Australia information stay: colleges closed as Queensland rain and floods proceed; Oxfam says UNRWA funding pause ‘should’ be reversed | Australia information
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Greater than 20 colleges closed amid Queensland floods
Fifteen state colleges and 10 unbiased colleges are closed throughout Queensland amid widespread rain and flooding in a single day.
The entire following state colleges are attributable to reopen when the extreme climate has subsided, in line with the state’s training division:
Aratula state faculty
Ashwell state faculty
Blenheim state faculty
Forest Hill state faculty
Grandchester state faculty
Jandowae prep-10 state faculty
Kogan state faculty
Moonie state faculty
Mount Alford state faculty
Mount Sylvia state faculty
Mount Whitestone state faculty
Tent Hill Decrease state faculty
Thornton state faculty
Warra state faculty
Centenary state highschool will reopen when a injury evaluation and repairs are full, the division says.
In the meantime, the checklist of unbiased faculty closures could be considered in full right here.
Key occasions
Opposition chief Peter Dutton spoke to the media simply earlier from Perth, the place the shadow cupboard is assembly.
He was requested in regards to the authorities’s adjustments to stage-three tax cuts, however wouldn’t come ahead with an alternate proposal.
He flagged he could be making an announcement “within the June quarter”.
I wasn’t planning on making an announcement this week in any case.
We’ve bought a number of work [to do, looking] on the ahead estimates numbers, the medium time period and into the out years as nicely, [with] query marks about whether or not Labor’s coverage is correctly costed, query marks about whether or not it’s inflationary… we’re weighing all that up and we’ll make an announcement [in due course].
Benita Kolovos
Victorian authorities to help restore works of Captain Prepare dinner monuments
Jacinta Allan says the Victorian authorities will present help to each the Port Phillip and Yarra councils to restore and restore their monuments to Captain Prepare dinner, following vandalism.
Yarra Council is contemplating eradicating their memorial of Prepare dinner from Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North because it has turn out to be the topic of repeated vandalism, most just lately on Sunday when it was damaged from its base and spray-painted in purple with the phrases “cook dinner the colony”.
One other statue of Prepare dinner in St Kilda, a part of Port Phillip Council, was toppled on Australia Day.
Requested in regards to the incidents, Allan mentioned:
On the Port Phillip monument, we’ve been making contact with the council [and] I’ve bought no additional updates at this stage… On the monument within the Metropolis of Yarra … we’d like the council to be a keen associate in restoring and repairing broken monuments like those in Yarra. So the Yarra Metropolis Council might want to resolve if it desires to see that reinstated and we stand able to help that, as I’ve indicated with Port Phillip as nicely…
I feel I’ve made my views on this fairly clear final week, this form of vandalism has no place anyplace, whether or not it’s in monuments or different public buildings.
Benita Kolovos
Jacinta Allan is requested whether or not the choice to not ban duck looking was a “captain’s name”.
That is in reference to feedback made by Animal Justice occasion MP Georgie Purcell yesterday, who instructed 3AW radio:
We all know that there’s been a number of inner dissent inside the Labor occasion for fairly a while now about duck taking pictures, however there’s only a handful of senior individuals on the prime who’re making captain’s calls and going in opposition to parliamentary inquiries, their very own members and even their very own ministers.
You may learn extra on what Purcell mentioned on yesterday’s weblog, right here.
Again to Allan: When requested in regards to the “captain’s name” remark simply earlier, she refused to reply the query.
I’m not going to enter cupboard concerns … Each cupboard dialogue is strong as a result of it must be. We’re making selections that have an effect on the Victorian neighborhood and this one was no totally different. There was a dialogue, there was a decision that noticed the minister’s submission supported … the federal government’s place not change on this challenge.
Benita Kolovos
‘I don’t comply with my husband’s view on all issues,’ Jacinta Allan retorts
Jacinta Allan is requested by a reporter whether or not her husband’s view on the game impacted her resolution. She hit again on the suggestion:
I don’t comply with my husband’s view on all issues, and I’m certain if he was right here, he would verify that. I don’t suppose it’s acceptable to replicate on the views of individuals’s companions in informing their selections.
I’ve had a protracted held view on this challenge. I’ve been round this challenge for the perfect a part of 30 years as somebody in my area people or as an area consultant. I’ve had this view, the identical view. I’ve been constant on this view for your entire time. I’ve been a member of parliament and as I mentioned, I feel it’s anticipated that women and men who served within the Victorian parliament come to the desk with their very own views, not these of their husbands.
Somebody requested what was her private view on duck looking, and she or he replied:
It’s a authentic leisure exercise. So while I’ve not participated within the exercise, I’ve all the time had the view that it’s a authentic leisure exercise.
Victorian premier defends duck looking resolution
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has defended her cupboard’s resolution to disregard a government-led inquiry that advisable a ban on duck looking.
At a marathon cupboard assembly yesterday, ministers determined to reject the parliamentary inquiry’s suggestion to ban the apply however will introduce harder penalties and coaching necessities for hunters.
