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PM says 120 ADF personnel heading ‘immediately’ to help in NSW
Anthony Albanese said that overnight he approved a request for 120 Australian defence force personnel to depart “immediately” for NSW.
They’ll start work today supporting the local SES [with] door knocking as well as conducting welfare checks on vulnerable members of the community.
They’ll support the SES with sandbagging, damage assessments and essential services.
The chief medical officer has also activated the Department of Health and Aged Care’s national incident centre for TC Alfred, the PM said.
The national incident centre is activated when there’s a significant event or an emerging threat. It’s a coordination mechanism to ensure that communication is maintained between the Commonwealth department of health, state health authorities, and response agencies, including of course here at Nema.
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Growers move stock higher, bracing for Cyclone Alfred
Farmers still recovering from devastating floods are expecting Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s strong winds and heavy rain to wipe out their crops, AAP reports.
Tweed Valley grower Sandra Hawken said she had no doubt her soybean crop would go under, while her sugarcane would likely get battered by wild winds making it harder to harvest.
That’s loss of income. But that’s the life of the farmer. They really are at the mercy of the weather and unfortunately it hasn’t been kind to us the last couple of years.
With rain that has fallen across the district ahead of the cyclone, including more than 100mm since yesterday morning, the cane-growing flood plains were already inundated.
Northern NSW producers have been helping each other move stock, with farmers from low-lying areas taking their animals to higher ground on neighbouring properties.
Many growers have prepared their farms with flood mounds, built above historic high water marks, to salvage their machinery.
Craig Huf, a cattle farmer from Upper Burringbar about 40km south of the NSW-Queensland border, said some producers on the flood plains were cut off by overflowing creeks and causeways.
Royce Kurmelovs
Access to Pacific Highway north from Byron closed off by SES
In Byron Bay in northern NSW, access to the Pacific Highway heading north towards Mullumbimby has been closed off by SES personnel.
Parts of Byron Bay still have power, however. Here’s the bakery in the industrial estate, where lines are snaking out the door:
Flooding has turned ‘picnic area into a lake’ in northern NSW
Guardian contributor Royce Kurmelovs has captured some images of the flooding at Bangalow, in the Northern Rivers of NSW. He wrote:
Flooding in Bangalow – this is the weir on the river. It’s turned a picnic area into a lake.
Large bunya pine uprooted on Gold Coast street amid strong winds
Krystle Wright has been on the scene at the Gold Coast, capturing all the damage Tropical Cyclone Alfred has wreaked so far.
Here are some photos that have been filtering through this morning:
Cait Kelly
Greens senator flags mutual obligations confusion for Queensland jobseekers with ministers
Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne has written to the minister for social services, Amanda Rishworth, and the minister for employment and workplace relations, Murray Watt, after Guardian Australia revealed employment agencies in Queensland have given jobseekers the impression they still need to perform their mutual obligations.
There is currently a pause on mutual obligations due to Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Allman-Payne wrote that the Greens hold “grave concerns” that providers are “ignoring the direction to pause activities, and are continuing to pressure participants to attend appointments and other activities”.
This has caused widespread confusion and unease for participants.
Given the serious threat of harm posed by the cyclone, I urge you both in your capacities as ministers to take serious proactive steps against providers flouting the pause. It is incumbent on both of you to ensure that providers act in accordance with departmental directives.
Please advise me what steps your respective departments are taking to inform providers that they should not be misleading participants at this dangerous time. Thank you for your urgent attention to this critical matter.
Airservices Australia warns of nationwide delays if cyclone causes reduced staffing levels
Elias Visontay
Airservices Australia – the body charged with control of air traffic control – has, meanwhile, put in contingency plans to provide support for emergency aircraft.
It has also warned that with the path and timing of Alfred uncertain, delays to airborne flights as well as those on the tarmacs at airports around the country could be hit with unexpected delays.
Airservices Australia not only manages takeoff and landing movements at individual airports but the entirety of Australian airspace. It does this latter task, known as en route air traffic control, from two centres: one in Melbourne and one in Brisbane.
The body has warned there is the potential that if the cyclone causes reduced air traffic controller staffing levels, there could be potential delays around the country.
Elias Visontay
Airlines extend timeframes for resuming services amid cyclone uncertainty
The approaching Tropical Cyclone Alfred is continuing to wreak havoc on air travel along its projected path – and potentially around the country – with airspace and airports largely shut to passenger travel as airlines push out their expected timeframe for resuming service.
This morning, Qantas announced an extension of its suspension of all flights – including budget carrier Jetstar – out of Brisbane, Gold Coast and Ballina airports until at least Sunday morning.
While Brisbane airport remains functionally open, airlines have abandoned their services there, with the facility able to welcome emergency flights and other logistics transport.
Airlines are understood to be bracing for the impact of Alfred, with some relocating aircraft normally parked at Brisbane to avoid damage, while aircraft that remain will be weighed down with concrete blocks.
Josh Butler
Albanese accuses Liberals of ‘not cheering for Australia’
Anthony Albanese also went to the issue of American steel and aluminium tariffs in his press conference, amid growing concern Australia may not get the exemption that Donald Trump said was under consideration. The Liberal party has raised criticisms that Albanese should have done more to make Australia’s case.
