What we learned, Tuesday 19 December
Thanks much much for your company today. We’ll leave the live coverage here for now, but we’ll be back early tomorrow. Here’s a look at what made headlines:
The federal emergency management minister, Murray Watt, has mounted a full-throated defence of the Bureau of Meteorology’s forecasting and weather warning systems, amid criticism that flood alerts were too slow reaching residents in far north Queensland.
The first military support has arrived in the isolated Indigenous community of Wujal Wujal, in far north Queensland, as authorities try for a second time to evacuate hundreds of residents inundated by flood water.
The chief minister of the Northern Territory, Natasha Fyles, has resigned after revelations she failed to disclose shares in a manganese mine.
A Melbourne businessman has become the first person found guilty of preparing or planning an act of foreign interference under recent federal laws, over a $37,000 hospital donation.
A man who admitted making threats to kill the Victorian federal MP Anne Webster has been handed a good behaviour bond.
The New South Wales government will hold a koala summit in March next year to help inform work to try to save the endangered marsupial from extinction.
Stay safe this evening if you’re reading this in far north Queensland.
Updated
Wujal Wujal residents have arrived in Cooktown, as evacuation efforts from the flood hit Aboriginal community continue.
Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott says there was a sense of relief among the 20 who arrived at the evacuation centre in Cooktown on Tuesday:
They’re all smiles coming in.
They have been through a tough time, there’s no doubt about that, but there was just gratitude, relaxed coming to a safe, dry, hospitable place.
Mr Scott said while he was expecting more people, some residents had elected to stay in Wujal Wujal.
– AAP
