Particularly we’re very concerned about communities like Shepparton and Echuca.

I think one of the more worrying aspects of that, in some of those communities, it’s quite likely we’ll see a flood peak happen and waters recede, followed by another peak, as different river systems come together.

This is a very serious situation. The reports I’m getting, we could be looking up to 9,000 homes inundated in northern Victoria and potentially close to about 34,000 homes in Victoria either inundated or isolated. So, it’s a very serious situation. I saw some of it for myself yesterday in Seymour, north of Melbourne, and Bendigo, with the prime minister.

As of yesterday, we got over 100 ADF personnel around Victoria. We activated an additional 60 on Saturday night to help with the sandbagging and evacuations and we’ve seen the footage of some of them out there, terrific to see. Also overnight we approved a request from the Victorian government for heavy helicopters that can be used if they’re needed for community evacuations, for moving generators and other heavy equipment and resupplying well.

Updated

Shops cut off in Shepparton but protected by sandbags

Updated

Scenes from Shepparton this morning

Residents await peak in Shepparton North

For Angela Tagudin, natural disasters are nothing new. Before moving to Shepparton three years ago she and her brother lived in the Philippines, where she described flood waters rising metres high.

Yesterday evening Tagudin and her brother stood at the intersection of four streets in Shepparton North, where water was slowly pooling. Their house was safe but they weren’t sure for how long:

Maybe anytime soon, we’ll have to leave, we don’t know. I’m confident inside it won’t come into our house but we’re not used to floods in the sunshine … we’re surprised.

The water had almost reached Andrew’s house, where he stood in the driveway, as neighbours passed by carrying gallons of water and deck chairs. He’d decided to wait the anticipated peak:

It’ll reach me. I’ve put everything as high up as I can, sandbagged as much as I could so it should be fine. I don’t think we’ll be able to save the carpet, though, so I might have wet feet for a few days.

Andrew was a four-year-old in Merrigum when the 1974 floods hit. He still remembers “little snippets” of the last time the Goulburn Valley went under but thinks this time will be worse:

It’ll be as bad as they’re predicting, and it’ll stick around for a few days when it does peak. This isn’t it.

Updated

My colleagues Caitlin Cassidy and Mike Bowers are in Shepparton where the flood peak is expected later today. We’ll bring you on the blog the experiences of some locals Caitlin is speaking to, as well as Mike’s pictures.

The Goulburn River breaches its levee bank and pours into farms about 10km north of Shepparton on Medland Road yesterday
The Goulburn River breaches its levee bank and pours into farms about 10km north of Shepparton on Medland Road yesterday. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Medicare rorting is ‘shocking’, government says

The federal government has “put the crooks on notice” amid reports the Medicare system is being rorted by up up to $8bn a year, AAP reports.

Ministers Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek were responding this morning to a joint Nine and ABC investigation that found some practitioners are ripping off the system by charging for services never delivered.

Government services and NDIS minister Shorten said while the “vast majority” of general practitioners did the right thing, payments integrity was a problem. He told Nine’s Today show:

It drives taxpayers to despair if they think that some people are opportunistically rorting the system.

Crooks do leave footprints ... obviously we have got to make sure there is complete confidence in the system but we need to put the crooks on notice that you will get caught.

Environment minister Plibersek, a former health minister, told Seven’s Sunrise program the report was shocking:

We need to come down on these people like a ton of bricks because Australians feel protective of Medicare and they want to keep Medicare and they love the way our health system works, but it cannot work if you have people ripping it off.

For those people who are ripping it off, they need to face the full consequences of the law.

According to the ABC and Nine investigation, some doctors have been billing dead people and falsifying patient medical records to lift their incomes. Other were making mistakes on claims.

Medicare expert Margaret Faux estimates the waste and rorts cost the system up to $8bn a year, according to the ABC.

Guardian Australia’s medical editor Melissa Davey has also previously reported on the topic of Medicare rorts, finding that gap fees often aren’t recorded:

Updated

Finance minister rejects Nationals’ claims of being targeted in budget audit

ABC Radio also asked Katy Gallagher about the question of whether the government would be looking to cut money from projects promised to the Nationals in exchange for their commitment on net zero.

