Calls for more to be done to address natural disaster costs
SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections and continuous care for the skies, lands and waterways throughout Australia.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Australia's snowiest weather in three years ahead for long weekend
South-east Australia will collectively shiver this long weekend as a mass of polar air from sub-Antarctic waters brings several days of showers, highland snow and well-below-average temperatures. The cold snap has the potential to bring the heaviest rain in one to two years across southern South Australia and south-west Victoria, a blessing for farmers who are desperate for relief from a record dry 16 months. The wintry storm is also likely to produce Australia's most widespread snow in years — ideal timing for alpine resorts for the opening of the ski season. The past two winters have been very lean snow-wise across Australia — both in terms of the ski season and non-alpine falls. And while winter 2025 is likely to be warmer than normal in general, the frigid air surging north will reduce speed once it reaches Australia, leading to a prolonged polar outbreak from Saturday, including potentially the most widespread snowfalls since 2022. Across the alpine regions, snow will fall above between about 800 and 1,200 metres for at least four days, comfortably below the elevation of our ski slopes, which sit mostly at a height between 1,400 to 2,000m. Modelling is confident the Saturday-Sunday period will drop around 40 to 60 centimetres across the major resorts, which in most years would equate to one of the best dumps of the season. Further snow will fall across the Alps from Monday; however, it's currently unclear whether the back half of the event will bring only a few centimetres each day or further moderate falls. For non-alpine regions, the prospect of snowfalls down to 800 metres raises the potential for a winter wonderland in numerous towns along the Great Dividing Range. In terms of extent, Victoria's snowiest day should be Sunday, followed by NSW on Monday when a dusting is likely on both the southern and central ranges, including around Oberon, Orange and the Blue Mountains. There's even the slight possibility of a quick flurry of snow in the hills around Canberra on Monday, and a few flakes may reach the northern NSW ranges on Tuesday. The Barrington Tops region of the Upper Hunter will also receive snow — falling on multiple days from Sunday onwards due to its high elevation above 1,500m. While major winter storms are more common from late June to August, it was only three years ago that a series of early June fronts brought similarly cold conditions and snow. On that occasion, well over one metre fell on the higher Alps in less than two weeks, so while this event is notable, it's far from record-breaking. For our capitals, temperatures will remain well above June records despite plummeting as much as 4 degrees Celsius below average, including the coldest maximums of: Sunday Adelaide 13C — coldest day since July 2024 (12.5C) Melbourne 12C — coldest day since September 2024 (10.8C) Monday Canberra 9C — coldest day since July 2024 (8.5C) Sydney 16C — was colder on June 4th (14.1C) Tuesday Brisbane 20C — was colder on May 30th (18.9C) The coldest air will bypass Tasmania, resulting in Hobart's maximums of around 14C being slightly above the June average. The presence of sub-Antarctic air well into the mid-latitudes will cause a low-pressure system to form and then track east through Bass Strait this weekend. Low-pressure systems bring rain, and thankfully for farmers, the system's slow movement will supply at least four days of showery weather. However, even before the low develops, a cold front will spread showers east through SA, Tasmania, and Victoria today with an average fall of 1 to 10 millimetres to whet the appetite ahead of the main event. As the low forms on Saturday the intensity of precipitation will increase, although totals will be highly dependent on location. Since winds spin clockwise around a low in the Southern Hemisphere, areas exposed to a westerly will see the heaviest falls on the mainland, including the SA coast and ranges, south-west and mountain Victoria, and the western slopes of the NSW southern ranges. Winds to the south of the low will swing from northerlies to easterlies, also leading to heavy falls across northern and eastern Tasmania. The forecast is more complex for Gippsland, with rainfall intensity dependent on whether the low track south to Tasmania or into eastern Bass Strait from Monday. The map below shows how much rain could accumulate over a five-day period, which would represent the heaviest falls in a year or two for some regions, including: As with most powerful fronts and lows, this weekend's system will generate a belt of strong winds. The Bureau of Meteorology has already issued warnings for strengthening north-westerly winds ahead of the first front for Friday and are likely to reissue warnings for areas of the coast and ranges when the low spins up near Bass Strait. The region likely to face the full force of the low on Saturday is along the coast near the SA-Vic border, where gusts may exceed 100 kilometres per hour, strong enough to bring down trees and lead to damage and power outages. Damaging gusts may also impact central SA and the NSW ranges on Saturday, before the threat eases slightly from Sunday onwards.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese faces a novel challenge in Sussan Ley
Anthony Albanese loves a trophy, especially a human one. He prides himself on his various "captain's pick" candidates — good campaigners he has steered into seats. Way back in the Gillard days, he was key in persuading discontented Liberal Peter Slipper to defect. Slipper became an independent and Labor's speaker. The exercise helped the government's numbers, but the bold play didn't end well for Labor or for Slipper. The government was tarnished, and Slipper, relentlessly pursued by the Coalition and mired in controversy, eventually had to quit the speakership. The affair did produce Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech, however. Now Albanese has another gee-whiz prize — Western Australian Senator Dorinda Cox, who has defected from the Greens. Cox, after being defeated in a bid for Greens deputy leader, approached Labor and the PM drove her course to being accepted into the party. The manoeuvre makes a marginal but insignificant difference to Senate numbers — Labor will still need the Greens to pass legislation opposed by the