ABC apologises as Radio National and other services hit by outages
Back to ABC RN, which is still playing silence for this blogger, and the broadcaster has provided an update over the technical difficulties – which have now lasted almost an hour.
In a statement, it told Guardian Australia the outages were also hitting some other audio broadcasting and streaming services.
The ABC is aware of an issue which began after 8:00am AEDT this morning and is impacting Radio National and other audio services on broadcast and streaming services including ABC listen.
The ABC apologises for any inconvenience caused and we are working to understand and resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Key events
Mass fish kill hits northern NSW amid warning more to come in cyclone’s wake
Members of the public are being urged to help track the extent of a fish kill in a region hit hard by ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, AAP reports.
Thousands of fish have been washing up dead or gasping on the banks of the Richmond River at Ballina in northern NSW, according to habitat charity OzFish.
Locals have been warned to brace for more fish kills as the effects of the ex-tropical cyclone continue to wreak havoc a week after it crossed the coast, triggering widespread flooding in northern NSW and southeast Queensland.
A NSW government fisheries spokesperson said an investigation was under way into reports of the kill.
Fisheries staff are liaising with local councils on monitoring water quality and the fish deaths, with several locations impacted. Ongoing fish kills in this region can be expected over the coming days and into next week.
OzFish chief executive Cassie Price said black water containing very low levels of oxygen was likely the cause.
NSW police get ‘bullet and blast resistant’ BearCat vehicles
New South Wales police has unveiled five $3.5m armoured Lenco “BearCat” vehicles to be used to respond to the state’s most dangerous incidents, including tactical operations, counter-terrorism and riots.
The vehicles will transport officers to negotiators during operations where protection from hostile weapon fire and a safe base of operations is required.
One of the nine-tonne BearCats are equipped with an extendable ramp which will allow officers to access multi-storey buildings and aircraft for the first time – an Australian first.
Minister for police and counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said the custom vehicles would greatly improve the capability of police to disrupt “high-risk situations” across the state.
NSW police commissioner Karen Webb said the vehicles were “about protecting our specialist officers”.
All of these vehicles are bullet and blast resistant and have the capacity to transport hostages or injured personnel.
Man found dead with stab wounds in Sydney
A man in Sydney’s south-west has been found deceased with multiple stab wounds after an alleged concern for welfare call was made.
About 9pm on Saturday, emergency services received a triple zero call at a home in Belmore. On arrival, police found the body of a man – believed to be in his 30s – and a 24-year-old man at the scene.
Initial inquiries alleged a number of stab wounds were found on the deceased man’s body.
The other man was taken to Concord Hospital for further assessment under police guard and later taken to Campsie police station for further inquiries.
The body is yet to be formally identified.
A crime scene has been established and inquiries are continuing.
ABC apologises as Radio National and other services hit by outages
Back to ABC RN, which is still playing silence for this blogger, and the broadcaster has provided an update over the technical difficulties – which have now lasted almost an hour.
In a statement, it told Guardian Australia the outages were also hitting some other audio broadcasting and streaming services.
The ABC is aware of an issue which began after 8:00am AEDT this morning and is impacting Radio National and other audio services on broadcast and streaming services including ABC listen.
The ABC apologises for any inconvenience caused and we are working to understand and resolve the issue as soon as possible.
Pocock launches re-election campaign as ‘safeguard’ if Coalition takes power
Independent senator David Pocock has pitched himself as a politician critical to “safeguarding” action on climate change if opposition leader Peter Dutton wins minority government at the upcoming federal election, AAP reports.
The former rugby union star is vying for a second term as an ACT senator and launched his re-election campaign at Old Parliament House late on Sunday, telling his supporters:
Particularly if we see a Dutton minority government, the Senate will be critical on safeguarding some of the very hard-won gains on things like climate.
Finance minister Katie Gallagher holds the only other ACT Senate spot and until Pocock was elected, the two seats were usually occupied by one representative each from Labor and the Liberals.
Pocock said he was “just getting started” and that standing up to major parties would be a bigger part of his campaign centred around climate, cost of living, housing and health.
Advocate and student Hannah Vardy was announced as his running mate, put forward as a voice for young people.
The fourth-year law, biology and climate science student was part of a campaign for parliament to legislate a duty of care to younger generations regarding climate change action.
Crisafulli to give presser at Gold Coast high school
The Queensland government has just announced that the premier, David Crisafulli, and the minister for education, John-Paul Langbroek, will hold a news conference this morning.
They will be appearing at Helensvale state high school on the Gold Coast at 9.30am local time.
Putting my education hat on – Queensland is the only state or territory that hasn’t signed up to the federal government’s public school funding deal ahead of the federal election.
Previous announcements have seen premiers appearing alongside the federal minister for education, Jason Clare, so it will be interesting to see if we receive an update.
We have now clocked up half an hour of soothing violins and apologies from ABC Radio National or, if you’re an app user like me … silence.