On the same project earlier, Nationals leader in the Senate Bridget McKenzie accused the government of “using any excuse they can to rip regional funding out of the budget”.

Patricia Karvelas:

On the budget measures, during the election Labor said the department would look at all projects particularly among those promised to the Nationals to get onboard with the net zero promise by 2050. How many of the of these projects have been assessed and exactly how much money will you be cutting from those projects?

Gallagher:

I just want to be clear, we have looked at every department and every line in this first wave of the audit so I do not accept the line that’s been run by the Nationals that this is somehow targeting them.

We have looked across departments. We’ve looked at every budget measure that was funded in the March 2023 budget just before the election. And we’ve looked right across the board and you will see when the budgets handed down where we think we can reallocate will make sensible savings, and we will find savings.

So I think the issue around regions, you’ll see a huge spend in the regions, quite rightly and quite appropriately but where there are programs and it’s not region-specific. Where there are programs where, you know, we’ve had a look at them, and either the work hasn’t been done or the case wasn’t made for that spending then we have looked to make sensible savings.

I mean, this is the job and it will be the job of every budget, not just this one.

Updated

Discussion on tax reform ‘unsurprising’, finance minister says

The federal government has this morning released its new national plan on family violence, with an ambitious goal to end violence against women and children within one generation.

Minister for finance and women Katy Gallagher is on ABC radio affirming that commitment. There is no additional funding that’s been announced but Gallagher suggested more could be announced soon, or at least conceded more was needed.

She is also asked whether tax reform should be on the table:

It is a discussion that’s under way … It’s unsurprising that there are those conversations taking place.

The conversation Jim [Chalmers] and I have been trying to lead is get an understanding across the community of the pressures the budget faces.

Updated

Here are some images from Victoria, where farmland and towns alike are in inundated in the state’s north and centre:

Updated

Government needs to be securing future of regional communities in net zero transition, McKenzie says

RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas:

Isn’t part of the problem, though, this this deal that Barnaby Joyce and your party, extracted in exchange for supporting net zero was never really outlined in detail. It was shrouded in secrecy and confusion. Haven’t you left yourself kind of vulnerable in the lack of detail?

Bridget McKenzie:

I think one of the things that’s becoming more and more clear and obvious around the debate about decarbonising Australia’s economy is that there are actually going to be specific communities and places that are more heavily impacted than others. It’s been one of the National party’s great arguments in the last decade because it’s true.

And so what we secured, were able to secure, was funding to ensure that those communities would be able to secure the opportunities that are purported to come with a move to net zero but also be supported to diversify their local economies and to overcome some of the challenges that are unequivocally heading their way.

So how the Labor party ratchets up the ambition on climate change and simultaneously cuts the funding to support those impacted communities, beggars belief and really tells rural and regional communities and indeed, particularly – I’ve just come out of central Queensland last week, those mining communities are underpinning our national economy right now our public health systems and public education systems, their exports – what is the plan rather than ripping money away from them? They should actually be are securing their future going forward and I haven’t heard any positive noises from the Labor party about the regions thus far.

Updated

Opposition accuses government of 'blatant politicisation of infrastructure funding'

In politics, shadow infrastructure minister Bridget McKenzie spoke to ABC Radio this morning, lashing out at comments from infrastructure minister Catherine King on ABC’s Insiders program, as her department audits projects before the October budget.

The government has announced a $9.6bn dollar infrastructure program and King said some of the funding will be redirected from current projects. The projects promised to Nationals electorates in exchange for a commitment to net zero by 2050 are some of the projects which could be affected.

McKenzie:

The Labor party has ripped the guts out of programs at fund regional Australia and has simultaneously awarded over $2bn to Daniel Andrews’ re-election campaign here in Victoria. And voters are going to be heading to the polls within three weeks of the budget being handed down. So it’s hard not to be cynical, I guess, at what seems a blatant politicisation of infrastructure funding.

And now his own minister yesterday on your Insiders program confirmed that Infrastructure Australia hasn’t even looked at this suburban rail loop the and the only person that has is the Victorian auditor general and the report was scathing, so I think there’s huge concerns that this government has a vendetta against the regions and is using any excuse they can to rip regional funding out of the budget, and to re-profile and re-allocate it to re-elect labour premiers.

