What we learned, Friday 27 March
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
A series of isolated coastal towns are in the firing line as a powerful tropical cyclone barrels towards Australia’s west coast. Tropical Cyclone Narelle, which was upgraded yesterday to a severe category 4 system off Western Australian packing winds up to 250km/h, is on track to cross the coast late on Friday between Carnarvon and Kalbarri as a degraded category 3 system.
New South Wales’ State Emergency Service responded to 400 calls for help overnight as storms hit the coast, with 223 incidents reported in the Sydney area alone.
Kyle Sandilands arrived at the federal court in Sydney this morning for the first case management hearing in his lawsuit against ARN Media after the Kiis FM broadcaster terminated his 10-year contract early.
There were multiple environmental risks before two deaths at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital’s transplant ward in late 2025 after a mould outbreak, an investigation has found. Sydney Local Health District released the investigation report into the fungal outbreak that affected six patients on Friday morning, finding no one source of the spore-forming mould known as Aspergillus.
NAB says lending to buy electric vehicles has doubled since the start of March as Australians scramble for ways to lower their fuel bills now and in the future.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen, spoke from Canberra, seeking to reassure the public on fuel supply and make the case that they are coordinating “a national response” to “a global crisis”. Bowen said Australia’s supply of petrol and diesel and oil “will be the same if not higher than it normally would be” for the next few weeks, thanks to extra orders being put in with suppliers.
One Nation has secured a second seat in South Australia, the ABC is projecting. Pauline Hanson’s party is sitting on a 22.3% primary vote, ahead of the Liberals on 19.4%.
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Updated
Allan details approach on fuel measures
At her press conference earlier today, the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, again reiterated her view that “should any measures be needed” to preserve fuel supply, it would need to be “done on a coordinated national basis”.
When asked if she had specific ideas to take to the national cabinet on Monday, Allan said the government had already appointed an energy controller within the State Control Centre to coordinate activity at the Victorian level. She said at last national cabinet meeting she shared with other leaders the government’s Servo Saver app and anti-fuel price gouging laws. She went on:
I’ll continue to push really strongly for that certainty of supply to get through to rural and regional communities and also to support the [agricultural] sector, who rely overwhelmingly on diesel, to ensure that they can get the planting needed [done] over this autumn period … with certainty and confidence.
The premier said she had not plans to pause any construction on major projects despite contractors raising concerns about increased costs. She said:
Anyone who’s involved in construction knows the minute you add time to a project, you add cost, and now’s not the time I would suggest to be proposing those sorts of measures.
Updated
