Key events
Two people rescued from yacht being transported to Sydney for medical assessment: AMSA
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has also released a statement after two people were safely rescued from a yacht on the state’s south coast (we had more on this just earlier in the blog, here).
An AMSA spokesperson confirmed the vessel was the Spirit of Mateship, and that the two people on board are being transported to Sydney for medical assessment.
AMSA said seas are have been four to five metres tall, with up to 60km/h winds.
Minister fields questions on 2026 census debacle
Jenny McAllister was also asked if there had been much conversation about the census amongst her colleagues – who are all currently in WA for national cabinet this week – relating to the proposed sexual identity questions, and how this has been managed?
She responded that the census is “in 2026, so we’ve got a little bit of time to work through it.”
I think the prime minister’s been really clear that whilst we don’t want to see wholesale change to the way we approach the census, it is appropriate to modernise it, and there should be an opportunity to include questions around people’s sexual preferences. We’re looking for the ABS to work through those questions between now and 2026 with the community.
Has the government been “spooked” by comments from opposition Peter Dutton that this is part of a “woke agenda”, she was asked? McAllister responded:
[I saw] Mr Dutton’s comments in relation to that, and I saw also that he started to walk them back a few days later. I think that would be preferable. We don’t need Mr Dutton to play a divisive game with this. What we need is a sensible approach to delivering a good census and a measured way of working through this as we approach 2026.
The census debacle was the focus of today’s Full Story episode, which you can listen to below:
We need to be thinking about ‘a range of perils’ leading into fire season, minister says
Just circling back to the interview with emergency management minister Jenny McAllister on ABC RN.
Asked about the government’s priorities leading into the into the new fire season, the minister said “we actually need to be thinking about a range of perils”.
Fire is one of them. But we are, of course, thinking about the cyclone season, and we’re thinking about the risk of severe storms, like some of the rain and flooding that we’ve seen in recent days.
We’re going to get updates in the next couple of weeks on a range of different perils from the authorities, and we’ll also be working with our state and territory partners, NGOs and business, actually, to start preparing ourselves together for the circumstances we expect to face.
McAllister said ensuring better coordination between agencies has been a “significant focus for the government,” when asked about lessons learned from the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires.
Continuing on from our last post, here is the full list of affected routes, as per Transport for NSW:
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Berowra to City via Gordon
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City to Berowra via Gordon
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City to Emu Plains or Richmond
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Emu Plains or Richmond to City
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City to Parramatta or Leppington
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Parramatta or Leppington to City
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City to Liverpool or Lidcombe via Bankstown
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Liverpool or Lidcombe to City via Bankstown
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City to Macarthur via Airport or Sydenham
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Macarthur to City via Airport or Sydenham
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Hornsby to North Shore via City
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North Shore to Hornsby via City
Delays to Sydney train services due to person near tracks
Transport for NSW says there are interruptions to a number of Sydney train lines “until further notice” due to a person near the tracks at Redfern.
The affected lines include the Airport and South line, Bankstown, Inner West and Leppington, North Shore, Northern and Western lines. Transport for NSW said:
Allow extra travel time due to a person near the tracks at Redfern. Stops may change at short notice and services may be delayed. Please listen for announcements and check information screens before getting on trains.
My colleague said their express train has completely halted at a station, and the driver said “it may be some time” before they move again.
Two people safely rescued from yacht at Nowra
Two people have been safely rescued from a yacht on the state’s south coast, New South Wales police have confirmed.
As we flagged earlier, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it received a distress beacon alert about midday yesterday from a vessel 185km east of Nowra. The 19-metre vessel is believed to have sustained a mechanical issue and is taking on water.
A rescue operation was launched, with officers making contact with a 60-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman on board. They were approximately 170 nautical miles south-east of Sydney Heads, at about 1am today.
The rescue operation was suspended overnight due to extreme weather conditions, and resumed at first light. About 7:25am, the man and woman were safely rescued from the vessel uninjured, police said.
They are now on board the NSW police boat Nemesis, travelling to Sydney. It is anticipated the Nemesis will arrive at NSW Police Marine Area Command late tonight.
