Liberals have ‘a lot of work to do’ after SA wipeout, Anne Ruston says
The senior Liberal and federal frontbencher Anne Ruston, whose party has so far only secured four state seats in yesterday’s South Australian election, with a handful more too close to call, said her colleagues needed to learn “sobering lessons” from the result.
“The Liberal party has got a lot of work to do to rebuild the trust of Australians,” she told Sky News on Sunday.
I absolutely believe that we can do that. The values of the Liberal party will resonate, and do resonate with Australians.
We just haven’t been telling our story very well.
One Nation’s result was its best at any poll since the 1998 Queensland election, but some voter surveys have put its federal support higher than the 21.6% in first preferences so far secured in South Australia.
Ruston suggested the rightwing party was unlikely to maintain that level of support.
“We’ve seen the rise and fall of One Nation on numerous occasions around the country,” she said.
But senior state and federal Labor figures warned no one could be complacent about the political threat Pauline Hanson’s party posed.
“We’ve got to look at those grievances and respond with solutions,” federal minister Amanda Rishworth said.
“That’s not something One Nation offers up.”
– AAP
Key events
What we learned today, Sunday 22 March
That’s where we’ll leave you this Sunday. Here’s a snapshot from today:
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Tropical Cyclone Narelle made landfall in the NT before being downgraded to an ex-tropical cyclone around midday. The system has brought more heavy rain to the Top End and the risk of major flooding in the Katherine and Daly rivers. The chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, said Katherine was preparing for even worse flooding than it had endured earlier this month. Narelle could re-intensify into a tropical cyclone before it crosses into the WA Kimberley on Monday.
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The climate and energy minister, Chris Bowen, revealed six of 81 ships delivering fuel supplies to Australia had been cancelled. Fuel rationing was not currently on the cards, he said, and would not be invoked lightly. Meanwhile, the NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union has joined others, including the Victorian Greens and the Victorian Farmers Federation, in calling for urgent cuts to public transport fares and increased services in response to the crisis.
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State and federal politicians across the political spectrum took stock after Labor’s landslide win in the South Australian election. The re-elected SA premier, Peter Malinauskas, said mainstream parties needed to offer a clear policy agenda in response to the rise of parties like One Nation. The One Nation MP, Barnaby Joyce, said Labor’s win was partly due to the premier being “a good-looking guy”.
Peak Muslim group denounces Joyce’s comments likening migrants to cattle as ‘profound ignorance’
Sarah Basford Canales
The peak Muslim group has condemned comments by Barnaby Joyce earlier today, likening a ban on migration from Muslim countries to buying cattle “that just don’t work”.
The Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) has described the comments as “deeply offensive” and betraying a “profound ignorance of Australia’s history, values, and social fabric”.
On Sky News this morning, Joyce said it was a matter of having to conform “with an Australian culture, no matter where you come from”, when asked if One Nation would ban Muslim migrants from Australia.
He continued:
I don’t want to be trite about it, but it’s a bit like buying cattle. If you’re getting cattle in from a certain … seller, and there’s an unreasonable number of ones that just don’t work when they get off the truck, well, you don’t buy them any more.
In response, ANIC’s senior adviser and spokesperson, Bilal Rauf, said:
Such language dehumanises entire communities and echoes the worst instincts of dog-whistle politics long associated with One Nation.
More troubling still is the normalisation of this rhetoric in mainstream political discourse. When such views are aired and enabled, they risk eroding public trust in our institutions and weakening the social cohesion that underpins a diverse and democratic society.
That said, I remain confident that most Australians will see these comments for what they are and reject the ignorance and division they represent.
One missing after Tasmania vessel wreck as two adults and child found
Three people in lifejackets have been rescued in the search for a fishing vessel in Tasmania’s north-west, near Robbins Island. One man was still missing on Sunday afternoon.
Tasmania police said:
The vessel left the Montagu campground boat ramp at 5.30pm yesterday afternoon on a fishing trip with four people on board; three adults and a child.
This afternoon, just after 1pm, two adults and a child were located in the water at Robbins passage.
They have been taken to North West Regional hospital for treatment, having spent many hours in the water. They were otherwise uninjured.