Coalition. Taking in Cox is a risk, and some in Labor are looking at it askance. The prime minister's embrace of Cox contradicts Labor's argument when its Western Australian senator Fatima Payman defected to become an independent. It said then hers was a Labor seat and she should therefore resign. But this wouldn't be the first time expediency trumped consistency in politics. Cox, who is Indigenous and was spokesperson for First Nations and resources in the last parliament, has been a fierce critic of the extending the North West Shelf gas project, which the government has just announced. Albanese says he is confident she "understands that being a member of the Labor Party means that she will support positions that are made by the Labor Party". She has also faced allegations of treating staff badly. Labor discounts the claims against her, saying they are overblown and a product of Greens factionalism and toxicity. Certainly, she was given a tough time by the hard-left faction represented by deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi. Labor would be wise to ensure Cox feels supported in her new party home. Albanese perhaps calculates that the worst that can happen is there's a blow up and she defects to the crossbench. Labor could shrug and say, she was never really one of us. Snatching a senator from the Greens is particularly satisfying to Albanese because he hates the party so much. Last term, lower house Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather (defeated at the election) really got under his skin. More generally, the Greens held up important legislation, most notably on housing. In the new Senate, Labor will need only the Greens to pass legislation opposed by the Coalition. How new Greens leader Larissa Waters — who replaced Adam Bandt after he lost his seat — handles the party's relationship with the government will be crucial for the more contentious parts of Labor's legislative program. The usually low-key Waters will be under a lot of pressure. The Greens had a bad election, losing three lower house seats. Now they have lost a senator at the start of Waters's watch. Waters conceded on the Serious Danger podcast in late May that Labor had successfully run the narrative of the Greens as blockers. "So, I do think we're going to need to be quite deft in how we handle balance of power in this term, […] People want us to be constructive. They don't just want us to roll over and tick off on any old shit. They want meaningful reforms." Waters will want to pick her fights carefully and also find ways of pursuing the Greens' agenda where the party co-operates. The first deal is likely to be on the government's legislation to increase the tax on those with large superannuation balances, which contains the controversial provision to tax unrealised capital gains. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and her team will confront some of the same problems as the Greens — when to oppose and when to seek to negotiate with the government. For his part, Albanese will have a novel challenge with Ley — what stance to adopt against the first female opposition leader, especially but not only in parliamentary clashes. After facing two alpha-male Liberal leaders, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, a new approach will obviously be necessary. As one Labor man succinctly puts it, "Labor can't monster a woman". There can be no repeat of Albanese, a frontbencher a decade ago in the Shorten opposition, interjecting to urge a female colleague engaged in a stoush with Ley to "smash her". For Ley, trying to deal with the Liberals' multiple difficulties in attracting women voters and candidates must be high on her agenda. Former Liberal federal president Alan Stockdale, one of the three-person group currently running the NSW division of the party, showed himself part of the problem when this week he told the NSW Liberal Women's Council, "The women in this party are so assertive now that we may need some special rules for men to get them pre-selected." Stockdale said later he was being "light-hearted". Tone deaf might be a better term. Ley jumped on him. "There is nothing wrong with being an assertive woman. In fact, I encourage assertive women to join the Liberal Party." The jury is out on whether Ley will be able to make any sort of fist of her near-impossible job. But in the short time she's been leader, she has shown she is willing to be assertive. She emerged from the brief split in the Coalition looking much steadier than Nationals leader David Littleproud, even though she had to persuade her party room to accept the minor party's policy demands. In her frontbench reshuffle, she was willing to wear the inevitable criticism that came with dropping a couple of senior women who had under-performed. As deputy leader, Ley adjusted her style a while before the election, toning down the aggression and sometimes wild attacks, that had characterised her performance earlier in the term. A Liberal source said she found her "line and length". As leader, she will have others, notably deputy Ted O'Brien, to do the head-kicking, giving her room to attempt to develop a positive political persona. Labor leaned into attacking Dutton — never afraid to name him. With Ley, Albanese might adopt the Bob Carr approach of avoiding using his opponent's name. At least until he finds his line and length in dealing with her. Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent at The Conversation, where this article first appeared.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It's been interesting': The awkward questions Brooke Boney gets in England
Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Brooke Boney. The Gamilaroi journalist, 38, has presented for Triple J, NITV, SBS, the ABC and Today, and is completing a master's in public policy at Oxford University. Her debut book, All of It, is a collection of essays. RELIGION Did you grow up with religion? It's a common misconception that all Aboriginal people are super-left or really progressive. There were always missionaries in Aboriginal communities, so in the country areas [Christian] religion is a big part of Aboriginality. My [maternal] grandparents believe in god; we weren't allowed to say any swear words, we weren't even allowed to say 'fart'. I used to go to church with my cousin and her nan and pop and they bought me a Bible, which I still have. The things we were taught about at Sunday school – about fairness, generosity and charity – are good principles. What do you tick now for 'Religion' on the census? Oh, I don't think I'd tick anything.
