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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Nino Bucci (now) and Tory Shepherd (earlier)

Worst could be yet to come for flood-hit areas – as it happened

Scott Morrison Josh Frydenberg 2 Pauline Hanson Concetta FierravantiWells Lismore Anthony Albanese SP Australia Peter Hannam
Lismore residents inspect flooded road
Lismore residents inspect a flooded road. Evacuation orders have been issued for towns across northern NSW, with flash flooding expected as heavy rainfall continues Photograph: Dan Peled/Getty Images

What we learned today, Wednesday 30 March

That’s where we’ll leave this blog for today. Thanks for reading. Here are the main stories of the day:

Updated

NSW police have named the woman missing in Lismore as Anita Brakel, and released her image. She was reported to have been trapped in her car in flood waters about 9.50pm on Tuesday, but has not been seen since.

Updated

Ernie Carroll, creator of Hey Hey It’s Saturday's Ossie Ostrich, dies

Ernie Carroll, who was considered a pioneer of television and was best known as the creator of Ossie Ostrich on the program Hey Hey It’s Saturday, has died. He was 92.

In a statement published on the Hey Hey It’s Saturday Facebook page, former host Daryl Somers said:

It is with overwhelming sadness I announce the passing of my beloved friend and mentor Ernie Carroll.

Ernie passed away peacefully early this morning in the presence of his family. He was 92 and died of natural causes in his unit at a Mornington retirement village.

Ernie was a pioneer of television starting back in the 50s, coming from a radio background to GTV9 when television was in its infancy.

It was a voyage of discovery as no-one really knew how television worked. It called upon the many talents of all involved. In Ernie’s case he was a cartoonist, camera operator, sponsor liaison officer, producer, writer, on camera character playing Professor Ratbaggy and, as himself, illustrating and narrating the adventures of Joybelle in the kids shows he also produced out of GTV9 in the 60s. He wrote comedy for the King of variety television, Graham Kennedy, on In Melbourne Tonight.

Of course he was best known for his creation of Oswald Q Ostrich (Ossie), my lovable and nonsensically funny ‘sidekick’ on Hey Hey It’s Saturday for 25 of its 30 year run. A tribute was paid to Ernie on our recent 50th anniversary special.

Daryl Somers, Kylie Minogue and Ossie Ostrich on the set of Hey Hey It’s Saturday in Melbourne, 21 July 2010
Daryl Somers, Kylie Minogue and Ossie Ostrich on the set of Hey Hey It’s Saturday in Melbourne, 21 July 2010. Photograph: KDB/AAP

I am so grateful for Ernie’s early guidance of my career. He auditioned me for the hosting role on Cartoon Corner back in early 1971.

He was a man of few words with a quiet countenance but when he did speak he imparted great wisdom.

I loved him very much and along with my wife Julie send our deepest sympathies to his daughter Lynne, son Bruce, his grandchildren and his partner of almost 50 years, Miffy Marsh. The family have requested privacy at this time.

Updated

No plan to call election in coming days, Morrison says

Scott Morrison says he has no plans to call the federal election in “coming days”, amid speculation the official announcement could be imminent with the budget now in the rearview mirror.

Asked on 6PR radio whether he had “any plans to visit the governor general in coming days” to call the election, Morrison replied curtly “no”.

“Not calling an election by end of the weekend?” host Oliver Peterson persisted.

The PM responded again “no”, adding “we’ve got work to do”.

The prime minister has the power to request the governor general call an election whenever he likes, but election timing laws mean 21 May is the latest viable date, and rules compel at least 33 days between calling a poll and the actual election day.

Scott Morrison in his private courtyard at Parliament House, Canberra
Scott Morrison sells his budget with a round of appearances on breakfast TV in his private courtyard at Parliament House, Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Political watchers inside and outside parliament are now on high alert for the announcement, with some in Labor half-jokingly wondering whether Morrison would call the election some time this week to scupper Anthony Albanese’s budget reply speech on Thursday. Others have floated suggestions that the announcement could come on Sunday or next Tuesday.

At this stage, no election announcement means federal senators will return to Canberra next week for estimates hearings. For a 21 May poll, Morrison could wait until mid-April before calling an election.

Earlier in the day, Morrison had told 2GB that the election “will be in mid-May”.

Updated

The NSW SES has just issued another evacuation order, this time for residents of Ulmarra, a town on the Clarence River just outside Grafton.

The SES urged people to evacuate the “high danger area” via the Pacific Highway, saying that once flood water passes 5.5 metres on the Ulmarra gauge at Ulmarra that roads will begin to close.

The areas affected are: Ulmarra, Tyndale Road, Bostock Road, Somerville Road and Rathgar Lodge.

The orders can be found here.

Updated

All our coverage of the Shane Warne memorial service is over here:

This update on the floods has just dropped from AAP:

River levels in Lismore will reach 12 metres with its levees overtopped as the search for a missing woman trapped in her car continues.

“The key message once again to our community that is a rapidly evolving situation,” flood recovery minister, Steph Cooke, told reporters Wednesday evening.

She said Northern Rivers communities had “really borne the brunt of the weather system” over the past month.

But BoM’s Dean Narramore said “another wet night [is] on the way”.

He warned Wilsons River will peak at 12 metres at Lismore, the devastated epicentre of the relentless floods, on Wednesday night after its levees were breached this afternoon.

Major flooding is expected on numerous rivers including Wilsons, Richmond, Bellinger and Clarence.

Shops inundated by flood water in Lismore
Shops inundated by flood water in Lismore. Photograph: Dan Peled/Getty Images

Deputy SES Commissioner, Daniel Austin, said the service has performed over 55 flood rescues in the last 24 hours.

A search is still under way for a 55-year-old aged-care nurse from Nowra in south Lismore.

She was trapped in her white Holden station wagon in floodwaters from about 10pm on Tuesday.

Cooke told reporters the rapidly worsening weather conditions were to impact 28,000 people.

Renewed flooding hit Lismore, Ballina, Byron, Coraki, Bungawalbin and Woodburn.

Byron Bay residents were surprised with the torrential downpour blanketing the town.

Labor’s spokesman for emergency services, Jihad Dib, said emergency services personnel were doing their best but the government needed to step up.

“The mixed messaging about the river level falling while ... it was rising, only highlights the lack of co-ordination and single point of leadership required in an emergency,” Dib said.

He said it was not good enough that Byron and Lismore residents were still dealing with faulty water gauges and broken warning sirens a month after initial flooding.

Flooded scenes in Jonson Street, Byron Bay
Flooded scenes in Jonson Street, Byron Bay. Photograph: Jason O’Brien/AAP

Updated

AAP have filed this report on a fire at Yallourn, Victoria’s largest coal-fired power plant:

A fire at Victoria’s largest coal-fired power station has decreased the plant’s energy output but authorities say there is still enough to keep the lights on.

Firefighters were called to Yallourn power station in the Latrobe Valley about 6.20am on Wednesday in response to a blaze in one of the coal storage facilities.

The fire has left two of the station’s four generation units out of service.

“We estimate we will be ready to safely return them to service within the coming week,” operator EnergyAustralia said.

While the fire has reduced the station’s generation capacity, the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed there is “sufficient supply to meet forecast demand in Victoria at this stage”.

“We continue to monitor the issue,” an AEMO spokesperson said.

About 40 firefighters spent more than six hours fighting the blaze in the stage 2 coal bunker, with crews controlling it by 1pm.

One worker was treated by paramedics at the scene and was taken to Traralgon hospital due to a reaction to a breathing apparatus. They later returned on site to finish their shift.

EnergyAustralia said Fire Rescue Victoria has handed back control of the site and it will inspect the damage to determine what maintenance and repairs are needed, before launching an investigation into the cause of the blaze.

A community information alert was issued to people who live in surrounding areas, including Moe, Morwell and Yallourn.

Yallourn was damaged during severe floods in June, with a state energy emergency declared over fears the Yallourn mine could flood as cracks formed, placing additional pressure on its walls.

The power station, which supplies up to 22% of Victoria’s energy and 8% of Australia’s, is set to close by mid-2028.

It has been operating for 100 years and is among the nation’s most carbon-intensive power generators.