We are still waiting to hear back from the ABC as to what the problem is, but in the meantime, it appears local stations are working as normal.
NSW swelters in up to 39C before cool change
New South Wales was hit with an autumn scorcher on Sunday, with maximum temperatures up to 12 degrees above the March average in Sydney.
That’s according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jonathan How, who said many parts of NSW peaked above 35 degrees, particularly across the west and central parts of the state.
Temperatures peaked above 37 degrees in the Sydney CBD, and reached 39.3 at Sydney airport.
Then the cool change arrived. How said:
In Sydney, the temperature dropped eight degrees in just 30 minutes before 1am from 31 degrees to 23 degrees in a short period of time. And many other places across the coast did also see quite a sharp drop in temperature as that strong southerly change pushed through.
We saw that cool change move through Victoria and Tasmania earlier in the day, on Sunday that was associated with a very strong cold front pushing through south eastern parts of the country. We saw plenty of showers, some strong winds, and also a significant drop in temperature across both Tasmania and also Victoria.
How said temperatures would begin to rise again from Tuesday and get “quite warm” by the middle of the week across South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW.
Man drowns in Hunter region waterhole
A man in his 20s has drowned at a waterhole near Dungog in the Hunter region of New South Wales.
About 3.45pm yesterday officers were called to a swimming hole at Ladies Well at Upper Allyn – about 48km north-west of Dungog – following reports of concern for the welfare of a swimmer.
Police arrived and with the assistance of paramedics, police divers and rescue, a man’s body was retrieved from the water.
He is yet to be formally identified but is believed to be aged in his 20s.
A crime scene has been established and inquiries are under way.
ABC Radio National falls silent
If you, like many in our Guardian office, start your morning with ABC Radio National – you would have noticed the broadcast has cut out.
The ABC app is silent, as are web broadcasting streams, but the analogue radio is playing classical music, with the occasional interlude of:
We apologise for this break in our program, we will return to normal programming as soon as possible.
We’ve reached out to the ABC and will bring you the latest on what’s occurred as soon as we have it.
Crisafulli on Cyclone Alfred’s billion-dollar cost
The premier of Queensland, David Crisafulli, appeared on the Today show this morning following media reports suggesting Tropical Cyclone Alfred will cost the budget around $1.2bn.
Asked if he was concerned the hit might signal a limit to the amount of financial assistance affected residents would receive, he said the state government’s focus was “to make sure we go from response to recovery”.
We’ve got to do things differently. So I acknowledge it might cost a little bit more up front to do that. But why would you replace things to the same substandard? In the end, it’s going to cost you more in the long run to have to constantly go back and pick up the pieces.
But there’s also the social and the community disconnect that comes with that. We’ve, over the years, we’ve rebuilt bridges to the same standard in the same location and expected a different result. That’s crazy. And I’m determined not to do that. So yes, I acknowledge that it’s a bit of a cost up front, but long term it will pay for itself many, many times over.
Power has been restored to all households overnight, the premier confirmed, and all schools impacted by the cyclone have reopened.
Ndis costs stabilising and on track for target – Rishworth
The minister for social services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Ndis), Amanda Rishworth, says the scheme is tracking $700m lower than initially forecast this financial year.
That’s according to the latest Ndis monthly data for the end of February, placing the year-on-year growth rate at around 10%, down from the 12% growth forecast for this financial year.
Rishworth said the results showed scheme costs were stabilising and on track to reach an 8% growth rate target by July 2026.
We have had a strong focus on providing greater clarity on what Ndis funding can and cannot be spent on, on preventing fraud, and on improving planning to make it more consistent, transparent and fairer.
We know there is more to be done, but these reforms are bringing us closer to the original intent of the scheme – to provide genuine choice and control, and provide reasonable and necessary supports, to people with a permanent and significant disability so they can participate in everyday activities.
Angus Taylor to release income tax figures but does not promise tax cut
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, is doing the media rounds this morning ahead of a pre-election tour to eight marginal seats in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
He told ABC News Breakfast he’d be talking about the “economic mismanagement of this Labor government and how it’s trashed Australia’s standard of living”.
On Monday, the Coalition will release figures showing Australians are paying more income tax than the last financial year. Asked if he was flagging a new round of income tax cuts if the Liberals win the election, Taylor said they were putting them out to “make the point that Australia’s standard of living has collapsed”.
Asked why the Coalition hadn’t announced more policies yet, which drew criticism from colleagues in the Australian, Taylor said they’d announced “lots of policies”.
Re-establishing the fiscal guardrails that ensure you have strong economic management, making sure small businesses have incentives to invest. Fixing the housing supply in this country through the housing infrastructure fund. And getting rid of unnecessary red tape.
The one thing about this job – and I’m sure it’s true of your job – you get a lot of free advice. And that is the nature of what you and I do.
Body of missing six-year-old found in NSW bushland
A body has been located during a search for a missing six-year-old girl, AAP reports.
