Victoria’s rain cycle could last up to eight weeks, emergency services say
Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp has warned the state’s flood risk won’t end any time soon. He told 3AW Radio:
The bureau are saying we’ll continue to see this cycle over the next six to eight weeks.
If you don’t need to be on the roads today, please don’t be on the roads, because it’s not just about the floods, it’s also about the trees.
He says the state is “in this for a while”, with Victorians in for a “campaign flood event”.
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SES warns Australians not to drive through flood waters
As intense rainfall causes flooding in Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales today, emergency services are renewing their appeal to the public not to drive through flood waters.
Their warning comes as flooding in central west NSW claimed the life of a 46-year-old man south of Bathurst this week.
The man, who had been missing since Sunday, was found by police in his submerged vehicle on Tuesday.
Daniel Hurst
Australia’s defence relationship ‘even closer’ with PNG, defence minister says
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, is holding a joint press conference with Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, in Port Moresby.
Marles talks about the existing defence relationship and wanting to make it “even closer”, with Australian and PNG defence personnel working more closely together and ensuring both countries’ defence forces are stronger.
Australian banks cop industry-wide outages
Australian banks have been temporarily crippled by industry-wide payment transfer outages, leaving frustrated customers in the lurch, AAP reports.
Big banks including ANZ, Commonwealth and Westpac copped the fund transfer outage overnight.
The RBA experienced an internal system engineering issue yesterday evening. The issue has been contained. Impacted external services are now operational however there has been some delay to overnight processing of payments.
— Reserve Bank of Australia (@RBAInfo) October 12, 2022
Westpac said it was aware an issue had been identified by payment platform operators that was affecting all Australian financial institutions. The bank said on Wednesday night that it had “since been resolved”.
ANZ released a similar statement saying it was “experiencing an industry-wide outage” preventing the processing of payments.
CBA was also rocked by the issue affecting Osko payments. The bank advised customers not to retry their transactions.
NSW government rules out methane tax on agriculture
We brought you the news earlier that the federal agriculture minister, Murray Watt, said the government is considering signing onto the US president Joe Biden’s global methane pledge.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, isn’t keen on the idea, claiming the pledge which looks to curb cows’ methane production (bovine burps, essentially) would be “the death of the Australian BBQ”.
The comments come as New Zealand is set to introduce legislation which will see farmers pay for greenhouse gas emissions under world-first plans.
Now, the NSW government has released a statement this morning ruling out imposing a methane tax on agriculture and criticising New Zealand’s policy.
The deputy premier, Paul Toole, said a proposal by the New Zealand government to tax farmers for agriculture emissions from 2025 would only drive up farmers’ costs without giving them the necessary support to genuinely reduce emissions. Toole said:
We have a clear policy to partner with farmers to improve their productivity while reducing emissions – New Zealand Labour’s policy is the complete opposite, and has raised fears it will shrink their livestock industry and drive up the cost of food.
Our government has worked hard to shift the emphasis from regulation to incentive-based outcomes, putting us on track to halve our emissions while attracting up to $37 billion in private investment by 2030.
We call on NSW Labor to provide certainty to farmers and consumers that they will never introduce an agricultural methane tax like this.
The minister for agriculture, Dugald Saunders, said the NSW government is already working with the agriculture industry on some of those incentive-based initiatives.
We have the primary industries and productivity abatement program, biodiversity credits supply fund, and we are working on a range of new programs through our natural capital program.
We are also collaborating with Angus Australia, the University of New England and Meat and Livestock Australia on a $19m research project that aims to identify cattle that have a low methane output through breeding values.
These sorts of programs will make a real difference to improving our climate and reducing emission, demonstrating you don’t need a great big new tax to reduce on-farm emissions.
Tasmanian rivers swell due to intense rainfall
Huge amount of water flowing into the Mersey River. This is heading towards townships of Kimberley and Merseylea, then to Latrobe. We’ve been here for five minutes and we’ve seen the water rise in that time #tasweather @abcnews pic.twitter.com/bmWKmc7wqe
— Monte Bovill (@MonteBovill) October 12, 2022
Warnings are coming through thick and fast as Victoria floods. Here are some of the latest, but you can check out the full list here.