Now, what I found concerning about what the infrastructure minister said yesterday [about auditing] is that some projects are going to be in, some are going to be out and we’re not clear on what the methodology that is going to be used will be. She even said that they won’t be proceeding with some of their own election commitments if they didn’t stack up, which makes you wonder why they made them in the first place.

Updated

Headlines from around the world

UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted that Liz Truss is in charge despite her premiership looking increasingly in peril as he warned of further public spending cuts and failed to rule out more U-turns after her disastrous mini-budget.

Ghislaine Maxwell has spoken from a US prison cell about how she feels “so bad” for her “dear friend” Prince Andrew. The remarks will cause fresh embarrassment for the Duke of York as he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from the disgraced socialite.

The co-founder of Donald Trump’s beleaguered social media company has turned whistleblower, alleging the firm violated federal securities laws and that the former president pressured executives to hand over lucrative shares to his wife.

A Black woman in Missouri who escaped after a white man abducted, tortured and held her captive for weeks has said several other Black women were killed by her captor – less than a month after police dismissed community concerns about a serial killer as “completely unfounded”.

Ireland’s gangland trial of the century will begin in Dublin today. Crime boss Gerry “the Monk” Hutch is to be tried for a 2016 murder that stoked a tit-for-tat feud that claimed 18 lives between 2015 and 2018.

Too late to leave Shepparton, Mooroopna, Orrvale, Murchison and Kialla West

Keeping on the extreme weather, here are the major warnings listed by the Victoria SES:

  • “Evacuate immediately” warnings for Echuca, Bunbartha and Charlton.

  • “Too late to leave” (which means “shelter in the highest location possible”) warnings for Shepparton, Mooroopna, Orrvale, Murchison and Kialla West.

You can find the full list of warnings here.

Updated

Flooding starting to ease in Tasmania

And in Tasmania, Dean Narramore says:

We still have some flood warnings occurring through the northern part of the state, particularly in the Meander River and the Mersey as well. Thing are starting to ease and thankfully, they’re probably not going to see the rain until the end of the week and probably even lighter falls than what we’ll see on the mainland there. At this stage, rainfall increasing there later this week but not as much as further north.

Updated

More rain coming for NSW, Victoria and Queensland

The bad news is another round of rain is expected in states already affected by flooding, Dean Narramore says:

Looking at widespread 25 to 50mm over much of inland New South Wales, northern Victoria and Queensland. Now, this is a lot less than what we saw but, with everything now so wet and saturated, this is going to lead to renewed river level rises on many of our already flooded rivers. Particularly as we get in towards that Thursday and Friday time frame.

Updated

Flood levels expected to peak in Shepparton, Echuca, Moama and Lachlan today

Hello! Natasha May now on deck, and we’ll jump straight into the update being provided by the Bureau of Meteorology’s Dean Narramore to ABC News Breakfast:

We have major flood warnings right across inland New South Wales and northern Victoria. Today we’re going to see a number of locations peak. So we’ll start around on the Avoca River around the Charlton area. It looks like we’ll peak around eight metres today with major flood waters that will cause some issues there today.

Moving further eastwards, we’re looking at major flooding continuing and it will for a number of days on the Campapse and the Goulburn rivers. We’ll see the flood waters peak in Echuca and Moama, similar to the 1993 levels.

Shepparton as well looking to peak sometime later today or into tonight. Similar to the levels of 1974. So it’s going a long way back. And there’s a massive amount of water on the Goulburn right now and that all feeds into the Murray River, so we’re concerned for Echuca and Moama in the coming days.

But further upstream, some big issues up towards Swan Hill and even further in the coming days and weeks there. Now, other issues as well. Major flooding on the Lachlan around that area, it looks to be peaking there. And also around the Narrandera area as well. We’ve got major flooding occurring there. Again, should be peaking today or tomorrow.

And further north, we have major flooding continuing on many of the inland areas around Warren and Wee Waa and parts of the Darling and rainfall, more rain coming in the coming days which will only exacerbate the many ongoing flood issues at the moment.