According to police, the four occupants were thought to have been thrown into the water about 9pm on Saturday, when the vessel broke up. Concerned relatives contacted police on Sunday morning when the group did not return to the campground.
A rescue helicopter, marine rescue vessels and private boats continued to search for the missing man on Sunday afternoon.
Warning for ‘rapid’ flooding of NT’s Katherine and Adelaide rivers as ex-tropical cyclone tracks west
The Northern Territory emergency service has issued a “watch and act” warning for flooding along the Katherine and Adelaide rivers, as ex-tropical cyclone Narelle continues to track west across the Top End.
Heavy rain, with isolated intense downpours, is expected to cause rapid river rises in already soaked catchments.
The SecureNT warning advised:
Don’t drive, walk, swim or play in floodwater because it is dangerous.
Stay away from flooded drains, rivers, streams and waterways.
A severe weather warning was also in place for heavy rainfall, with isolated intense downpours and damaging winds for Daly and parts of the Arnhem, Carpentaria and Gregory districts.
Emergency shelters were open or soon to open at Urapunga school in the East Arnhem region and at Bulman school, Guluman child and family centre and Katherine high school in the Big Rivers region.
As a precaution, a “boil water alert” has been issued for Jilkminggan, Palumpa, Umbakumba, Angurugu, Milyakburra, Numbulwar and Yirrkala. People in those communities were advised to use cooled boiled water or bottled water for drinking, preparing food or baby formula and brushing teeth.
Cyclone warning for parts of WA Kimberley as Narelle threatens to re-intensify
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has issued a cyclone warning for parts of the Kimberley in Western Australia, as ex-tropical cyclone Narelle continues to move west with a chance it could re-intensify to a tropical cyclone over the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf.
A warning is in place from the King George River mouth to the WA-Northern Territory border, with widespread heavy to locally intense rainfall forecast from Monday.
Jonathan How, a BoM senior meteorologist, said:
It really only has a low chance of becoming a tropical cyclone over open water, but we are still expecting to see gale force winds within [the warning] area on Monday.
From there, Narelle was expected to move across the Kimberley and off the WA coast, rapidly re-intensifying as it moved away from the Pilbara by Thursday. That could bring the potential for very strong to gale-force winds and large waves along large tracts of the WA coastline.
By Friday, the system could take a range of possible paths, including one that curved back onto land near the Gascoyne, bringing showers to the Wheatbelt and as far south as Perth.
NSW public transport union urges government to slash fares in response to fuel crisis
Rail and public transport workers want the New South Wales state government to urgently cut fares and increase services in response to the global fuel crisis.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW has written to the state government with the requests, which included calls for an immediate industry roundtable.
Toby Warnes, secretary of the RTBU, said the crisis had exposed Australia’s vulnerability and was already placing pressure on households.
We are standing on the edge of a cost of living crisis that will have deep and lasting impacts on individuals and families.
Petrol prices are rising sharply, and that pressure will not end at the bowser. Higher fuel costs are expected to flow through to groceries and everyday goods as transport costs increase.
What is required is urgency and coordination. In a fuel price crisis, public transport is not just a service. It is part of the economic response.
The NSW Government cannot control global events, but it can act on their consequences here.
NSW opposition calls for QR codes in taxis to report complaints
Continued from our previous post:
The NSW opposition said the state government’s new guidelines for ride-share service providers did not go far enough, calling for a QR code system in taxis to provide clearer records to support complaints.
The NSW Taxi Council, which backed the government’s new guidelines, has also supported the opposition’s proposal for a QR code system within taxis.
The code would be linked to the driver and the vehicle, providing real-time trip verification and fare transparency, and creating a clear record to support investigations into complaints.
“More than one in four women experiencing inappropriate conduct is a disgrace, and the government’s response is far too weak; it is all talk and no accountability,” the NSW deputy opposition leader, Natalie Ward, said.
“Government can’t be in every cab, every time – but a QR code can. Training modules won’t stop bad behaviour in the moment [but] real accountability will.”
NSW ride-share drivers on notice over offensive behaviour
One in four women in New South Wales has experienced inappropriate behaviour from ride-share and taxi drivers, the Australian Associated Press reports.