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING for HEAVY RAINFALL and DAMAGING WINDS
For people in Central, Mallee, Northern Country, North Central, North East and parts of East Gippsland, South West, West and South Gippsland and Wimmera Forecast Districts.
Stay informed: https://t.co/U2WKNw8pK4 pic.twitter.com/klzmiyY1pT
— VICSES News (@vicsesnews) October 12, 2022
Andrews government commits additional $13.6m to Australia’s first public IVF service
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, have announced that, if re-elected in November, the government will spend an additional $13.6m on the state’s public IVF service, which begins taking patients next week.
Andrews told reporters at the Royal Women’s hospital:
This is all about providing thousands of Victorian families, thousands of Victorian women, with the support that they need in order to start a family. The joy of children is well known to us, we know how important that is, and we know that the IVF journey can be very, very challenging, very difficult, very complex. The end result of course is worth it, but anything we can do to make those fertility services as accessible as possible, is really important work.
At the 2018 election, Andrews pledged $32m to introduce a number of low-fee bulk-billing IVF clinics in Melbourne and regional Victoria, in an Australian first. Last year’s budget also allocated $70m on the project.
Andrews said the first clinic will open on 18 October and offer two free IVF cycles:
It will be providing services to around 4,000 women. We’re very pleased today to announce that if we’re elected in November, we will expand it by a further 1,000 women each and every year, and we will also move to have a number of satellite sites.
The sites, which will offer services such as initial consultations and pathology, will be established in Bendigo, Mildura, Shepparton, Geelong, Ballarat, Warrnambool, Epping, Sunshine and Heidelberg, he said.
Thomas said the clinic will also offer services such as fertility preservation, genetic testing, donor and surrogacy services – including Victoria’s first public sperm and egg bank – and a range of other treatments, counselling, information and support.
Prospective parents will need a referral from a GP or a specialist in order to access the services.
And yes, there is a baby at the press conference.
— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) October 12, 2022
Rochester football ground underwater as SES sandbagging continues in Victoria
The rural Victorian town of Rochester has seen its footy ground go underwater. Flooding is affecting most of the state off the back of intense rainfall.
The rain is well and truly here folks. Our volunteers have had a busy 24 hours, responding to over 800 requests for assistance (as at 10:00am today), and supporting sandbagging efforts for our local communities (1/3) pic.twitter.com/JjsRRN7HS8
— VICSES News (@vicsesnews) October 12, 2022
Guardian’s very own Calla Wahlquist is in central Victoria where she is trying to keep her horses dry.
Central Victoria rain update: 52mm to 7am, fair bit of water on the ground. Two out of three ponies have figured out the shelter; the third is only sporadically allowed in. pic.twitter.com/7Eit6ruEZV
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) October 12, 2022
Benita Kolovos
Victorian emergency services received 600 calls for assistance before 9am
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is holding a press conference in Melbourne this morning as the state is hit by wild weather. He says the State Emergency Service has already received 600 calls for assistance to 9am this morning:
Obviously, we send our deep gratitude to every SES volunteer and all of our emergency services who are doing a very good job at the moment trying to support everybody affected by this rain event, which is now well and truly underway …
I’m obliged again just to send the clearest of messages. Please, please don’t drive into flood waters. It’s very dangerous for you and it’s also very dangerous for the person who has to come and rescue you. The same can be said for walking into flood waters and of course, playing near flood waters is just as dangerous.
Andrews says he will be receiving updates from emergency services throughout the day and urged Victorians to keep an eye on the Vic Emergency website.
Government pledges more than $1m for LGBTQ+ sexual violence prevention
Josh Butler
Here’s a little scoop for you – the social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, is this morning announcing $1.1m in funding for LGBTQ+ sexual violence prevention, including a new national survey, research and evaluation of existing programs.
Rishworth will formally announce the funding in Melbourne this morning, at a La Trobe University event for the “Opening Doors” LGBTIQ-inclusive family, domestic and sexual violence services report at The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.
The findings of the survey will go towards the government’s work in addressing family, domestic and sexual violence, ahead of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children being launched later this month. Rishworth said:
I want to make sure we aren’t leaving the LGBTQIA+ community behind in our conversation about family, domestic and sexual violence.