A state parliament committee is examining the economic impacts of Yallourn’s closure, now planned four years earlier than original estimates.

Updated

There is a picture gallery of the latest flood disaster here:

Ben Doherty has filed his story on the day’s evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case:

My colleagues Anne Davies and Paul Karp have written this explainer on the “full-blown crisis” which is Liberal pre-selection in NSW.

Elliot said it was devastating and traumatising for people to be hit twice by flooding in four weeks, but that the federal government had been far too slow to assist. She said:

At this stage we haven’t heard of any new disaster payments for those people [affected by flooding yesterday].

I would call on the government to put a mechanism in place to access the disaster payments.

Updated

Justine Elliot, the federal Labor MP for Richmond, which takes in some of the regions hardest hit by flooding, has described the “structures” within NSW which respond to floods as a “debacle”.

Elliot told the ABC that she was familiar with command structures because of her background in policing, and it had been difficult to determine who was responsible for assisting those devastated by flooding.

Updated

You can find the full catalogue of weather warnings in NSW from the Bureau of Meteorology at this link.

Updated

A woman who was reported to have possibly gone missing in flood waters at Lismore about 10pm on Tuesday still hasn’t been found. The 55-year-old from Nowra had been working in the town.

Sort of more of the same here but worth reiterating: stay away from downed powerlines and out of flood waters.

The Wilsons, Richmond, Clarence and Orara and Bellingen rivers are all subject to major flood warnings.

The NSW SES is providing an update on the fairly full on weather in the state, which aside from the floods is also subject to thunderstorm and hazardous surf warnings.

Residents around Coffs Harbour and the Bellinger River are bracing for more rain, as wild weather continues to hammer the Mid-North Coast.

There is major flooding occurring along the Bellinger River at both Thora and Bellingen. The Bureau of Meteorology said:

Major flooding is imminent at Repton, and renewed moderate flooding is possible along the Kalang River at Urunga during Wednesday afternoon.

Further rainfall is forecast during the remainder of Wednesday, which may cause further river level rises. This situation is being actively monitored and revised predictions will be provided as necessary.

Along the coast, evacuation warnings are still in place for parts of Urunga CBD, Bellinger Keys and North Bellingen, Yellow Rock, North Macksville, North Bellingen, East Bellingen, Urunga, Newry Island, Lower Macleay and the Bellinger River Tourist Park.

Residents in Coffs Harbour were enjoying a small reprieve from the rain on Wednesday afternoon, with more expected to come later in the day.

Coffs Habour mayor, Paul Amos, said he hoped the main downpour was over:

It hit heavily this morning.

It has subsided over the last few hours and it looks like it is coming back again but I can see blue sky behind it.

He said 56 people in the area were displaced and some communities, including Nana Glen, were cut off.

Our detention basins seem to be working very well and that’s insulating Coffs Harbour against the worst.

Amos said it was unclear at this stage how many properties have been affected by the flooding so far.

Nana Glen resident Wan Carma said all of the main roads out of the village were flooded. He said:

I can’t go anywhere … my house is not affected but I think if this rain continues for another 24 hours, a few houses [in the area] will be.

He said he had tried to get into Coffs Harbour with his wife at 5am but the road was already flooded.

They have enough food to last them but are worried they will be stuck for several days if the rain continues into tomorrow. Carma said:

If the rain stops it will take maybe around 10 hours for the road just to clear but I don’t think it is going to stop ... we’ll just wait and see.

Bellingen mayor, Stephen Allan, said they were still experiencing a strong downpour across the area.

He said they had experienced an “extraordinary” amount of rain on Tuesday and their main concern was damage to roads and bridges across the shire. Allan said:

There has been a lot of inundation of farmland and I think there are some properties in East Bellingen with flood inundation, but nothing too extensive.

Updated

The Australian federal police will set up an incident coordination centre and specialised taskforce to protect the security of parliamentarians and “high-office holders” during the election.

According to a statement from the AFP, the centre will coordinate hundreds of investigators, intelligence officers and protective security specialists, including close personal protection members.

The taskforce (Operation Wilmot) will investigate reports of electoral-related crime, including security threats to parliamentarians and candidates. The AFP said:

The Taskforce will use real-time intelligence to launch immediate investigations across Australia, plus work closely with state and territory law enforcement agencies.

This is the first time the AFP has established a dedicated response and specialised Taskforce to protect parliamentarians and candidates for a Federal election. The Taskforce will be headed by an AFP Commander.

The Taskforce sends a strong message to the community that the AFP is dedicated to protecting democracy, protecting high-office holders and will not hesitate to identify and arrest those who break the law.

Hiding behind a keyboard to issue threats against politicians does not ensure anonymity.

The AFP has world-leading technology to identify individuals who break the law by harassing, menacing or threatening to kill politicians.

The AFP supports political expression and freedom of speech. However, when it leads to disruption, harassment, intimidation, threatening behaviour and damage to property, it can reach the threshold of a criminal offence.

Those who break the law will be charged.

The AFP said that in the past 18 months, three people have been prosecuted for the offence of threatening to cause harm to a commonwealth official, one person was prosecuted for using a postal service to make a threat to kill, and five people were prosecuted for using a carriage service to menace or harass.

Two matters remain under investigation.

Updated

Outgoing Coalition senator Sam McMahon says the death of Kimberley Kitching “shouldn’t become a partisan football”, claiming bad behaviour and internal friction is not “constrained to any one side of politics”.

McMahon, a Country Liberal party senator for the Northern Territory, said:

I think of the premature death of my colleague Kimberley Kitching, and one thing that haunts me is that so easily could have been me.

McMahon lost an internal preselection battle and was dumped from the party’s Senate ticket for the coming election. She quit the CLP and has criticised the party in recent months.

In a valedictory speech on Wednesday, she touched on Kitching’s death and claimed the Coalition had its own issues, saying:

We on this side may laud ourselves over the recent response to bullying and harassment with the Jenkins report, and it was a very appropriate and good response.

We will find ourselves tempted to point to the other side with the attitude of ‘look over there, see what they did’. We should refrain.

Bullying and harassment can still be occurring on all sides of politics.

We need to accept that poor behaviour can be part of our profession and that part needs to be eliminated from our game.

Labor senators Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Kristina Keneally have strongly denied claims in media reporting that they bullied Kitching. McMahon said the reported behaviour “greatly saddens me” adding:

Whether or not it contributed to her death is a matter of speculation, and it will likely never be determined, but that’s really irrelevant.

If it happened, it should not have, and yet it seems it may have, and so it does, over and over again.

This alleged behaviour toward Senator Kitching should not become a partisan football as it is not constrained to any one side of politics. I don’t want this to become a finger pointing or point scoring exercise, I want it to be a learning one. We can honour her memory by not making this a political issue but by fixing it, so politics is a better place, particularly for women.

Updated

Hmmmm...

Thanks for your stellar work today, Tory. In the words of the little girl in the Old El Paso ad, why not both?

Updated

Nino Bucci is going to take over the blog for the afternoon, while I go and either practise some mindfulness and go for a jog, or pour a bottle of shiraz down my throat.

It’s been that kind of week. See you all here again tomorrow!

Updated

North Lismore resident Aiden Ricketts, who rescued 16 people and five dogs in the last floods, was today back out in his tinnie, retrieving two neighbours and a dog from a flooded property after first moving his own household to safety.

Ricketts had only just moved back into his home and was still repairing flood damage. He said:

We didn’t have electricity at first, but we eventually got a single power point connected so we’ve been glamping, effectively, in the house since then.

We were starting to rebuild. I’d even bought a new mattress and a few things like that.

Ricketts had built the house above the one-in-100-year flood standard, but it was inundated on 28 February – this time he hopes it will be spared:

The house sits at 13.3 metres, so it should be sitting just above where it might peak, but we’re just not assuming anything.

Ricketts said he had “given up on expectations” and wasn’t surprised that yesterday’s weather forecasts were wrong, wondering if climate change is confounding scientific predictions. He said:

Things aren’t happening in a way that they’re familiar to anymore … I think there’s a need for a new form of predictive modelling. We’re almost being told what’s happening as it’s happening, which is not all helpful.

Ricketts also worked on repairs to another flood damaged house in South Lismore last week, but today the water went over the floors:

We worked every single day last week relining the walls of that place ...

