Only one of 16 alleged neo-Nazis arrested at Invasion Day rally was from SA, premier says
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, spoke to ABC News Breakfast a short while ago about arrests involving an alleged neo-Nazi group delaying Adelaide’s Invasion Day rally on the weekend.
He said:
As a society, I think that it demonstrates the need for us to place a high value collectively on a civil political discourse, rather than an extreme one.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that of the 16 arrests, only one person was from South Australia and the rest were scattered from all over the country and for whatever reason, decided to convene in Adelaide.
Key events
A resident of Dimboola, Bruce Donnelly, took these photos yesterday as it hit 43.6° in Dimboola and the Little Desert erupted with fires and extremely high winds.
A second emergency warning has been issued for Strachans, Victoria Point and Victoria Valley in the Grampians national park.
That blaze is about 180 hectares, in an area that has a mix of private property and campsites.
The area was not affected by fires at the Grampians earlier this summer, with holidaymakers and residents now told to evacuate while it’s still safe to do so.
People in the path of fires have been told to take medications and pets, while those travelling in the area are urged to turn on their headlights to help navigate through smoke.
State Control Centre spokesperson Luke Heagerty said it’s expected crews would be battling the fires for several weeks and authorities are concerned there may be other fires they do not yet know about.
We can also have scenarios where dry lightning starts a fire in a tree stump, for example, it might not show up for another week or two.
We’re probably expecting that we’re going to be fairly busy out of what we saw moved through the state yesterday.
– Australian Associated Press
More on the out-of-control bushfires threatening homes and holiday spot in Victoria
Firefighters are battling two out-of-control bushfires, with residents of a regional town told it’s too late to leave and holidaymakers at a national park urged to flee while they still can.
The blazes are at Dimboola and Wail in northwest Victoria near the South Australian border, and in the southwestern part of the Grampians National Park.
The Dimboola fire was sparked by dry lightning at Little Desert National Park about lunch time on Monday and has already grown to 63,000 hectares, State Control Centre spokesperson Luke Heagerty said.
“The fire grew to such a size and was carrying such energy with it yesterday that it made it quite difficult for any containment to occur,” Heagerty told AAP.
He said it appears the fire had spread from public land to private property near the Wimmera River, close to the Dimboola Golf Course.
It’s believed most residents had evacuated to Horsham while it was still safe and it’s not yet known if any homes were lost. Heagerty said:
Assessments for property impacts will start today once there’s some better light in the area and it’s safe for our crews to do so, because they still need to make sure that it’s safe even for our crews to get in there and have a look at the impacts of the fire.
An additional 25 fire trucks were sent to attack that fire, with embers sparking small blazes ahead of the main blaze.
– Australian Associated Press
More to come in the next blog post.
More than 1,200 sites in NSW still affected by power outage after storm
More than 1,200 sites are affected by power outages this morning following lightning and stormy weather conditions in New South Wales last night.
The number of outage sites listed on the Ausgrid site jumped to more than 2,400 earlier this morning, after a tree fell in Cessnock. Power was out for those sites for less than 30 minutes.
The number of outages is back to 1,211 as of 10am this morning.
Motoring body drives push for road safety ratings
A globally recognised risk rating system should determine how the Australian government funds major roads, a peak motoring body says.
The national road toll has hit a 12-year high, with 1,300 people killed on roads in 2024, up from 1,258 the previous year.
Federal road funding would be better based on a risk assessment for the road, including information about how the proposed work will lift the road’s safety rating, the Australian Automobile Association says.
The International Road Assessment Program protocols help road authorities identify safety upgrades that will reduce road deaths and injuries. It is used in about 130 countries, including Greece, Vietnam, Croatia and Saudi Arabia.
The Australian version of the assessment program would highlight where the risk of fatal or serious injury is greatest across the road network.
The star ratings, between one and five, would be calculated using a range of risk factors and information, such as average daily traffic, speed limits, the number of lanes in each direction and the presence or absence of road barriers. That information would then be overlaid with crash data to understand how infrastructure contributes to crashes, enabling authorities to identify potential road works that will reduce the risks.
The Association says the greatest number of lives saved and serious injuries avoided per dollar invested are seen when upgrading low star roads to at least three-star safety standard.
– Australian Associated Press
Oceanography head named as Australian chief scientist
Oceanography professor and former CSIRO chief Tony Haymet has been appointed as Australia’s next chief scientist.
The science minister, Ed Husic, said Haymet would be able to provide advice on different approaches for scientific work in Australia. He told ABC Radio earlier this morning:
He’s got extensive experience advising government on science, particularly taking science leadership around climate change.
As we diversify supply chains, that means we need to do things differently and be able to find new ways of getting things done.
Haymet is a former director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and was the chief of marine research at the CSIRO. As well as serving as the chair of the Antarctic Science Foundation, he co-found MRV Systems, a company that makes robots used in the ocean.
He will take over from Cathy Foley, who finished up in the role in December. He is the tenth person to be named as chief scientist and will serve a three-year term.
– Australian Associated Press
Search resumes for missing man in NSW’s Murrumbidgee River
NSW police will resume a search in the state’s south today for a man missing in the Murrumbidgee River.
Just after 2pm on Sunday, a 37-year-old man was reportedly seen to fall from a recreational floating device that was being towed behind a boat on the river at Darlington Point, a NSW Police statement said.
He failed to resurface and could not be found.
