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Queensland premier says SES has received 700 requests for assistance
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, is now speaking live. He says there have been 700 requests for SES assistance, and urges residents in affected areas make an evacuation plan:
I have to say overwhelmingly the response has been remarkable. Particularly in the last 24 hours there’s been a real awareness, and I do want to thank Queenslanders for the way they’ve responded, and I know as a result of many people who have done our work for us in going to reach out to vulnerable people, to colleagues at work and speak to neighbours, that’s made all the difference.
Have an evacuation plan. The best one is, can you go and stay with friends or family? That’s the most comfortable place, the safest place.
For those who can’t I stress you continue to see the councils gear up to provide refuge centres. There are currently 26 that have been identified across the area.
Crisafulli says the local government websites have a disaster dashboard available, with more information.
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Cait Kelly
While we are on income apportionment, Economic Justice Australia (EJA) has called for the government to waive all current debts calculated via income apportionment, implement a 6-year limitation on debt recovery as recommended by the Robodebt Royal Commission, and increase funding for specialist social security legal services.
CEO Kate Allingham said:
The fact we’re here again is shocking. The legality of a Government measure that determines people’s social security is being called into question, which should be a huge scandal by any metric – but it is coming off the back of Robodebt, of countless ‘IT glitches’, of any number of issues with Government systems that have been proven to be insufficient at best and, in some cases, outright illegal.
It is impossible for the public to have any trust in the Government if, not only are systems put in place to protect people found to be deficient, but they continue to be used for years unlawfully without any apparent checks and balances.
These are not simple mistakes someone made at their job. Centrelink debts can significantly reduce people’s already meagre payment. The fact an unlawful system has been allowed to continue unchecked for decades underpins what was found in the Robodebt Royal Commission, which is that the Government needs to adequately fund social security legal services that assist people in navigating these issues. Millions of people have already been affected by successive Governments’ proven inability to do so themselves.
Cait Kelly
The income apportionment case is on in the federal court today. This could possibly have huge implications for hundreds and thousands of jobseekers, and billions of dollars of debt.
Income apportionment was the complex system used by Services Australia when it could not determine whether payslips that were relied on to calculate welfare debts aligned with the fortnightly income reporting periods, such as when a payslip did not show hours or days worked.
In August last year, a tribunal found Matthew Chaplin, who had been on youth allowance, had had his debt in 2014 incorrectly calculated.
Here, academic and welfare expert Chris Rudge explains the case:
Chaplin argues that the alleged debt should be a nullity (be zero) — at least until the Secretary’s strong evidence gathering powers are exercised to collect more evidence to ‘prove’ the existence of a debt.
Chaplin’s argument is based on the mechanics of the debt calculator rules, which put very specific guard rails around when ‘income’ is aid to be ‘earned, derived or received.’ Chaplin argues that these guardrails are being too casually followed by the Secretary, resulting in significant errors.
[He] also says that the Secretary has vey strong evidence gathering powers that they did not use in this case. They say the Department should not be able to simply use ‘interpretation’ of the law to raise a debt and choose not to seek more evidence. By contrast, the Secretary/Commonwealth says that the social security system is designed to reduce entitlements in a ‘cost effective’ manner and that, therefore, the Secretary is permitted to draw inferences of fact about when a debt exists.
The Commonwealth argues that those powers were exercised appropriately and that the guardrails put in place are all facilitative of the Secretary’s broad debt recovery functions and should not impede the Secretary’s work of debt recovery.
Photo: ‘Catching air’
Photographer Amber J Cowley captured the moment a surfer flipped over a huge wave caused by the approaching Cyclone Alfred – “Catching air,” Cowley put it – while ripping at The Bluff at Alexandra Headland on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
Here is the photo:
Benita Kolovos
Victorian anti-vilification legislation stalls
The Victorian government’s anti-vilification legislation won’t be voted on at parliament this week, with Labor yet to reach an agreement with the crossbench to secure enough support for it to pass.
The justice legislation amendment (anti-vilification and social cohesion) bill, if passed, will expand Victoria’s existing legal protections against vilification, which currently only cover race and religion, to cover disability, gender identity, sex and sexual orientation.
It would also make serious vilification - such as incitement of hatred or physical threats - offences punishable by up to five years’ jail.
But the Coalition opposition said they would not support the bill in its current form, meaning the government is trying to negotiate with the crossbench to get it over the line.
While the Greens say the negotiations are going well, they are yet to form a position on the bill. Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell said she was hopeful for an outcome soon:
I’ve made it clear that I support new anti-vilification laws and it’s really important that we get this legislation passed. There are a range of communities that aren’t protected now that would be under the new attributes. My office has been consulting with stakeholders and community legal centres, and if the government accepts some sensible amendments, hopefully we will see an outcome soon.