We tore off all the old wet plaster and put on a new lining, but water’s certainly already over the floors.

Ricketts said although today’s flood water didn’t peak as high as the last flood, the event was in many ways more traumatic:

I’ve been calling this a rebound flood … it didn’t really matter what figure, what number, what level the water got to.

The real impact in the second flood is psychological, in terms of it really hitting people who’ve sort of used up their adrenaline or their optimism or their family connections, whatever resources people were using to deal with what happened a month ago.

He said people are still suffering from the aftermath of the last flood:

Most people didn’t have electricity. Most people haven’t moved into their homes. You know, a lot of homes didn’t even have wall lining anymore. So, we were still living in that.

To have it come back at all, even as a threat, was just devastating for people and what happened last night was incredible.

Ricketts said when the evacuation order was lifted from Lismore’s CBD late yesterday afternoon, locals thought the threat had been ‘a false alarm’:

And then just when we were all settling down, and it started to get dark, all of a sudden it just came back with a vengeance. It raged all night. We didn’t get any sleep at all because we were glued to the screen, watching the radar and making plans. We were up from 3.30am, moving everything we had into the ceiling and evacuating at dawn.

Updated

Interesting. And there was this in the budget:

The government will provide $29.7m over 4 years from 2022-23 (including $2.7m in operating funding) and $0.8 million per year ongoing to purchase and maintain security assets at the Australian parliament house, including enhancements to the CCTV network, upgraded screening equipment and an expanded parliamentary security operations room.

The Senate is currently hearing valedictories from Sam McMahon and then Kim Carr.

The Senate has agreed to vary its business to deal with a whopping great list of legislation today.

The list is:

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Cyclone and Flood Damage Reinsurance Pool) Bill 2022
  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Support Other Measures) Bill 2022
  • Excise Tariff Amendment (Cost of Living Support) Bill 2022
  • Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Bill 2021
  • Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Pension Loans Scheme Enhancements) Bill 2021
  • Social Security Amendment (Improved Child to Adult Transfer for Carer Payment and Carer Allowance) Bill 2022
  • National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2021
  • Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill 2022
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021
  • Road Vehicle Standards (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022
  • Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2021
  • Offshore Petroleum (Laminaria and Corallina Decommissioning Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2021 Treasury Laws Amendment (Laminaria and Corallina Decommissioning Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2021
  • Criminal Code Amendment (Firearms Trafficking) Bill 2022
  • Mitochondrial Donation Law Reform (Maeve’s Law) Bill 2021.

If they’re not dealt with in two hours, they’ll all be put to a vote one after the other.

That’s quite a pre-election office cleanout.

The Senate returns for estimates committee hearings on Thursday, Friday and into next week – although Scott Morrison may call the election first.

Updated

NT records 503 new Covid cases, one death

A Darwin woman has died of Covid. The Northern Territory has recorded 503 new cases. Fourteen people are in hospital, and two in intensive care.

Updated

From Lorena Allam:

I just spoke to a man named Rick who had to leave his holiday house on Shirley Street in Byron Bay after flood waters started rising through the floorboards this morning.

It’s the second house in the last few weeks he’s had damaged by floodwaters after his family home in Alexandra Headland on the Sunshine Coast was inundated in February.

He drove down to Byron last night to meet a painter today, planning to fix the mould in his Byron house. He had to leave his car in the driveway as floodwaters rose around it and escape via higher ground. He said:

They say these are 1-in-1,000-year floods, but this is the second in a month so that label doesn’t make much sense to me.

Rick says his friends have started calling him “the rain man” after his run of bad luck.

Updated

The veterans’ affairs funding brawl (involving Andrew Gee’s weekend threat to quit the frontbench) has also come up in Senate question time.

Labor’s Kristina Keneally asked Marise Payne:

Why does it take a minister speaking up publicly and threatening to quit for Mr Morrison to take responsibility, and where is this $96m?

Payne said the $22.8m listed in the budget papers was an “initial” measure and “it will be followed by a further investment” to continue to improve processing of claims:

I absolutely reject the proposition put by Senator Keneally in her question.

Updated

Labor’s Milton Dick (the member for Oxley) asks about constituents of his who lost everything to the floods, and why they get $2,000 less than someone in NSW. Is it because they’re in Queensland? (Payments vary depending on local government area).

Scott Morrison says floods are of differing intensities, and the payments were consistent with disaster recovery times. In addition to the payments and the ADF’s support, the federal government is also delivering support in conjunction with the Queensland government, he says.

Updated

Search for woman believed missing in Lismore floods

A woman is believed to be missing in the latest floods in Lismore, after water breached the regional city’s levee for the second time in weeks, AAP reports.

The Wilsons River peaked above 10.65 metres on Wednesday, with flood waters and mud spilling into the city centre.

A search operation is under way after emergency services were told a woman had become trapped in her vehicle in water at Monaltrie, south of Lismore, about 9.50pm on Tuesday.

Police and the New South Wales SES are searching for the woman and her white Holden Captiva station wagon.

Anybody with information is urged to contact police.

Dozens of people have been rescued in the past 24 hours, many of whom were attempting to drive through flood waters, the SES acting commissioner, Daniel Austin, said on Wednesday.

Updated

Labor’s Shayne Neumann is asking where, exactly, in the budget is the $96m promised to clear a backlog of veterans’ claims.

The veterans’ affairs minister, Andrew Gee, who had threatened to quit cabinet if that backlog wasn’t cleared, scoffs at the question. He says:

It’s not about you, it’s not about me, it’s not about the critics, it’s about the veterans out there.

Gee says $96m has been secured to clear up that backlog but only $22.8m is actually in the budget. “The budget had already gone to the printers,” Gee says.

A quick reminder from Daniel Hurst: the budget includes a specific line item of $22.8m over two years from 2022-23 “for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to further boost its processing of claims for rehabilitation, compensation and income support submitted by veterans and their dependants”.

Updated

Labor’s Chris Bowen quotes someone who said the floods are a “remake” of the bushfires and asks Morrison why he “always does too little too late”.

Morrison says there are thousands of Australian Defence Force members helping victims in New South Wales and says the government is giving cash payments to those who need it. “Almost a billion dollars” has gone to those who need it in Queensland, he says.

We are going to continue to stand by the people of the northern rivers, south-east Queensland and the Hawkesbury.

[The ADF] move fast to get in there and help people and ensure they are carrying people to safety.

He says he has spent time there:

I wasn’t going to put cameras in people’s faces ... I sat with them in their homes, in their farms ... in their businesses and listened carefully to the sort of support they needed.

Updated

Labor’s Terri Butler is asking about a family in her electorate, Griffith. One member of the family was granted flood money, the others weren’t.

Morrison says he hasn’t had a chance to look at the specific case, but he will.

Updated

The rain has stopped for now in Byron Bay and police and rescue vehicles are managing road closures.

The water levels appear to be easing in the centre of town around Lawson and Jonson streets and many shops on a slightly higher elevation have been spared water inflows with sandbags.

Flooding in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
Flooding in Byron Bay, New South Wales. Photograph: Shelley Hepworth/The Guardian
Flooding in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia
A break in the rain in Byron Bay has allowed people to assess some of the flood-damage. Photograph: Shelley Hepworth/The Guardian

Updated

Labor’s Mark Dreyfus asks about the $1tn gross debt in the budget and asks if that’s why there’s no money for a federal anti-corruption commission this year or next.

Paul Fletcher, for the attorney-general, says the government has done “detailed, thorough and vigorous work” on a commission, and has “very detailed legislation ready to introduce”.

They’ll introduce it if Labor says they’ll back it, Fletcher says. (The government has an exposure draft that it has never introduced, as it says it won’t unless Labor backs it, which is very wonky logic.)

Updated

Pauline Hanson claims she’s been bullied by the prime minister

Late last night, we brought you news that the Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells unloaded on Scott Morrison in last night’s Senate adjournment debate.

Just before question time, Pauline Hanson backed-up Fierravanti-Wells. She also claimed the prime minister had bullied her.

Hanson said the prime minister had tried to dismiss the Liberal senator’s contribution as a broadside from a “scorned woman”.