At a press convention in Melbourne’s outer north right this moment, Allan mentioned:
I need to thank everybody for sharing their views on this challenge. It’s one [with] many and different views throughout the Victorian neighborhood and certainly we noticed within the report itself that there was not a consensus place reached within the report, and cupboard took its time yesterday to think about that report.
As a consequence of that consideration, the minister introduced there was no change to the federal government’s place.
Warming ocean bringing bull sharks additional south and nearer to coasts for longer, scientist says
Chatting with the ABC, senior shark scientist Dr Amy Smoothey mentioned whereas there is no such thing as a proof bull shark numbers are rising in Sydney Harbour, scientists are researching the consequences of the east Australian present:
We all know that bull sharks journey down alongside the east coast of Australia when the water temperature is warming. In summer time, they arrive from Queensland.
Due to the strengthening of the east Australian present that brings the nice and cozy water down, they’re going additional south than ever earlier than, and staying round our coasts for longer intervals of time than they’d have completed 10 or 15 years in the past.
Bull shark behind shark assault in Sydney Harbour
Senior shark scientist Dr Amy Smoothey from the Division of Main Industries simply spoke to ABC TV following the shark assault in Sydney Harbour final evening.
(You may learn extra about this under).
Smoothey confirmed the chew was the results of a bull shark. The division has been tagging bull sharks within the harbour since 2009 and mentioned they feed at daybreak and nightfall.
Since 2009 the division has tagged 87 giant bull sharks in Sydney Harbour and have discovered they’re most typical in January and February.
Smoothey mentioned shark bites are “very uncommon”, and there’s no scientific proof to recommend their numbers are rising within the harbour.
The final incident that occurred in Sydney Harbour was in 2009 and that was at Backyard Island. It was concerned in an interplay with a navy diver. Previous to that, 1963.
Only a few interactions … happen in enclosed waterways, however bull sharks are the highest three species concerned in bites – there’s bull sharks, white sharks and pointer sharks.
Smoothey mentioned shark bites are sometimes a case of “mistaken id, within the fallacious place on the fallacious time”, as a result of people “aren’t on the menu for sharks”.
Emergency crews reply to a number of snake call-outs in Sutherland Shire
It’s been a busy snake season in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, with emergency crews responding to 5 snake call-outs this week alone.
Hearth and Rescue NSW wrangled a venomous snake on the lose in a again yard in Engadine final evening. The staff arrived and labored to trace down the 1.5m red-bellied black snake.
Captain Brady Clarke mentioned:
Once we snared the slippery buyer, we seen it was in ache, due to a tick hooked up to its again.
We had been additional cautious as a venomous snake in a cranky temper could be particularly harmful.
The snake had a lump on its again, so we contacted our mates at wildlife rescue organisation, WIRES, who took the reptile off our arms on the hearth station for additional medical remedy and x-rays right this moment.
Clarke mentioned the Menai Hearth Station had obtained 5 snake callouts this week, primarily encountering diamond pythons, widespread tree snakes and purple bellied black snakes.
Residents are suggested to not strategy snakes in the event that they pose a hazard, and to as a substitute name triple-zero or WIRES.
ENGADINE | Firefighters wrangle injured snake in Sydney yard. A Hearth and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) crew has wrangled a venomous snake on the free in a suburban Sydney yard.
Firefighters on the Menai Hearth Station obtained a misery name about… https://t.co/Z7liwV6cbK
— Hearth and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) January 29, 2024
Authorities commits $5m in El Niño funding for Timor-Leste and Pacific
The federal government has introduced $5m in funding to assist Timor-Leste and the Pacific put together for, and reply, to the early impacts of El Niño.
This comes as minister for the Pacific, Pat Conroy, visited Timor-Leste and met with the prime minister yesterday.
Introduced in a joint assertion from Conroy and international affairs minister Penny Wong, the funding will go in direction of the pre-positioning of non-food objects, water conservation and storage, establishing water programs and supporting meals safety.
The funding is being delivered as a part of a partnership with the Australian Crimson Cross and the Australian Humanitarian Partnership.
The assertion reads:
This responds to our Timor-Leste and Pacific companions’ requires early motion, and concrete help to deal with the impacts of local weather change. It’ll defend individuals’s lives and livelihoods, cut back prices and permit communities to recuperate higher and sooner from disasters.
Australia additionally welcomes the discharge of USD2 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund to answer El Niño-related drought in Timor-Leste.
Greater than 20 colleges closed amid Queensland floods
Fifteen state colleges and 10 unbiased colleges are closed throughout Queensland amid widespread rain and flooding in a single day.
The entire following state colleges are attributable to reopen when the extreme climate has subsided, in line with the state’s training division:
Aratula state faculty
Ashwell state faculty
Blenheim state faculty
Forest Hill state faculty
Grandchester state faculty
Jandowae prep-10 state faculty
Kogan state faculty
Moonie state faculty
Mount Alford state faculty
Mount Sylvia state faculty
Mount Whitestone state faculty
Tent Hill Decrease state faculty
Thornton state faculty
Warra state faculty
Centenary state highschool will reopen when a injury evaluation and repairs are full, the division says.
