Good morning. Talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed. Russian forces are reported to have taken patients and medical staff of a hospital in Mariupol as hostages, as the conflict enters day 21 and more than three million people have fled the country.
State Emergency Service units in some of the hardest-hit flood areas in northern New South Wales had warned in 2020 that the closure of regional offices would reduce their ability to respond to natural disasters. A dozen SES units wrote to the commissioner warning that a restructure “threaten[ed] the continued existence of units … and the future of the service”. Unions warned at the time the measure would cost jobs and hurt services, but the government justified it on the basis it would “reduce back-office costs and focus expenditure where it is needed most”. In the complaint, the SES units said the removal of regional offices had “pushed significant new administrative burdens on to volunteers, frustrating and demoralising dedicated members”.