“Well, I can say it’s not,” Hanson said:

It’s from a woman who’s given a lot to this parliament, who’s represented the people of New South Wales to the best of her ability.

It’s about talking about a prime minister who is not in touch with the Liberal party and not in touch with the people of this nation – who has lost the values of conservatism.

This is not a prime minister for the people. He’s also – he’s a bully! And I back the senator up completely with that. He’s a bully because I have experienced it myself. He’s a man where you do it my way or there’s no way, and it’s a shame.

Updated

Labor’s Andrew Leigh asks if any prime minister has ever taken a “worse set of debt and deficit figures to an election”.

Morrison says: “We’ve just had the biggest rebound in a budget in 70 years and I haven’t seen a prime minister do that in a very long time”.

He then launches into Albanese again, and Labor’s Mark Butler calls a point of order, saying it was a “very tight question” that didn’t allow Morrison to talk about “alternative policies”. The speaker disagrees and says the question invited a broad response.

All of which is sort of housekeeping, but what it means is we now have more of Morrison shouting. He says Labor “support things just as much as they oppose things”, and you have to concede that is true.

Updated

Labor MP Catherine King has asked about that Barnaby Joyce tweet I posted earlier. Joyce said:

I have a near religious conviction that we have to make a strong nation even stronger, as quickly as possible. What we see, this is not a movie, not a bad dream. This is the reality now. This budget is about saying where we make money we will make more, as much as we can.

I don’t know what that means, but treasurer Josh Frydenberg grasps the opportunity to deliver his rehearsed speech on the importance of regional development.

Updated

Ah, blessed relief from dixers and doozies, here’s independent MP Bob Katter, who might do both at the same time. I have to admit I didn’t quite catch everything he said, but he is very enthusiastic about a new dam (details below).

The Nationals leader, Barnaby Joyce, did not give Katter a dam, but gives Labor a kick.

(There is a lot of shouting, I concede I did this post once over lightly.)

Updated

Chalmers is up again talking about a mysterious $3bn in cuts he says are in the budget.

Scott Morrison is blustering along and belligerently trying to explain it, but Guardian reporter Paul Karp has drawn my attention to this explanation from the finance minister, Simon Birmingham:

What they’re peddling around is a reduction in a budget line of decisions taken but not yet announced.

That’s because those were things that we budgeted for back in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook that were decisions which we have subsequently announced. So they move from being in the decisions taken but not being announced budget line to actually being reflected in decisions such as, for example, we made provisions for the $1.3bn women’s safety package that we knew we were going to invest in.

We were finalising the content and the details of that. So we’ve provisioned for it in the responsible way to do, it now shifts from that budget line to the other one.

Updated

Western Australia records 9,754 Covid cases and three deaths

Western Australia has reported three deaths from Covid, but says they were “historical”. The state has recorded 9,754 new cases, with 208 people in hospital and six in intensive care.

Updated

Labor finance spokesman, Jim Chalmers, is also asking about wage rises – he says their previous predictions have been wrong.

Josh Frydenberg says Labor has plans for higher taxes (although he and Morrison also say we don’t know Labor’s plans yet). Unemployment is low, he says:

The reality is, the best way to drive down unemployment is to invest in the programs we announced in last night’s budget.

That’ll drive up wages, he says.

Updated

Question time begins

Question time. The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, is up first asking if the prime minister, Scott Morrison, will “admit his latest budget shows that the average Australian worker will be $1,355 worse off this year”. Morrison says:

I can confirm that in the budget year and across the forward estimates real wages are forecast to increase.

I can confirm that we will hear this speech about low unemployment and strong economic performance repeated ten million times over the next hour, followed by demands that Labor releases its plan. (Which it will do, as is tradition, tomorrow night).

Updated

The US and Australia have issued a joint statement voicing opposition to “the use of trade-related economic coercion to pressure or influence the legitimate decision-making of sovereign governments”.

Concerns about China appear to be a key focus of discussion between the Australian trade minister, Dan Tehan, and his US counterpart.

Tehan has been in Washington for talks with the US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai.

The pair have issued a joint statement saying they “expressed their shared commitment to building a free, fair, open, interconnected, resilient, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.

Here are the key portions of the statement that appear to be aimed at China:

Ambassador Tai and minister Tehan discussed their shared concerns over the use of coercive trade actions and non-market-oriented policies and practices and affirmed their commitment to effectively deter and address these harmful policies and practices, which threaten the livelihoods of our citizens, harm our workers and businesses and undermine the rules-based multilateral trading system. They committed to working together to seek support from other interested partners to tackle these practices head on.

The ministers opposed the use of trade-related economic coercion to pressure or influence the legitimate decision-making of sovereign governments. They also expressed serious concern over the use of non-market policies and practices, including: industrial policies and practices that promote excess capacity; pervasive subsidisation; discriminatory and anti-competitive activities of state-owned or state-controlled enterprises; the arbitrary or unjustifiable application of regulations; forced technology transfer; state-sponsored theft of trade secrets; government interference with or direction of commercial decision-making; and insufficient regulatory and market transparency.

The statement said Tehan and Tai committed to working together in the World Trade Organization “to continue to address geostrategic and economic challenges currently facing the international community”.

They cited “the ongoing need to maintain a strong stance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. They called for WTO reform. Tai and Tehan also discussed the US plans for “a high ambition Indo-Pacific economic framework that strengthens economic cooperation and reflects the shared realities of our new economy”.

(The US, under Donald Trump, pulled out of the big regional trade deal now known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.)

Updated

I for one had been waiting on yellow crazy ant budget news.

Five people have been rescued as flooding continues in Queensland, AAP reports.

Five people have been rescued from flood waters in southern Queensland with the premier saying rain that triggered the state’s fourth deadly flood in four months is easing.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said all five people had been rescued from cars in flood waters in the darling downs region on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

“This morning a rescue was completed west of Dalby, crews were on site when a man was stranded on his car roof,” she told parliament. “I’m advised that he has since been rescued, which is great news.”

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Services rescued another three people from a car caught in flood waters near Cecil Plains and a farmer at Condamine Plains.

QFES also responded to 128 calls for help in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, while 200 roads and four schools are shut due to flooding.

Two men have died in the current floods.

Updated

Liberal MP Andrew Laming said he would refuse to pay back travel expenses after a scathing report from the independent parliamentary watchdog found he wrongly billed taxpayers more than $8,000 and at times “obfuscated, provided inconsistent answers or ignored [questions]” during its investigation.

The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (Ipea) began investigating Laming’s claims for travel expenses in 2020 after a Guardian Australia series on MPs’ expense claims.

The audit examined Laming’s travel in a single month and found he had wrongly claimed 21 expenses – all relating to his or his family’s travel between Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane in June 2019 – totalling $8,288.04 and told him to pay back $10,360, including a 25% loading.

Ipea’s finding will now trigger a payment recovery process, and parliamentarians generally either repay excess payments in full or offset it against future claims.

Late on Tuesday, Laming told the Guardian he disputed “every syllable” of the report and described the investigation as a “baseless and subjective witch-hunt”.

You can read more on that story here:

Updated

National Covid-19 update

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 31 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 1,139
  • In hospital: 48 (with 5 people in ICU)

NSW

  • Deaths: 15
  • Cases: 25,235
  • In hospital: 1,301 (with 46 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

  • Deaths: 1
  • Cases: 503
  • In hospital: 14 (with 2 people in ICU)

Queensland

  • Deaths: 5
  • Cases: 10,626
  • In hospital: 393 (with 15 people in ICU)

Tasmania

  • Deaths: 0
  • Cases: 2,472
  • In hospital: 2

Victoria

  • Deaths: 7
  • Cases: 11,749
  • In hospital: 280 (with 18 people in ICU)

Western Australia

  • Deaths: 3
  • Cases: 9,754
  • In hospital: 208 (with 6 people in ICU)

Updated

Frydenberg is asked about the five women who have been killed by intimate partners this year, his spending on women’s safety and how he reconciles that with cuts to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

He says money in the budget will go towards ensuring women’s safety:

The Coalition has laid out an extremely strong plan in our women’s budget statement on both women’s health, women’s economic security and women’s safety.