No requests yet for federal recovery assistance after wild weather, minister says
The minister for emergency management, Jenny McAllister, is speaking with ABC RN about the extreme weather events across Australia’s south-east over the past week.
Asked if she has received any formal requests for federal assistance with the recovery yet, McAllister said not yet – but “that’s not unusual.”
We’ve been in regular contact at an agency level with the authorities in Victoria, NSW and Tasmania. I’ve personally been in contact with my ministerial counterparts. Their focus, understandably, has been on response, on managing these conditions as they’ve unfolded for some of these communities.
Thoughts will turn today and in the coming days [to] recovery, and we’d expect to start hearing from our counterparts about any measures or assistance they might require from us at that time.
Attorney-general working with state counterparts on youth justice issues: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers was also asked about the second death of a teenager in youth detention in less than a year. The Aboriginal teenager died at Banksia Hill in Western Australia after calling out from a cell prior to his death.
The Children’s Commissioner has asked the government to form a taskforce with other Australian governments around the country to look at what’s going on in justice systems (you can read more in yesterday’s blog here). Will this be considered?
Chalmers responded:
Obviously, these are the sorts of things that are in the domain of the attorney-general Mark Dreyfus. Obviously, incredibly concerning what we saw in detention over on this side of Australia. And I think in an ongoing way, the attorney-general works with state attorney-generals and others to do that. But I don’t want to front run that. Obviously that will be something that Mark is working through with his state colleagues.
‘Important we speak plainly about economic challenges’, treasurer says
The treasurer said that higher rate rises are not the only driver of people’s economic pain, also pointing to volatility around the world.
But Jim Chalmers told ABC News Breakfast it is “important that we speak plainly about our economic challenges”.
And one of the challenges that people have, particularly people with a mortgage, is that interest rates have gone up. That’s put extra pressure on people and slowed our economy. I don’t think that it is a controversial point to make.
Chalmers responds to opposition criticism on RBA comments
Q: The opposition says you’re dodging responsibility by not taking joint responsibility for the government’s economic decisions alongside the RBA’s independent decisions. Is that fair?
Jim Chalmers responded, “of course not.”
The [opposition wants] higher interest rate, because they think that the more people are hurting, the more it will suit their political objectives. And we should see their commentary in that light.
We’re in the third year of a three-year parliamentary term and they still don’t have any costed economic policies and they don’t have any economic credibility. They say all kinds of things. They’re not my focus. My focus is on the cost of living pressure that people are under right now…
Peter Dutton’s focus is on dividing people, and I think that that is what this commentary of the last couple of days has shown again.
Treasurer flags ‘soft and subdued’ economy in tomorrow’s GDP figures
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was also up on ABC News Breakfast this morning. He was asked for his predictions ahead of the latest GDP figures being released tomorrow.
He said most economists are expecting the figures to show an economy “which is soft and subdued.”
We’re not expecting lots of growth in the June quarter … But really, what we’ve got here is a combination of global economic uncertainty combining with higher interest rates and persistent price pressures here in Australia. Those things are combining to slow our economy quite substantially, we expect. And we’ll learn more about that tomorrow.
Chalmers was again asked about comments he made on Sunday – that the RBA was “smashing the economy” with its rate rises – and he defended this as being “entirely consistent with things that I’ve been saying for some months.”
I think that it would be a bit strange, frankly, if the treasurer of Australia couldn’t point to the sorts of things that are slowing our economy.
Tasmania ‘not out of the woods yet’, premier says
The Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, just spoke with ABC News Breakfast about the weather situation still impacting the island state.
He said it’s been a “very worrying time for people in Tasmania”, with winds up to 187km/h at its peak, as well as flooding around the Derwent River:
It appears that flood levels are easing, which is good … But I have to say that we’re at field capacity. The ground is saturated. So any drop of rain, of course, can add to that.
Rockliff said about 20,000 connections were still without power – about 600 jobs TasNetworks would need to respond to.
So not out of the woods yet. Still a lot of work to do [with] roads damaged, trees over powerlines. It’s been quite a destructive few days. But, of course, Tasmanians always dig deep, as indeed all Australians do in these times of adversity, and today is no different.
The premier said he has heard from PM Anthony Albanese, who offered his support.