Updated

Reporter Caitlin Cassidy and photographer Mike Bowers are on the ground in Shepparton and filed this report:

Updated

Victorian rivers set to peak as flooding worsens

Here’s the latest report from Australian Associated Press on the flooding:

Several swollen Victorian rivers are predicted to peak as flooding affecting thousands of people in the state’s north worsens.

Residents along several swollen Victorian rivers are bracing for the worst, with record-breaking flooding predicted.

Emergency warnings remain in place for multiple areas, including Shepparton, Murchison, Echuca, Kialla, Mooroopna, Orrvale, Charlton Barnadown and Elmore.

The Goulburn River at Shepparton reached 11.88 metres and was still rising late yesterday, with major flooding expected when it hits its peak today at 12.2m.

That is higher than the 1974 flood level of 12.09m, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Images show buildings in the middle of town surrounded by a vast inland sea of brown muddy water, and residents using sandbags to protect properties.

The Loddon River at Kerang is expected to peak tomorrow and into Wednesday, with levels similar to the January 2011 record-breaking floods.

A warning has also been issued for the Wimmera River, with Horsham residents warned major flooding is possible today and tomorrow.

The Campaspe River at Barnadown, Rochester Town and Echuca had peaked this morning with major flooding occurring – higher than in 2011.

About 9,000 residents are now affected by the flooding, with many cut off in their communities amid the rising waters.

The Victorian State Emergency Service has received more than 4,750 calls for help, including more than 500 flood rescue requests, since Wednesday when heavy rainfall lashed the state.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese said many people were doing it tough across Victoria, NSW and Tasmania:

It’s heartbreaking to think that for many people this is the third or fourth time in 18 months that their lives have been disrupted by a natural disaster of this magnitude.

Emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp said it had been a challenging week with “devastating impacts”:

However, with [more] major flooding expected, it’s vital communities, especially in at-risk locations, listen to the advice of emergency services and stay up to date.

More than 7,500 properties across Shepparton, Mooroopna, Kailla and Echuca could be impacted by the rising waters, according to modelling. But residents will have to wait until the water recedes before the authorities can start impact assessments.

Disaster recovery payments have been made available to residents in 23 local government areas and a 250-bed camp for displaced people will be opened at the former Covid-19 quarantine facility in Mickleham.

But unlike when the centre was a quarantine facility, residents will be free to move around and socialise with each other, and come and go as they please.

Each room comes complete with toiletries and other necessities, and residents will be provided with three meals each day, and snacks and drinks on arrival.

Charities will provide assistance, including items like clothing that families may have had to leave behind or lost during the floods.

About 100 ADF personnel have also been deployed to help with evacuations and sandbagging in the worst-hit areas.

Major flood warnings are also in place for the Broken, Avoca and Loddon rivers, and the Seven and Castle creeks.

Updated

Good morning

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of Victoria’s flood emergency.

Natasha May will be in shortly to guide you through today’s news but, in the meantime, here are the headlines.

Major flooding continues across Victoria, with some rivers hitting their peaks overnight.

Thousands of homes in Shepparton and other regional Victorian communities were expected to be inundated or cut off in the coming days.

About 6,000 properties were without power yesterday and more than 9,000 people had applied for emergency support payments.

About 120 schools and 100 early learning centres are expected to remain closed today, with the education department making plans for students to attend nearby schools where possible.

Increasingly dire forecasts for the global economy will see last-minute downgrades to Australia’s economic figures in next week’s federal budget, with the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warning of “an increasingly perilous path” for world markets and key trading partners.

The principal of a Queensland religious school interrogated students about whether they knew a teacher was living with her boyfriend amid concerns the teacher’s “lifestyle” went against its “biblical moral standards”.

A Brisbane real estate agency urged landlords to consider raising rents by more than 20% – more than double the rate of inflation – as Australia grapples with a worsening rental crisis. The agency claims most tenants “are agreeable” to the rent increases, which Tenants Queensland calls “opportunistic price-gouging”.

The cost-of-living crisis and inadequate welfare payments are fuelling a rise in food insecurity in Australian households, according to a new report. The report estimates about 500,000 households on any given day experience food insecurity.

Updated

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