Last year’s budget, as you know, had $1bn plus for women’s safety, focusing on front-line services, safe houses, more legal assistance, grants to help families, particularly women and children. We went even further in last night’s budget. So we have actually been seeking to invest more in the areas that really count.

Updated

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is asked about his government’s economic performance, and the fact it’s not reflected in the polls. He says:

It wouldn’t be inappropriate for me to remind you of what happened back in 2019. We were written off across the board in the media and the obituary was written and people said it was not a question of who would win, but by how much? History told a very different story. And our focus has always been to get on with the job.

Frydenberg has responded to a question about Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells’ criticism of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, by repeating the line that she’s disappointed at not getting a plum spot on the election ticket, that 500 people voted and decided she shouldn’t get it, and that he disagreed with the assessment of Morrison.

He’s also asked about budget repair, and says the debt reflects the challenges of the pandemic, and that it will be stabilised and reduced.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg says inflation will come down again

Sarah Martin’s turn:

You happily told us that inflation would be a quarter of a percentage point higher without the fuel excise cut.

Can you tell us how much lower inflation would be over this year and next without the extra $5.6bn of stimulus put into the economy through [Covid support payments], and can you tell us what advice you receive from the RBA about what effect that might have on interest rates?

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says everything was modelled, inflation will come down again, and that the stimulus package wasn’t just half a percentage point of the GDP. He says:

These were very temporary, targeted, responsible measures. This was designed to help people at a time that they needed it most. It’s built on what we had already announced.

Updated

Frydenberg is again being grilled about being the biggest spending treasurer in history. But he’s flipping it around to attack Labor leader Anthony Albanese (Labor will deliver its budget reply tomorrow night). Frydenberg says:

Show us the plan. We showed you ours.

(Ew.)

Western Australia is set to reveal a surplus. Back in black! That’s WA, the state that got a boost of GST at the expense of other states.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says WA is flourishing because it didn’t have lockdowns, while the federal government gave a disproportionate amount of Covid support to Victoria.

The high iron ore price is also giving WA a lift, he says.

Updated

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, asked how he went from the treasurer that was going to end debt and deficit to the one that is overseeing gross debt approaching $1bn, says it was Covid what done it:

I accept we are spending more than our predecessors on the NDIS, aged care and defence, but I put it to you, what was the alternative? And now we have taken those steps and are seeing a repairing of the economy. It has a long way to go but we are doing it without increasing taxes.

There’s another question on one of the “temporary” measures in the budget – the tax offsets for low and medium income earners. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is asked if removing those offsets effectively gives those people a tax increase when it’s lifted. He says:

The answer is a very clear no. When it was first introduced it was part of a plan to merge with what is our present tax reduction plan. We then only extended it because we were in the Covid crisis as a fiscal stimulus.

People will still be better off under the Coalition, he says.

Updated

Frydenberg says he’s been very clear – the halving of the petrol excise will only be in place for six months (meaning whoever is in charge in September will have to decide whether to add that 22 cents a litre back on). He says:

The reason we took this step is because the cost of living pressures are real. Fuel prices are particularly high, and treasury have forecast that the price of a barrel of oil will come down to $100 ... by the end of the September period.

Updated

We’re in to the questions now. Host Laura Tingle gets the first one and asks about that defence spending, and spending stabilising that 26% of GDP. That doesn’t include possible increased spending in health, and so on ... there is a “massive shortfall” between what is needed and the revenue needed to pay for them. Tingle asks:

Why aren’t we having a discussion in this pre-election budget about what we will have to give? Is it really possible to think you can cut spending significantly when we have an ageing population, or should you be honest with people and say that the tax take will have to eventually rise to cover this shortfall?

Frydenberg says the Coalition would “grow the pie”. He says:

Our focus has been on growing the economy, growing the pie so that those deficits reduce as a share of GDP.

What we have seen in the budget last night is that the deficits more than halve over the period of the forward estimates, and then more than half again by the end of the medium term, but you are right.

At the end of the medium term, there is still a 0.7% gap between the receipts and the payments. Our focus to meet that gap over the coming period is going to be about growing that pie.

Updated

Hm.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has finished his dot point delivery of the budget highlights and is getting stuck into Russia. He says what Russia is doing in Ukraine is “not just challenging the international rules based order, but will substantially change the trajectory of globalisation”. He says:

The stakes are high. Strategic competition is on the rise. Economic coercion is more pronounced. Critical supply chains are under pressure. Today, national security and economic security are intrinsically linked.

All of which, of course, is a natural jump off point to talk about the budget’s defence promises. Daniel Hurst has this covered:

Oh dear.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is running through the budget highlights again – if you missed anything, you can catch up here.

Liberal party preselections in NSW could go to high court

The saga of Liberal party preselections in NSW could be heading to the high court, after counsel for the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the federal Liberal party, indicated that it was seeking to have the highest court rule on its takeover of the branch.

At an urgent hearing this morning, Justice John Basten of the NSW supreme court said he did not think the supreme court should “wash its hands of the case, which challenges the actions of the federal division in taking over three preselections”.

He said the case could be heard by the court of appeal on Thursday or Friday and would advise the parties at 2pm of which day.

Matthew Camenzuli, a member of the NSW state executive, is seeking to challenge the brief takeover of the branch by the federal executive and by a three-person committee comprised of Morrison, the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, and former Liberal president Chris McDiven.

During that three-day takeover, the trio confirmed three sitting members – Sussan Ley, Alex Hawke and Trent Zimmerman as the candidates, so they could run again.

The committee has now taken over the branch again to appoint other candidates into several winnable seats including Hughes, Warringah and Parramatta, instead of holding branch plebiscites as the NSW branch rules specify.

More developments are expected today.

Updated

The treasurer is talking about how Australia faced its “biggest economic shock since the Great Depression” when the pandemic hit. He’s outlining the horror of that time in order to draw attention to his budgetary good news, such as the fact the bottom line is $100bn better off than expected, and the expectation that unemployment will drop to 3.75%.

Frydenberg says he’ll make four key points. Surprisingly, he is quite succinct:

First, how far our economy has, over the last two years, avoiding the economic abyss.

Second, how last night’s budget banks the dividend of a stronger economy with a material improvement to the budget bottom line.

Third, how our plan delivers cost of living relief now, and long-term investments in skills, small business, manufacturing, infrastructure, the regions, and the digital economy to create even more jobs.

Fourth, how we are investing more in national security and defence, as the global threats to Australia and the world increase.

Updated

Frydenberg is talking about Australia remaining resilient and strong in the face of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and natural disasters.

He’s moved quite quickly to put the boot into the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, accusing him of “trying to sneak into government”. And now he’s started the shopping list of the Morrison government’s achievements – JobKeeper, closing the borders (“which saw Australia avoid the makeshift morgues of Central Park in New York”), and the “responsible” tapering of economic support.

Updated

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is just starting the traditional post-budget National Press Club speech. I’ll be surprised if there’s much new in the speech, but the questions (after journalists have had some time to digest the budget and get reactions) should be good (even if the answers aren’t).

The government Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, has just moved an hours motion to ensure certain bills are considered today – effectively crunching them through on the last normal Senate sitting day before the election.

Significantly, the list of bills includes the firearms bill introducing mandatory minimum sentences that Labor helped the government pass in the lower house – but it does not include the strengthening character test (visa cancellation) bill, which NGOs feared the government would also attempt to rush through.

Senators Jacqui Lambie and Greens Nick McKim objected to the proposal. It appears the procedural move has failed, and we’re back on to regular business.


The list of bills the government wanted through were:

  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Cyclone and Flood Damage Reinsurance Pool) Bill 2022.
  • Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill 2022.
  • Road Vehicle Standards (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022.
  • Australian Research Council Amendment Bill 2021.
  • Criminal Code Amendment (Firearms Trafficking) Bill 2022.
  • Treasury Laws Amendment (Cost of Living Support Other Measures) Bill 2022.
  • Excise Tariff Amendment (Cost of Living Support) Bill 2022.
  • Social Security Legislation Amendment (Streamlined Participation Requirements and Other Measures) Bill 2021.
  • Social Services and Other Legislation Amendment (Pension Loans Scheme Enhancements) Bill 2021.
  • Social Security Amendment (Improved Child to Adult Transfer for Carer Payment and Carer Allowance) Bill 2022.
  • National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No. 1) Bill 2021.
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021.
  • Offshore Petroleum (Laminaria and Corallina Decommissioning Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2021 Treasury Laws Amendment (Laminaria and Corallina Decommissioning Cost Recovery Levy) Bill 2021.
  • Road Vehicle Standards (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022.