Albanese accused the Liberals of “not cheering for Australia”. He said that when the former Liberal government was seeking exemptions to Trump’s tariffs in his first term in office, the then-Labor opposition had supported them.
I put this comment back to you. Do those comments assist Australia in getting an exemption, or does that sort of political play talk undermine Australia’s national position?
This is an opposition to always talk down Australia’s national interest. If you go back to 2018, you know what the opposition was doing, led by Bill Shorten then? We were cheering with the government. That’s what responsible oppositions do. That’s what we did.
I did as opposition leader during Covid, consistently cheered for Australia’s national interest. Australians will judge that sort of nonsense, and cheering against Australia’s position, in an appropriate way.
PM hits back at criticism Labor whipping up cash for budget night fundraisers
Josh Butler
Returning to Anthony Albanese’s press conference earlier, the prime minister shot back at criticisms over Labor whipping up cash for budget night fundraisers (despite mounting speculation there may not be a budget) and rebuffing the idea of pausing political campaigning during the cyclone.
My job is to represent Australians, and that is precisely what I’m doing and what the full force of the public service is doing as well.
As Emily brought you earlier, Albanese would only respond that Peter Dutton’s decision to travel to Sydney for a political fundraiser earlier in the week was “a matter for him”. As my colleague Henry Belot reported yesterday, Dutton cancelled fundraisers in Melbourne on Wednesday after reportedly attending another bash in Sydney at the home of pub mogul Justin Hemmes the previous night.
But the Liberals have shot back that Labor is also advertising for their own fundraisers on budget night, 25 March – even though there is wide expectation Albanese was seeking to call an election by this coming Monday, which would have cancelled the budget. That potential timing, of course, is now in question due to the cyclone.
The deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley defended Dutton’s commitment to his community and said he was back in Brisbane now, but told ABC TV today “is the prime minister and the Labor party raising money off the back of a budget that they’re actually refusing to commit to?”
We asked Albanese about Ley’s comments and, considering the PM’s comments that “there are no politics” when it comes to the cyclone, whether there should be a pause in all campaign activity. Albanese responded:
Susan Ley in the Liberal party, her own party, have sent invitations, I understand as well. It’s normal that on budget night there’ll be events that will occur.
My government is razor focused on dealing with this challenge. I tell you who’s not razor focused on dealing with this challenge – that’s Paul Erickson, the national secretary of the Labor party, because it’s not his job. He has a different job.
25,000 homes in NSW could be affected
Asked how many homes could be impacted by the cyclone, Mike Wassing said it was around 25,000.
But again, this is in a very broad aspect of most likely to worst-case scenario. So we are talking significant potential impacts – but some of this is about the preparation, prepare to evacuate, right through to the upper end in terms of current evacuation orders.
With that, the NSW press conference wrapped up.
People may be moved to areas with power if outages persist
A reporter asked if people would be moved into temporary accomodation in parts of town that have power, if there are prolonged outages.
Rose Jackson said this would “absolutely” be assessed once the situation was safe and “we will reassess what needs to be done to connect people with power or other forms of accommodation”.
I do want to reassure the community that everything is being done so that as [soon as] it is safe to go back in and repair that infrastructure, it will be done. Crews are being prepositioned with equipment, but it’s not safe at the moment for them to go out and do that work. As soon as it is, we will have them on the ground, restoring that power as quickly as we can.
Wassing repeats warning not to drive in flood waters amid multiple rescues
Back at the press conference in NSW, Mike Wassing is again urging people not to drive in floodwaters after at least three flood rescues have taken place.
There is always going to be rare situations when people can get trapped or isolated, and we need to reach out to them and rescue them in that context. These rescues are about people driving into flood waters.
He said that in many cases, people were “underestimating” what they were driving into.
You don’t know what the depth is, you don’t know what is under the water, in terms of the road, and cars are very susceptible – modern cars in particular, in terms of relatively minor depths of water.
He said everyone rescued was safe, and in “a couple of cases people have been able to walk out as well, which is good”.
We literally have some flood rescues occurring as we speak. But we are not talking dozens of flood rescues, but it is reflective of localised flash flooding.
43,000 without power in NSW
Just breaking out of the press conference for a moment: Essential Energy has confirmed that 43,000 homes and businesses in NSW are now without power.
This is up from the 35,000 figure earlier this morning.
The largest impacts at this stage are in communities between Tweed Heads and Yamba, it said in a statement.
Crews were stood down at 3am this morning … for safety reasons with no work to recommence until the weather caused by Cyclone Alfred has passed. The safety of our crews is paramount.
This is on top of the nearly 40,000 without power in south-east Queensland.
Jackson says NSW evacuation centres still have space
Asked about the capacity of NSW’s evacuation centres, Rose Jackson said at the moment there was good capacity across them all.
The centre with the largest number of people at the moment is the Southern Cross University facility in Lismore. There are a number of people who are otherwise homeless or at risk of homelessness making use of that centre.
We reached out to our community partners to go into communities where there are people experiencing homelessness and bring them to the evacuation centres. That’s a proactive step we take on because this is a community where there are a number of people who do experience homelessness.
