Summary
Here is a wrap of the day’s Cyclone Alfred news.
Alfred’s track to the coast slowed down today, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning it is possible the cyclone won’t reach land until Saturday. It remains a Category 2 system.
Waves of 12.3m were recorded off Gold Coast, while the outer Moreton Bay area has received gusts above 90km/h. The BoM warned of “significant storm surge” risk as well as “life threatening flooding” as Alfred nears the coast. Total rainfalls are expected to reach more than 800mm.
QLD SES deployed more than a million sandbags, essential for flooding predicted to occur immediately following the cyclone. SES, police, firefighters and water rescue crews have been “prepositioned,” premier David Crisafulli said.
5,000 people in the state were without power, with those numbers expected to rise.
Airlines continued to cancel flights en masse ahead of Cyclone Alfred reaching land. Qantas and Jetstar have announced they will halt all international and domestic flights in and out of Brisbane from this afternoon.
More than 1,000 schools were closed in QLD, and more than 240 closed in NSW.
NSW SES issued emergency warnings for 11 locations to evacuate before 9pm tonight.
There was a possible missing jetskier off northern NSW, police said, with witnesses seeing possible “debris from a jetski hitting the rock wall”.
Authorities repeatedly urged residents in affected areas avoid the beach as Alfred nears.
Thanks for following along the blog today. You can find us back here tomorrow for the latest cyclone updates. Stay safe.
Updated
‘No safe space’: racist acts toward Indigenous Australians called out in report
Hate mail, graffiti, property damage and public abuse are among the racist acts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced in 2023-24 - with many linked to the Voice debate.
The most common types of racism reported in the 12 months to March 2024 were negative attitudes or stereotyping (23%) and discrimination (15%), according to the second annual Call It Out report on racism targeting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Physical violence, verbal abuse, hate speech, threats, intimidation, bullying and property damage combined made up more than a third of responses.
The report is based on more than 400 instances of racism against First Nations people reported to the Call It Out register.
The register is run by the University of Technology Sydney’s Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research, and the National Justice Project.
The reported instances could be the “tip of the iceberg”, report guest author and Jumbunna Institute director Lindon Coombes said:
It’s not just that thing that’s happened that day or an incident that happened that week, it’s a repeated pattern of behaviour; its a repeated assault on Indigenous people where people get to a point that they no longer wish to tolerate that.
As Indigenous people we have a very high tolerance for racism. If we were reporting every incident, as people sometimes allege, we would be very, very busy people.
- Australian Associated Press
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