Updated

Here’s some footage of Byron Bay’s main street which is under water after flash flooding:

Updated

Queensland records 10,626 Covid cases and five deaths

Five people have died with Covid in Queensland, which has recorded 10,626 new cases. There are 393 people in hospital, with 15 in intensive care.

Updated

The body of a giant leatherback turtle has washed ashore on the NSW central coast – most likely killed by pollution linked to the state’s severe flooding, according to officials at Australian Seabird and Turtle Rescue.

The remains of a giant leatherback turtle, which washed ashore at Avoca Beach on NSW central coast
The remains of a giant leatherback turtle, which washed ashore at Avoca Beach on the NSW central coast. It was most likely killed by pollution from the recent flooding. Photograph: Graham Russell/The Guardian

The animal – estimated to be an adult at 30 years old and more than 1.8 metres long – washed up between the flags at Avoca Beach on Wednesday morning.

The body of another leatherback washed ashore a little further north at Birdie Beach earlier in the week. The leatherback is considered endangered in NSW.

The body is to be removed and buried.

Updated

For what it’s worth, yesterday I resisted writing about how sage it was to give ASD more staff, and therefore more thyme to keep the baddies at bay:

This story from Luke Henriques-Gomes is both infuriating and important:

There are some things you just don’t want to get lost in the budget cacophony:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address Australian parliament

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will give an address to federal parliament on Thursday night, the government has confirmed.

There had been talk for a few weeks about if and when this would happen, after Zelenskiy made similar speeches to politicians in Britain and the United States (among others), but it’s now been locked for 5.30pm tomorrow.

A motion just passed through the House of Representatives confirmed parliament will be suspended at 5.15pm, before Zelenskiy gives his address soon after.

Prime minister Scott Morrison and the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, will give “welcoming remarks”, with MPs and senators invited to hear the Ukrainian president’s speech.

It being budget week, and a Thursday, the timing means Zelenskiy’s speech will be followed soon after by Albanese’s budget reply – which is traditionally slated for 7.30pm on the last sitting day of the week.

Updated

Updated

While the focus is obviously on the flood situation in northern NSW, it’s worth remembering that most of eastern Australia’s had a wet start to 2022.

For Sydney, March has also been a record for rainfall in March.

(By an odd quirk, the month for rainfall runs out at 9am on the last day for each month. More showers are expected today, and so that tally will probably tick up by a few millimetres at least.)

The extra rain around Sydney, meanwhile, has prompted Warragamba Dam – which holds about 80% of the city’s total storage capacity – to resume spilling.

The Bureau of Meteorology has a minor flood warning out for the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, downstream of the dam, too.

Meanwhile, up north, the SES has ordered people in North Bellingen to evacuate, and initially told residents the evacuation centre to head to was at Bellingen high school.

Unfortunately, the town is cut in two, so people can’t get to South Bellingen.

Luckily there are alternative evacuation sites on the north side, such as the Dawn Song Childcare Centre.

“We are all cut off from the next towns,” one resident tells us. “The roads leading out are cut ... Noah’s Ark stuff.”

And as a reminder of the flood toll at Lismore, where the levee has again been overtopped by the Wilsons River today. Essential Energy has had crews there for four weeks since the first bout of big floods.

They had to pull work teams out ahead of today’s return of floods. Even after all that work, 879 customers remained without power across Lismore due to damage to the electricity network. That was as of yesterday afternoon.

No doubt they’ll have more work waiting for them when they return.

Updated

The NSW SES acting commissioner, Daniel Austin, defended the decision taken by the SES to remove the evacuation order for Lismore yesterday before reinstating it.

He said some things might have been different “if we had a crystal ball”:

Yesterday afternoon, based on the conditions that we saw, we did release the evacuation order for Lismore, based on the local consultation that we undertook and also the advice on the weather conditions that were coming.

At that point in time, that advice was the right advice to enable the community to try to restore and work through its recovery process.

He said the situation then changed.

Some hours later, we then saw a significant thunderstorm form over the Lismore area, which led to that extreme flash flooding event.

The community reacted well through the evening to start to respond.

Austin said the situation developed “exceptionally quickly”.

If we had a crystal ball, then you may make different decisions:

The reality is you make your decisions based on the information that you have at the time, and the information that we have at the time was that the rivers were falling, and that the conditions that we expected were no longer going to present.

Updated

The restaurants along Byron Bay’s main street were bustling last night, despite relentless rain that has soaked the town over the past few days. Less than 12 hours later, the same streets were under water, with the town awaking to flooding along Lawson and Jonson streets in the town centre.

This morning, people huddled in cafes that were spared from the water, assessing the damage, with cafes, fashion boutiques, banks and chemists inundated. Supermarket shelves were bare of bread and other essentials as people prepared to bunker down. The rain is expected to ease today; however, the water will take time to recede.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Meteorology said a small but intense low pressure system caused intense thunderstorms overnight. He warned rivers would continue to rise in the Northern Rivers area as the water moved through the system:

If you live on or near any rivers, creeks and streams, please stay up-to-date with the latest forecasts and warnings and listen to all advice from emergency services.

‘Worst fears realised’ in northern NSW flooding

Residents in Northern NSW are being warned that flooding could continue on and off for the coming months. The acting premier, Paul Toole, said it was a difficult time for all affected residents and urged them to keep listening to emergency services and volunteers.

He said:

If you are travelling in and around those areas, stay out of flood waters. Do not risk it. Do not put your life at risk and then do not put the lives of emergency services and volunteers lives at risk as well.

We are still expecting a very wet period over the coming months. We may [have this] situation come back again in [a] week’s time. April is expected to be quite wet in many parts of the state.


The emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, said the rainfall overnight saw “our worst fears” realised with flash flooding and rising rivers. Cooke thanked volunteers:

Everyone is pulling together at this time, doing our very best to keep our community safe and I know the volunteers are very fatigued. This has been an ongoing campaign now for many weeks. We’re very, very grateful.

She said work was being done to restore power to areas where lines had come down as soon as possible.

Updated

Tasmania records 2,472 Covid cases

Tasmania has recorded 2,472 new Covid cases. Twenty-two people are in hospital (10 of them are being treated specifically for Covid, 12 for unrelated conditions).

Updated

It is going to be a fascinating final day of parliament ...

Updated

This is quite the chart:

Updated

Byron Bay residents are being told to avoid the CBD, with flooding causing the closure of the Byron resource recovery centre at Myocum.

An evacuation centre has opened at the Cavanbah Centre sporting complex. A statement from the Byron Shire Council read:

Our staff are responding to situations as fast as they can but many have been impacted by the weather as well.

Please avoid flooded areas around the Byron Bay CBD. It’s not the time to be going for a drive to have a look at things.

Mike Bowers has been out and about this post-budget morning:

NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as the Senate resumes sitting this morning in Parliament House, Canberra.
NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as the Senate resumes sitting this morning in Parliament House, Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Prime minister Scott Morrison sells his budget with a round of appearances on breakfast TV in his private courtyard in Parliament House, Canberra.
Prime minister Scott Morrison sells his budget with a round of appearances on breakfast TV in his private courtyard in Parliament House, Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Prime minister Scott Morrison goes back to his office as the Treasurer Josh Frydenberg sells their budget with a round of appearances on breakfast TV in the PM’s private courtyard in Parliament House, Canberra.
Scott Morrison goes back to his office as the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, sells their budget. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The images coming out of Lismore are absolutely devastating. The river has reached major flooding levels, the levee is overtopping and caravans – essential housing for those who lost their homes in last month’s floods – are floating away.

Updated

SES: Lismore levee overtopping 'imminent'

The SES says the levee is about to be overtopped in Lismore. The flood sirens are broken.

Some photos of the flooded streets of Byron Bay.

Man charged over alleged attack on the home of Sydney activist Paddy Gibson

A man has been charged for allegedly attacking the home of Black Lives Matter activist Paddy Gibson.