It is clear that dedicated investment is needed. We need to mainstream LGBTQIA+ perspectives into social policy so we can get to the root of the issue and work to stop violence before it happens.
The new funding comes after calls for dedicated data collection for LGBTQ+ communities on this problem, which has been shown to be as prevalent as in the general population by evidence presented to the royal commission into family violence.
Public service to develop in-house consulting model, minister announces
Amy Remeikis
The Albanese government plans on rebuilding the public service to allow it to do its job – without constantly calling in consultants.
Katy Gallagher, who is also the minister for the public service among her other responsibilities, will address the Institute of Public Administration Australia a little later today where she’ll talk about the Albanese government’s planned reforms for the APS.
We’ve seen a sneak peek of the speech and it seems to address one of the issues public servants have spoken about for years – the loss of capability within the public service because of outsourcing.
The minister will say:
There is work to be done in repairing years of neglect suffered by our public institutions. Outsourcing, poor resourcing, clunky systems, and deliberate devaluing by the previous Morrison government has meant that the Australian people are looking at our institutions with a more jaundiced eye.
The Albanese Labor government’s plans to reform the APS will make it an organisation that is more capable, with greater integrity, placing people at the centre of what we do and a model for other governments and organisations to follow.
As part of that, Gallagher will announce:
To deliver on the government’s commitment to reduce reliance on consultants, government is working to develop an in-house consulting model for the APS to strengthen core capabilities and functions that have increasingly been contracted out to consultants at significantly higher costs.
There is already deep expertise in the APS, like data analytics and evaluation, customer service and event management, foreign policy, geoscience, or curating priceless historical collections.
An in-house consulting model will give public servants the opportunity to develop expertise further, build relationships, collaborate with colleagues, and challenge themselves in new ways. It can create opportunities to work across departments to support one APS.
We have started work on a model for the government to consider by the end of the year and I look forward to sharing more with you as we progress.
The APS academy, our central capability development program run from the APSC, has an important role to play here alongside the in-house consulting model. Let’s not give away some of our most interesting work on evaluation, project management and strategy to the private sector.
Images are coming through from Tasmania and Victoria as the states prepare for flooding amid intense rainfall.
ABC reporter in Tasmania Monte Bovill has images from Redwater Creek in Railton, while Channel Seven’s Sarah Krieg says the Victorian town of Wangaratta will be using Yogi Bear to measure the King River’s flood level.
Wangaratta’s resident flood marker is ready to go – Yogi Bear’s expected to be underwater in the next few hours, with the King River predicted to hit major flood level later today.
Photos: Bob Jarred@7NEWSBorder pic.twitter.com/UOWqkZG4jr
— Sarah Krieg (@sarah_krieg) October 12, 2022
Animals will suffer in extreme weather, wildlife organisation wars
We’ve been bringing you updates about flooding in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW. We know many Victorians are without power while many others are preparing to evacuate their homes. However, it’s not just humans feeling the effects.
Wildlife Victoria is anticipating the weather will see many more distressed or injured animals, and has doubled the number of responders on call to help deal with the substantial increase in demand.
Lisa Palma from the organisation told ABC News it’s a particularly dangerous time for wildlife due to breeding season.
So this time of year, all of our wildlife have young, so they are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather … What we saw this time last year in just one day of similar conditions [was] over 950 calls statewide into the wildlife Victoria emergency response service, so it is going to be pretty tough for our animals out there.
Typically what we will see [is] birds flying from nests, so this time of year we have got a lot of chicks in nests, fledgling birds about. We will see animals like grey-headed flying foxes, who are a threatened species, often crash-landing into balconies.
We will see animals waterlogged, tree branches come down; we typically see a lot of injuries, so we have injured adults and orphans to deal with.
The first thing in this kind of weather is to call us first, do not attempt to go into dangerous conditions. Call 8400 7300, one of our operators will take your name, mobile number and a description of what is going on. We will then determine what to do from there. In most cases that will involve us deploying one of our trained rescue volunteers to attend the animal.
What typically happens in this sort of weather [is] the humans bunker down at home, but our animals are out there, and we are usually dealing with the effects for weeks afterwards.
I still worry about this wallaby that Guardian photographer Mike Bowers and I saw in Forbes last year.
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