What we learned – Sunday 1 September
That’s a wrap of the live blog this first day of spring, but first a quick recap of the main events:
The shadow assistant minister for home ownership, Andrew Bragg, said the states and councils must do the “heavy lifting” on housing affordability.
Flood evacuations warnings were issued as severe winds and heavy rainfall batter the state.
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, said a WA nuclear reactor would have a tenth of renewables’ output.
The SES warned Victoria’s south-west coast to prepare to take shelter from destructive winds.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned gusts of up to 100km/h were possible in central areas of the state including Melbourne this afternoon.
Midwives can now provide medical abortions after changes introduced by the Victorian government.
Wherever you are on this wild day of weather, hot or windy or rainy, I hope you are staying safe.
Updated
Circling back to that press conference on the situation in Tasmania, TasNetworks says the 30,000 people in the state without power might not have the situation resolved until tomorrow.
The spokesperson said:
It’s likely that people will remain out for a period of time and possibly greater than 24 hours. I’d ask any vulnerable customers who have not to please try and seek alternative location. For a number of those customers we have supplied generators and batteries to keep them going, but if anybody can seek alternative accommodation, I think it might be best at this stage.
Updated