Police say they were called to a home in Sydney’s south in December following reports three men had demanded to speak to the occupant and smashed windows. Gibson and his partner were in their home at the time of the alleged incident.

On Tuesday, NSW police charged a 30-year-old man in relation to the alleged attack. A spokesperson confirmed the man was charged with affray, stalking or intimidating another person with the intention of causing the other person to fear physical or mental harm, and possessing a prohibited weapon.

The NSW police spokesperson said the man’s house at Greenwell Point, on the NSW south coast, was searched, and several pairs of nunchucks were seized. He was given conditional bail to appear in Nowra local court next month.

Gibson is an activist with the Solidarity socialist movement and a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney. He said:

It’s good to see this arrest ... we are happy with the ongoing police investigation and don’t want to say anything that would compromise that.

Gibson believed police had taken the matter seriously, despite what he says was a delay in responding on the night of the alleged attack which meant neighbours had to come to his aid. He said:

We were really concerned on the night of the attack with the poor police response. It took more than 20 minutes from our emergency phone call that our front door was being smashed in for police to arrive.

Since then, we do feel that the police have been taking this seriously and we just hope there’s a speedy resolution. There was more than one person involved in this attack and hopefully the arrest today leads to others being charged.

Updated

Lismore residents have evacuated as homes flood for the second time in a month

Belinda Walker and her husband, Mick, are sitting in a car on high ground on the edge of Lismore, having again left their South Lismore property due to flooding.

“There is water over the roads everywhere,” Walker said. The couple lost both their cars in the 28 February floods.

We’ve sourced a tiny little Barina that we use to drive around in, and we can’t drive through flood waters, so we’re sitting up in the car and from here we can watch the river as it rises, and we can get up higher if needed.

Walker and her husband were rescued from the roof of their inundated property last month. The couple lost most of their possession and have since been camping underneath the house, while they rebuild their lives.

The only reason we’ve opted to stay in our car instead of in our house is because it’s causing too much trauma for our children, one who was also in the floods,

The children are more confident about where we are now.

Walker says she doubts they would be able to reach an evacuation centre through flooded roads, and she is prepared to wait it out in the car. She said they moved their few possessions to higher ground before leaving the house.

We’ve moved it all upstairs and we tried to put things wherever we could on nails up in the roof cavity. We put bags up. We want to save the little we have, but it’s really just a matter now of hoping and praying.

Walker said evacuating twice in just over a month was devastating.

We are absolutely lost. Most of us had just been going, going and going. We had nothing left and now we are going through this, and it’s like I tell me myself, ‘Just breathe, it’s going to be OK’.

We are all totally exhausted in every way shape and form, but I refuse to give up. It’s my home and I’m going to go back there.

Updated

Levee overtops in Lismore CBD

That low off the NSW coast is lingering a bit longer than forecast, which is why Wednesday is likely to be wetter than predicted by meteorologists only a day ago.

For a range of towns, that’s bad news. Lismore, of course, copped some of the worst flooding at the start of March, and the Wilsons River has again topped the town’s levee.

And it’s still rising:

Towns like Bellingen are also facing major flooding this morning:

But new areas will face threats today and tomorrow, including Grafton - which happens to be where the NSW SES has one of its main bases:

Keeping a track of what’s going on, weather-wise, hasn’t been helped by the damage done to some monitoring equipment, including it seems Lismore’s main site.

Updated

Labor leader Anthony Albanese addressed reporters outside Parliament House a short time ago, and said the federal budget “has all the sincerity of a fake tan”.

But he says Labor will back it anyway, because “of course we won’t stand in the way of cost of living measures”.

Albanese went on to say that Labor’s cost of living policies would bring “permanent improvements in people’s living standards”.

But what this government has is one-off payments. They may as well have stapled cash to people’s how to votes when they hand them out in May.

Updated

This is not a drill:

Updated

Updated

Scott Morrison has dismissed as “rubbish” the claim by the Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells in parliament that he once made “racial comments” during his initial preselection bid to enter politics.

During an interview with 2GB this morning, the prime minister was asked about Fierravanti-Wells’ allegations about Morrison’s 2007 run for the seat of Cook, where rival contender Michael Towke won the first-round preselection ballot.

Speaking under the protection of parliamentary privilege, Fierravanti-Wells told the Senate that a “dossier of anecdotes was weaponised and leaked to the media to the point where Towke’s reputation was destroyed”.

Fierravanti-Wells told the Senate:

I am advised that there are several statutory declarations to attest to racial comments made by Morrison at the time that we can’t have a Lebanese person in Cook.

The 2GB interviewer Ben Fordham asked about those alleged comments during this morning’s post-budget interview.

Morrison: “That’s rubbish.”

Fordham: “So she’s made that up?”

Morrison: “It’s not true.”

Fordham: “How did it feel hearing that last night?”

Morrison: “I was focused on the budget last night. I wasn’t focused on those issues, Ben. As prime minister there are lots of people who disagree with you, there are lots of people who will say all sorts of things about you. It comes with the job. You’ve got to have a thick skin.”

Lismore levee about to overtop

Updated

Victoria reports seven Covid-related deaths

In Victoria, seven people have died. There were 280 people hospitalised with 18 in intensive care, and 11,749 cases were detected.

Updated

NSW reports 15 Covid-related deaths

Fifteen people have died with Covid in New South Wales, where 25,235 cases were reported. A total of 1,301 people were hospitalised and 46 are in intensive care.

Updated

Telstra has named Vicki Brady as its new chief executive, replacing Andy Penn, who had that role for almost seven years.

Brady has been the company’s chief financial officer since 2019, and will be the telco’s first female CEO.

Can’t say I had a lot of contact with Penn, but when I spoke to him the other day, he did seem quite relaxed:

Updated

Market analysts generally view yesterday’s budget as adding fuel to an economy running hot, that on the margin, will make the Reserve Bank more “hawkish” on interest rates.

On the one hand, the economy is forecast to bounce back faster from the Covid disruptions than expected, say four months ago, at the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook.

That revival shrinks the projected debt - although it keeps mounting.

“Rebuilding the fiscal buffers, as this budget has begun to do, is an important task,” the ANZ Bank said in its budget briefing:

We saw how critical it was for Australia to have the fiscal capacity to spend aggressively during the pandemic.

With the government still not expecting to return to surplus over the next 10 years, more may need to be done sooner rather than later.

The smaller forecast deficits, though, have been welcomed by S&P,a ratings agency, which says the fiscal outcomes “mirror our forecasts underpinning our ‘AAA’ rating and stable outlook”.

Australia, as the budget noted, is one of just nine nations to have a top rating by S&P, Moody’s and Fitch rating agencies:

Rising debt levels do not currently present a risk to the rating, and the nation’s net debt of about 35% of GDP in fiscal 2024 remains comparable to similarly rated peers.


The ANZ notes that there is about $40 billion of extra spending or revenue reductions over five years from 2021-22, “quite a bit more than we expected”:

Importantly, more than half is set to occur in the current financial year and 2022-23. This adds to demand at a time when the economy is already strong.

When the RBA starts to hike, we expect it to move with some vigour and the cash rate to reach 2% by the end of 2023.

The cash rate has been at a record low of just 0.1% and markets are betting the first rise will come in June...and keep climbing after that.


Here’s a wider look from last night:

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin, who had to swim out of her flooded property four weeks ago, is today unable to return to the Northern Rivers because flights are cancelled.

She questioned whether the evacuation order for Lismore’s CBD should have been lifted yesterday afternoon. She said:

There was certainly more preparation than there was a month ago and obviously there were a lot less people in the areas that needed evacuating.

People were concerned when the Lismore CBD evacuation order was lifted because there was still a lot of rain about in the region.

Evacuation orders for North and South Lismore remained in place overnight. Saffin said:

In terms of messaging people think that if you can go in there, you can go everywhere but you can’t.

It did cause concern and I posted on Facebook ‘Share your concerns’ and I’ve raised this at the highest level.

Earlier, prime minister Scott Morrison told the ABC there are 3,200 defence force personnel on the ground in Lismore working closely with the SES:

We have the helicopters in place if rescues are required, they will be assisting in that respect.

The SES will be doing their job on that as well, but Australians will help each other again in Lismore just like they did several weeks ago.

