What we learned today, Wednesday 7 January
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. I hope you stay safe out there in the heat, especially if you’re somewhere at risk of fire. Until tomorrow, here are today’s top stories:
A severe heatwave of the kind not seen since the deadly black summer bushfires descended on parts of the country, with Melbourne recording a top of 41C and Adelaide 43C.
Victorians were warned to expect fire conditions across the entire state on Friday as officials warned any bushfires that break out would be “uncontrollable”. Extreme fire danger warnings were issued for parts of Victoria and South Australia on Thursday.
The government’s official measure of inflation data was released, with the consumer price index slipping to 3.4% in the year to November. This was still above the Reserve Bank of Australia’s preferred range of 2% to 3% but slightly lower than expected. This means the chance of an interest rate hike in February is less likely.
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, set out her demands for a commonwealth royal commission into the Bondi terror attack, and tried to clean up what may have been an important error in a recent press conference when she said a royal commission should investigate “far-left neo-Nazi extremism”.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was in Sydney to attend the funeral of the former NSW police detective sergeant Peter Meagher, who was killed in the Bondi mass shooting.
The New South Wales Labor MP Anthony D’Adam asked the federal home affairs minister to investigate whether Israel had breached Australia’s foreign influence laws by authoring a dossier naming him and other politicians as promoting antisemitic and anti-Zionist content.
And the NSW premier, Chris Minns, announced a two-year extension of Margaret Beazley’s term as governor.
Updated
Current bushfire warnings around Australia
Here are the current fire warnings in place around Australia, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
For today, the weather bureau warned of extreme fire danger for the central, south-west and Wimmera regions of Victoria.
The bureau said there were very hot and dry conditions in these areas with moderate to fresh north to north-westerly winds.
A milder south-west to southerly change was expected to develop in the south-west in the early afternoon then extend across the western and central districts in the late afternoon and evening.
People in the Ashburton coast and Exmouth Gulf coast districts of Western Australia were also warned of extreme fire danger today.
The weather bureau said in these areas, hot conditions combined with fresh and gusty south to south-westerly winds during the afternoon and early evening periods had led to extreme fire danger over parts of the western Pilbara on Tuesday and today.
In South Australia, extreme fire danger was forecast for the following districts: west coast, eastern Eyre Peninsula, lower Eyre Peninsula, Flinders, mid-north, Mount Lofty Ranges, Yorke Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Riverland, Murraylands, upper south-east and lower south-east.
The weather bureau expected very hot and dry conditions with north to north-westerly winds followed by a fresh south-westerly change about the west and south to result in extreme fire danger over much of the state today.
As for tomorrow, an extreme fire danger warning was in place for the Mallee, north-east and northern country districts of Victoria.
In these regions, the weather bureau has forecast hot and dry conditions with moderate to fresh north to north-westerly winds expected to develop over northern Victoria on Thursday which should persist through the afternoon and ease during the evening.
Isolated thunderstorms were possible during the afternoon and evening, but very little rain was expected and the storms carry the risk of dry lightning and damaging wind gusts, the bureau said.
Extreme fire danger was also expected in the mid-north district of South Australia, where hot and dry conditions combined with fresh north to north-west winds shifting south-west in the afternoon were expected to increase the risk of fire.
Fire authorities advised people in regions at extreme risk of fire to action their bushfire survival plans now and monitor the fire and weather situation through local radio, the Bureau of Meteorology website and their state emergency websites.
Updated