The girl was last seen in North Nowra, in southern NSW, on Sunday afternoon.
Police were notified when the girl could not be located, with officers from South Coast police district launching an investigation and wide-scale search for her.
Police said a body was located during the search within bushland in the North Nowra area about 6pm on Sunday.
“While it is yet to be formally identified, it is believed to be that of the missing girl,” police said in a statement.
An investigation into the incident is under way, and a report will be prepared for the coroner.
Josh Butler
Labor vows to boost price comparison tool for doctor appointments
Labor will spend $7m to boost a costs comparison website for medical specialists, in a bid to help people find cheaper doctors’ appointments.
Health minister Mark Butler will make the announcement today in Perth, with the government pledging to – if re-elected – “fix” an existing price disclosure tool called Medical Costs Finder.
Butler’s office said the website was meant to use Medicare data to show the typical cost of specialists’ appointments. Set up under the former Coalition government in 2019, and continued under Labor, only a small number of doctors had actually uploaded their costs to the site.
Senate estimates heard in June last year that only 20 doctors were disclosing their fees on the $24m website. Butler’s office said today only about 70 had now done so.
Labor’s pledge, to be included in this month’s budget and instituted if the government retains power at the coming election, is that every eligible specialist across all non-GP specialities would have their average fees displayed on the website.
A new $7m cash injection would allow Medicare, hospital and insurer data to be displayed on the site, so as to not impose any extra administrative tasks on doctors. Insurers will also be required to show their data.
Butler:
It’s a service that has been left gathering dust and doesn’t help patients determine specialist out-of-pocket costs.
The Albanese Labor government will help Australians find the best value when they need specialist medical advice and treatment, by upgrading the Medical Costs Finder to give more transparency on fees.
Natasha May
Doctors’ union to Minns: ‘fix the problem or let the system collapse completely’
In a statement released ahead of the arbitration beginning this morning in Sydney, the president of the doctors’ union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), Dr Nick Spooner, said:
My psychiatrist colleagues are burnt out, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. They are dedicated to providing the best care for their patients, but they cannot provide safe care under these conditions.
The solution to this crisis is not complicated. It’s about valuing psychiatrists, paying them fairly, and ensuring that NSW has enough doctors to provide the care patients deserve.
The Minns government has a choice – fix the problem or let the system collapse completely.
As part of the arbitration proceedings, Asmof will call on the Minns government to act immediately to fix the crisis by urgently recruiting additional psychiatrists to fill vacancies, fully funding training and registration fees to attract new doctors, and providing a 25% pay increase for psychiatrists to stem the flow of doctors leaving NSW.
They also want to see the establishment of a formal psychiatry workforce committee to oversee staffing and recruitment and implement a structured dispute resolution process to improve working conditions.
Natasha May
Doctors accuse Minns government of putting lives at risk in psychiatrist dispute
The doctors’ union is warning the NSW government’s refusal to take action on the psychiatrists workforce crisis is putting lives at risk, as the matter goes to arbitration today.
Psychiatrists resigned en masse from staff specialist positions last month after the government rejected their proposed solution of a special levy to increase their pay by 25%, similar to that which emergency doctors received in 2015.
With 140 vacancies unfilled before the mass resignation, doctors claimed the rise in pay would stem the cycle of specialist doctors leaving the public system because of the untenable workload for those left, and the moral injury felt being unable to give patients the quality of care they want to.
The NSW government asked the Industrial Relations Commission to urgently intervene in January, with the date for expedited arbitration a full bench of the commission to hear the dispute set from 17-21 March.
Of the 206 who intended to resign, 62 have followed through with resignations but many more have either deferred their resignations or transferred to visiting medical officer contracts whilst they await the outcome of the IRC process.
Good morning
Politicians have been warned against “election sweeteners” as economists flag growing fiscal holes in Australia’s budget, AAP reports.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has started feeding commitments to the public ahead of the 25 March budget and is expected to announce disaster recovery funds for Queensland and northern NSW communities battered by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
The cyclone is projected to add at least $1.2bn to the upcoming budget, on top of $11.6bn blocked out for disaster support, new figures show. It has already dealt a billion-dollar hit to GDP, could wipe one quarter of a percentage point from quarterly growth, caused the economy to shed 12m work hours, and could put upwards pressure on inflation.
In New South Wales, the body of a six-year-old girl has been found in bushland north of Nowra after as wide-scale search and rescue operation was launched on Sunday. Inquiries are under way.
Still in NSW, the premier, Chris Minns, has announced a mini cabinet reshuffle, triggered by the resignation of former transport minister Jo Haylen last month. Interim transport minister John Graham will permanently remain in the portfolio, and Lismore MP Janelle Saffin will be promoted to a ministerial position.
And arbitration over a mass-resignation of psychiatrists in NSW over industrial disputes will begin today – more on that to come.
I’m Caitlin Cassidy, let’s get into it.