Morrison said already hundreds of millions of dollars of support had been delivered to the area, including cash supports and recovery assistance, run by the state government.

Updated

More drama in the Senate:

Updated

Crikey ...

Updated

If you’re in the danger zone, don’t forget you can monitor the Bureau of Meteorology’s weather warnings, too:

Here’s this morning’s story on what’s happening in Lismore, but the situation is changing rapidly:

And once again on Fierravanti-Wells, Morrison repeats the same lines, but he is pressed again, and says:

Look, as prime minister, you make decisions that people don’t always agree with you on. And so, scuttlebutt goes around. I will make decisions that not everyone will agree with. And when they don’t, they’ll be disappointed. But that goes with being prime minister. If you just want everyone to like you all the time, you won’t be a good prime minister because you won’t make the decisions that are necessary. I have always been prepared to do that.

I’ll bring you some more on the flooding threat near Lismore – Scott Morrison tells ABC television:

Our defence forces up there in northern New South Wales, and they’ll be working together with the State Emergency Service and providing what support they can. We’ve got the helicopters in place if there’s rescues that are required. They’ll be assisting in that respect. And the SES will be doing their job on that as well. But Australians will help each other again in Lismore, just like they did several weeks ago.

Updated

We’re about to hear from the prime minister (again). If you weren’t glued to the coverage last night, you can see the team’s extensive and incisive coverage here.

Thanks to Peter Hannam for reminding me there’s also some serious weather happening:

Asked when the election will be, Morrison says many words, including that he’s “not pretending to be anyone else”. There’s a weird word salad effect sometimes when politicians are trying to shoehorn talking points into every answer.

Again, on Fierravanti-Wells, Morrison says she’s disappointed, 500 people voted, and there are processes to deal with complaints.

Updated

Again on wage stagnation and fears of inflation, Morrison says:

Assumptions that are made in budgets are swings and roundabouts. But I’ll tell you the assumptions that have always worked in in our budgets is that revenue has always come in stronger that what we’ve anticipated.

“The best way to support people renting a house is to support people to buy a house,” Morrison says, which will be very reassuring to renters, I’m sure.

My head is spinning. Prime minister Scott Morrison is now on the Today show. He’s using that line about the budget as a “shield” again. It’s “temporary”, it’s “targeted”, he says, and “it delivers real relief”. He says:

It’s like a shield for families at the moment, a shield against those pressures of the rising costs of living, particularly at the bowser.

It’s allowing people to “keep more of what they earn” to “get through challenges ahead”, he says.

Morrison is asked about the Solomon Islands and a potential security agreement with China. He says:

We’ve doubled the aid budget. We’ve doubled the aid to the Pacific.

“We’ll deal with this issue as a family, a Pacific family,” he says, and points to comments from the Solomon Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, who said there would be no naval base or presence on Australia’s doorstep.

Updated

On Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Morrison uses the line that is already sounding repetitive even though it’s still early in the morning. He understands she’s disappointed but 500 members had their say.

Morrison says (on spending measures): “It’s not permanent, it’s done to deal with a specific problem, a real need.” He says:

Australians sitting around the kitchen table understand that petrol prices are going up. That’s making it more expensive. And if the government can support us during this time ...

This is well designed, it’s well targeted and it’s responsible because the economy has been growing.

Updated

I’ll come back to Frydenberg in a bit – prime minister Scott Morrison is on Sky News.

“We’ve got to give Australians a shield against these cost of living measures”, he says, when asked if the spending is a “bribe”.

He says the budget won’t have “longer term impacts” like inflation because it’s “responsible”.

Updated

We’ll hear from the treasurer (again) shortly. But meanwhile, please enjoy this:

Albanese goes on to say he thinks Australians will be cynical about the budget cash splash, and about a government that “doesn’t have a plan for them”. “They just have a plan for themselves,” he says.

Albanese says the budget has “no plan” for sustainable growth, productivity or increased wages.

He’s asked about the halving of the fuel excise – it’s only going to be cut for six months, so whoever’s in power then will have to decide what to do then. He says there will be a Labor budget in the second half of the year (yep, we get to do it all again if they win) where they’ll go through the spending “line by line”.

Updated

Labor leader Anthony Albanese is confirming on ABC radio that the opposition will let the budget measures through (while also having a crack at the government for them). He says:

The prime minister has just discovered, apparently, that cost of living pressures are real. We’ve been saying for years that wages are’t going up. The price of fuel, the price of groceries, the price of rent, the price of everything is going up except for their wages.

The ABC’s Sabra Lane asks Scott Morrison about Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. Morrison says:

I know Connie is disappointed, having lost a preselection of some 500 members at the weekend. I strongly supported her and ensured that she was able to be pre-selected.

He says the Liberal party has a process for dealing with complaints like her, and points out that that she has also been critical of his predecessors, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. He says:

So I understand that Connie is very upset about not getting that preselection on the weekend.

Updated

“The need is real,” Scott Morrison tells ABC radio, as he talks about the cost of living pressures.

Updated

Morrison ends by saying “thank you” to late cricketer Shane Warne’s friends and family for sharing him with Australia.

It’s Warne’s memorial at the MCG tonight.

Prime minister Scott Morrison is on Sunrise this morning, talking up the regional investment package – many saw that as a cynical deal with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, but Morrison and treasurer Josh Frydenberg say the regions are the powerhouse of the economy.

And it’s just a coincidence that key seats are getting most of the moulah.

Morrison says the improvement to the bottom line in the budget is because the government has got people working (meaning an increase to income tax revenue and a reduction in welfare costs).

On the first home buyer grants and house buyers, David Koch asks about all those people who might be plunged into negative equity as prices start to drop. Morrison says he doesn’t sign off on the mortgage, mate.

Updated

Frydenberg is also asked about that Fierravanti-Wells outburst. He says:

The Liberal party had its Senate preselection on the weekend and I understand the 500 delegates from the party reached their decision and that decision is respected.

Then he does a nifty little switch to talk about how great prime minister Scott Morrison is (we’re about to hear from him, by the way).

Rowland tries heroically to push the point, but Frydenberg wrests the conversation back to the economy.

Updated

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on the ABC this morning, the first of a long series of appearances to sell/defend his fourth budget.

(Host Michael Rowland refers to a Courier Mail headline that calls him “Dosh Frydenberg”. Geddit?).

Rowland asks him about all the money he’s throwing around. Frydenberg has his spiel ready to go:

We’re banking the dividend of a stronger economy with the bottom line improving by $100bn. We’ve seen revenue upgrades and we’ve put that to the bottom line. We have seen our deficit halve over the forward estimates.

At the same time we’re providing cost of living relief now for Australian families. That’s really important because it’s the No 1 topic of discussion around the kitchen tables, around our country, is cost of living. And the higher fuel prices, the higher food prices.

So we’ve made some temporary, some targeted, some responsible decisions and put in place measures to deliver that cost of living relief, including $420 through our tax system to more than 10 million Australians, a $250 payment to million of pensioners, veterans and carers. We’re making medicines more affordable and accessible for more than 2 million Australians and we’re cutting in half the fuel excise.

Good morning

Top of the morning to all of you! Please ignore the slightly forced nature of my cheeriness on this morning after the budget.

There was a lot of cash being splashed around in the 2022-23 budget, but as the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, kept saying, much of it was “temporary”.

The highlights were a cut to the fuel excise, more tax offsets for low and middle income earners, more flexible paid parental leave, wads of infrastructure funding and generous packages for regional Australia. The lowlights were the lack of focus on climate change, aged care and the NDIS.

The disco lights were Defence’s new plaything, project Redspice, and the twinkle of a looming election.

Parliament is sitting today, which seems very energetic of it. I’ll let you know what’s in store.

And just as people started filing out of Parliament House last night, Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (who has been relegated to an unwinnable spot on the ticket) had a crack at the prime minister, Scott Morrison, in the Senate.

And while half the House was locked up, outgoing Liberal MP Christian Porter delivered his valedictory speech.

The team here will keep sifting through those budget papers while simultaneously keeping across everything else happening today.

Mike Bowers is here for your pictorial pleasure, and Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst, Paul Karp and Josh Butler are curating the news.

Updated

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