Survey data released by the NSW government showed just six out of 10 women who experienced the offensive behaviour reported the incidents, which included unwanted conversation, being asked personal and sexual questions and staring by the driver.
Service providers, including Didi and Uber, will be issued with new guidelines by the state’s point-to-point commissioner, including driver training regarding what constitutes offensive behaviour towards women.
The guidelines will require driver training on offensive and unacceptable behaviour while also empowering providers to act to identify best-practice incident management.
“Whether you are travelling around town in the daytime, or out enjoying our vibrant city at night, this initiative will help ensure that every passenger on every ride-share, taxi and hire vehicle journey feels safe and respected,” the state transport minister, John Graham, said.
I asked the commissioner as his top priority to continue to reinforce safety standards and develop a culture of accountability within the point to point transport industry, and am very pleased to support these new guidelines in line with that priority.
Uber, Didi and the NSW Taxi Council all backed the guidelines.
“We believe consistent, industry-wide guidelines play an important role in helping women feel safer when they travel,” the Uber Australia and New Zealand safety head, Nicole Ashton, said.
“Ongoing collaboration between government, industry and women’s safety experts will be critical to ensuring these efforts are effective.”
Liberals have ‘a lot of work to do’ after SA wipeout, Anne Ruston says
The senior Liberal and federal frontbencher Anne Ruston, whose party has so far only secured four state seats in yesterday’s South Australian election, with a handful more too close to call, said her colleagues needed to learn “sobering lessons” from the result.
“The Liberal party has got a lot of work to do to rebuild the trust of Australians,” she told Sky News on Sunday.
I absolutely believe that we can do that. The values of the Liberal party will resonate, and do resonate with Australians.
We just haven’t been telling our story very well.
One Nation’s result was its best at any poll since the 1998 Queensland election, but some voter surveys have put its federal support higher than the 21.6% in first preferences so far secured in South Australia.
Ruston suggested the rightwing party was unlikely to maintain that level of support.
“We’ve seen the rise and fall of One Nation on numerous occasions around the country,” she said.
But senior state and federal Labor figures warned no one could be complacent about the political threat Pauline Hanson’s party posed.
“We’ve got to look at those grievances and respond with solutions,” federal minister Amanda Rishworth said.
“That’s not something One Nation offers up.”
– AAP
NT chief minister urges vigilance as severe weather from ex-cyclone threatens ‘rapid consequences’
Northern Territory’s chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, says Katherine is preparing for even worse flooding than it endured earlier this month, despite no reports of injuries or damage to major infrastructure from Tropical Cyclone Narelle as it crossed the coast early on Sunday morning.
Narelle was downgraded to an ex-tropical cyclone, but a severe weather warning for intense rain and damaging winds now included Darwin, she said, with the potential for flash flooding along the Darwin River.
Ex-tropical cyclone Narelle will continue to weaken as she moves across farther inland, but we are going to be experiencing further intense rainfall, and that is going to impact places like Katherine.
We are now expecting in Katherine for there to be even larger levels of flooding than we saw a fortnight ago.
Finocchiaro said the Katherine community was well prepared for further river rises expected on Monday, including receiving a delivery of 10,000 sandbags. Some schools were expected to close in flood-affected zones.
About 20 patients had been evacuated from Katherine hospital to Darwin and Palmerston regional hospitals, as well as nine pregnant women as a precaution, she said.
This is our seventh high risk weather event. And so just a reminder to everyone: the ground is saturated, our rivers are already full, and any additional rainfall – which could be in the couple of hundred millimetres – is going to make a significant impact, and could have rapid consequences.
Anyone who has seen water levels rise or been inundated and impacted you must remain vigilant. This could impact you again.
Search under way for four missing fishers in Tasmania
A search is under way in Tasmania’s north-west, near Robbins Island, after four people on a fishing trip failed to return.
Tasmania police said the fishing vessel left the Montagu boat ramp at 5.30pm yesterday, with the four people on board.
Concerned relatives contacted police on Sunday morning, when the group did not return to the campground.
A rescue helicopter and marine rescue vessels have been deployed to the area.