Avalon airport incident: man attempted to board flight with firearm, police say
Elias Visontay
More on that reported security incident at Avalon airport.
Victoria police have confirmed they were called to the airport outside Melbourne at 2.50pm after reports a man with a firearm attempted to board a commercial flight.
The man was detained before getting on the plane.
The man is in custody and no injuries have been reported.
Twelve councils ready to begin cleanup, reconstruction authority says
Jake Ellwood from the Queensland reconstruction authority says 12 councils have been activated in preparation for cleanup after Cyclone Alfred crosses. He talked through the recovery process a short while ago:
In terms of recovery … first is the cleanup. It is vital because families and individuals, they cannot move on until things are cleaned up. We saw wonderful efforts by the SES and the Queensland Fire Department to get that cleanup done so well in the north, and again it will happen and we know we have already activated 12 councils from the Fraser Coast to the Gold Coast to make sure that we are ready for that cleanup.
We then undertake damage assessments to fully understand the damage of how many homes have moderate, severe or minor damage so that we can support community through the recovery process.
Then there is the emergency work to make sure that roads and other things that have been damaged are functional and safe to use so that communities can move on and then we get into the deeper reconstruction.
Of course, as always, we make sure we emerge from these stronger than we went in.
Firefighters from across Queensland redeployed to south-east
The Queensland fire service commissioner, Stephen Smith, said additional personnel from across the state have been deployed in the south-east in preparation for the crossing of Cyclone Alfred.
He said 23 hubs with specialist firefighter and swift-water rescue teams have been established “to provide immediate response and capacity across those impacted communities”.
We have hundreds of RFS Queensland and Fire and Rescue staff and volunteers ready to respond when it is safe to do so to support that recovery. So they are in place and ready to respond as and when conditions are needed.
The acting police commissioner, Shane Chelepy, warned residents in affected areas to prepare for the storm surge, flash flooding and riverine flooding as Cyclone Alfred nears the coast. He spoke live a short while ago.
This is significant rainfall that won’t only cause flash flooding in … the most impacted areas, but prolonged riverine flooding, and it’s important we are now preparing for this potential rainfall.
Our riverines, our creeks are very wet and will respond very quickly to intense rainfall as it falls. The emergency services are prepared. They are prepositioned and they are able to respond, but it is now important that communities understand their risk and start to put plans in place not only for the cyclone approaching, the winds, the storm surge, but also for flash flooding and riverine flooding over the next few days, should they be impacted by these events.
Chelepy urges residents to begin lifting furniture from low-lying areas in houses to higher ground, putting valuables such as passports, driver licences and credit cards in a waterproof container, and making sure residents have a plan in place to leave if required.
He also urges people do not drive through floodwaters:
This risky behaviour puts yourself, your family, but also our emergency service workers at severe risk when we have to come and rescue you.
Up to 800mm of rain possible across coming days, BoM says
Heavy rainfall is pushing across the Gold Coast and stretching up through the Scenic Rim, along the Bay Islands and into Brisbane, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Matthew Collopy said a short while ago.
Daily rainfall totals of 300 to 400mm are expected to stretch through Friday and into Saturday. “This could mean the event totals up to 800mm,” Collopy said.
“This heavy to intense rainfall is expected to produce both flash and riverine flooding,” he said.
Flood watches are current for minor to major flooding across the Mary River, the creeks and rivers of the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, the upper and lower Brisbane River catchments, as well as the Logan, Albert, Condamine and Macintyre rivers.
Waves of 12.3m recorded off Gold Coast
Back to Cyclone Alfred, and authorities are addressing the media live in Queensland.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Matthew Collopy warned of damaging winds in exposed coastal locations a short while ago.
The outer Moreton Bay area has received gusts above 90km/h – “which is the damaging wind threshold that we use,” Collopy said. He says gusts up to 150km/h are expected late on Friday through Saturday:
Those winds are expected to continue, increasing as we move through today, and then continue increasing through Friday as well. Potential for destructive winds, so those gusts up to 150km/h, are expected on those exposed coastal locations as tropical cyclone Alfred approaches and crosses those bay islands late on Friday and through Saturday.
Large swells and powerful waves have also been observed along the Queensland coast for several days, Collopy said:
We are seeing inundation and extreme wave heights. We recorded waves of 12.3m off the Gold Coast, so those extreme waves are causing hazards to the coastal areas.
TC Alfred is also expected to produce a significant storm surge around the southern side of the system. This means as the system crosses, sea levels may be [50cm] to 1m above the normal highest tide.
At some exposed locations around the Gold Coast and southern Redlands, it was possible to see storm surges up to 1.5m, Collopy said.