In the meantime, the checklist of unbiased faculty closures could be considered in full right here.
Vet who helped Sydney shark assault lauded as a ‘legend’
The vet who utilized tourniquets to a lady bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour final evening has been lauded a “legend” by NSW deputy premier Prue Carr.
The state’s well being minister Ryan Park additionally applauded the vet for having “fairly presumably saved [a] life”.
Park thanked first responders and hospital workers who had “actually carried out a miracle and saved this particular person alive”.
In the meantime, an evaluation of the chew sample led authorities officers to positively determine the predator as a bull shark.
Amy Smoothey, a shark ecologist, instructed the ABC:
It’s probably bull sharks are coming from Queensland’s waters, into NSW and into Sydney in the summertime and autumn months for foraging alternatives.
– from AAP
Some outback Queensland properties vulnerable to being minimize off for weeks
Some properties in Winton, within the central west of Queensland, are vulnerable to turning into remoted for six to eight weeks attributable to flood waters.
West of Winton in direction of Boulia, the Middleton neighborhood has recorded about 450mm of rain because the weekend, as giant components of the state confronted flooding in a single day.
Winton mayor Gavin Baskett instructed AAP:
The Boulia highway by way of to Alice Springs has at present bought three metres of water over the crossings.
A few of the crossings are on the highest (flood ranges) some graziers have ever seen them.
Winton’s native catastrophe administration group has been activated with some properties bunkering down for a protracted, remoted interval in flood waters.
Baskett:
They’re all graziers on the market, fortunate it isn’t vacationer season.
– from AAP
Dreyfus requested about robodebt royal fee suggestions
Earlier this morning, legal professional normal Mark Dreyfus spoke to the 7am podcast and was requested about robodebt.
Particularly, he was requested in regards to the discrepancy between the 57 suggestions listed within the report versus the “full 56” he accepted in his official response to the royal fee.
Cait Kelly had all the small print about this late final yr – one of many suggestions was later labeled as a “closing commentary”, which referred to as for vital adjustments to the Freedom of Data Act:
Chatting with 7am, Dreyfus was requested why he mentioned there was one much less suggestion than the report lists? He replied:
There’s a … it’s maybe terminological, however there’s a bit on the finish the place [royal commissioner] Catherine Holmes provided an commentary about cupboard course of, however it’s not really a suggestion that she makes. It’s an commentary about cupboard course of.
Q: However within the report, it says the next is a listing of 57 suggestions?
Dreyfus:
Properly, we don’t agree with the commentary that she made about cupboard course of.
He’s once more pressed on the technicality of the variety of suggestions:
We’ll need to conform to disagree. However, it’s that bit about cupboard course of was, not one thing that basically strictly fell inside the phrases of reference. It was one thing that arose [as] an commentary on the finish. It’s couched as a ultimate commentary by Catherine Holmes. We’re involved along with her suggestions that go to the way in which by which governments make selections, by which departments make selections, the way in which by which these selections could be reviewed …
Oxfam Australia name for UNRWA funding to be reinstated
Oxfam Australia, together with 19 different support organisations, has referred to as on donor nations to reinstate funding for the United Nations Reduction and Works Company (UNRWA).
On the weekend, international minister Penny Wong introduced Australia would pause its funding to UNRWA whereas an investigation is beneath approach into a number of workers accused of participating in Hamas’s 7 October assaults in Israel.
Of the 12 workers who’ve been accused by Israel of participating within the assaults, 9 had been instantly sacked, one was confirmed useless and two had been nonetheless being recognized.
Australia is one among 10 donor nations which have withdrawn funding from the UN company:
In a joint assertion, Oxfam mentioned the help cuts come amid a “quickly worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza”, the place the inhabitants is dealing with hunger, looming famine and the outbreak of illness whereas beneath bombardment.
The assertion reads:
We urge donor states to reaffirm help for the very important work that UNRWA and its companions do to assist Palestinians survive one of many worst humanitarian catastrophes of our instances. Nations should reverse these funding suspensions, uphold their duties in direction of the Palestinian individuals and scale up humanitarian help for civilians in dire want in Gaza and the area.
QFES is asking these in south-east Queensland to maintain up-to-date with the most recent highway closures as a number of areas are affected by flooding this morning:
With a number of areas in southern and south-east QLD affected by flooding this morning, it’s vital to remain knowledgeable and act rapidly.
Keep watch over your native council catastrophe dashboards, and keep up-to-date with the most recent highway closures at https://t.co/ytoLMqnKzb
Keep away from… pic.twitter.com/dsL1vQJ21h
— Qld Hearth & Emergency (@QldFES) January 29, 2024
Queensland city of Jandowae urged to ‘go to larger floor’ as flood waters rise
One other emergency alert has been issued in Queensland, this time for Jandowae within the Western Downs area.
The native council is advising of harmful flooding at Jandowae Creek and mentioned flood water could proceed rising with extra rainfall right this moment.
Residents are being suggested to “warn neighbours, safe belongings, and go to larger floor”.