Officers responded with assistance from NSW Ambulance, State Emergency Service and Volunteer Rescue Association who commenced a search. The search recommenced at 7.30am yesterday with NSW police divers attending.
The man is yet to be found, with the search resuming at 7.30am today.
AFP warns parents over rise in AI-generated child abuse material
There has been an increase in the use of AI-generated child abuse material in the past year, including students creating material like deepfakes to harass or embarrass classmates, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation has said.
AFP Cmdr Helen Schneider said young people might not know that creating such material of classmates using AI could constitute a criminal offence:
Children and young people are curious by nature, however, anything that depicts the abuse of someone under the age of 18 – whether that’s videos, images, drawings or stories – is child abuse material, irrespective of whether it is ‘real’ or not.
The AFP encourages all parents and guardians to have open and honest conversations with their child on this topic, particularly as AI technology continues to become increasingly accessible and integrated into platforms and products.
Only one of 16 alleged neo-Nazis arrested at Invasion Day rally was from SA, premier says
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, spoke to ABC News Breakfast a short while ago about arrests involving an alleged neo-Nazi group delaying Adelaide’s Invasion Day rally on the weekend.
He said:
As a society, I think that it demonstrates the need for us to place a high value collectively on a civil political discourse, rather than an extreme one.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that of the 16 arrests, only one person was from South Australia and the rest were scattered from all over the country and for whatever reason, decided to convene in Adelaide.
Emergency warnings over two out-of-control bushfires
Here is more on the major bushfire warnings in Victoria.
Residents in the path of an out-of-control bushfire have been told they are in immediate danger and it’s too late to leave, while those under threat by a second raging blaze are urged to flee while there’s still time.
An emergency warning to take shelter has been issued for Dimboola and Wail in Victoria’s northwest, with a fire at Little Desert National Park not yet under control and heading east.
The VicEmergency website states:
You are in danger and need to act immediately to survive.
The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately. It is too late to leave.
A second out-of-control fire is burning at Strachans, Victoria Point and Victoria Valley in Grampians national park in the state’s west, an area popular with holidaymakers.
As of 7am on Monday, anyone in affected areas was told they still had time to evacuate.
“Leaving immediately is the safest option before conditions become too dangerous,” the emergency authority said.
Emergency services may not be able to help you if you decide to stay.
People in the path of fires have been told to take medications and pets, while those travelling in the area are urged to turn on their headlights to help navigate through smoke.
The blaze flared over the long weekend as temperatures reached the high 40s, followed by a cool change and gusty winds.
– Australian Associated Press
Bid for better education standards to fix skills crisis
Australia must set new education targets aimed at returning to the top 10 rankings among developed countries for key subjects, or else risk a chronic skills shortage, a peak business group says.
The Business Council of Australia is calling for a lift in standards to reverse the decline in students’ performance and for a careers counsellor to be placed in every school to help meet future demand.
Data taken from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows Australia’s education performance had fallen since 2006.
While Australia was once ranked sixth for reading and science and eighth in mathematics, it slipped out of the top 10 for reading and maths in 2022 and was 10th for science.
Council chief executive, Bran Black, said year 12 retention rates were also an issue with current data showing only 79% of students staying on to that year – the lowest rate in 12 years.
He said the trends were a major concern for the nation’s economic prosperity and jobs pipeline if things weren’t improved:
We can’t be a leader in AI, digital skills and a developer of new technologies in advanced manufacturing if we’re not equipping our students with the basic skills and education required to take on those jobs.
– Australian Associated Press
Rafqa Touma
Good morning, Rafqa Touma here to roll your live blog updates through the day. Thank you to Martin Farrer for kicking us off this morning.
Federal agency directed to consider home solar funding
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, has written to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to accelerate solar electrification projects and save households more cash.
Bowen used ministerial powers to direct the board to consider funding solar panels and home batteries after a deal struck with crossbenchers in exchange for support on Labor’s Future Made in Australia legislation. The minister wrote to the agency in late 2024 but only revealed the direction on Tuesday.
The agency has to look at funding a project in every state and territory, including at least one in an Indigenous community and one in a low socioeconomic area.
They would be modelled off the North Wollongong community electrification testbed funded by the renewable energy agency in 2024.
Projects will still be subject to a final independent assessment by the agency’s board.
It will allow chosen suburbs to act as test beds for the regulatory changes needed to scale up renewable energy use and scope out how government support can help achieve electrification, independent senator David Pocock said.
The Future Made in Australia legislation, which leverages billions of dollars to invest in renewable energy and critical resources needed for such technology, missed an opportunity to support household electrification, Pocock said.
“This agreement helps remedy that gap,” he said.
– Australian Associated Press
Read more here:
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Labor government to spruik childcare savings
The Albanese government will attempt to shift the political debate to childcare today, trumpeting its record in cutting fees for families and shoring up the educator workforce as it spruiks its long-term vision for a universal system.
As workers return to the office after the Australia Day long weekend, Labor will release new figures showing families on an income of $120,000 a year have saved about $2,770 in childcare fees since new subsidies were introduced in July 2023.
Separately, new data reveals the number of online job ads for early childhood educators has fallen 22% since December 2023, a decline the government argues is a sign providers are managing to retain staff.
It will point to figures from Goodstart – the nation’s largest childcare provider – showing job applications are up 35% year-on-year.
The minister for education, Jason Clare, said the figures were proof the government-funded 15% pay rise over two years for workers was keeping staff in the sector.
This shows our 15 per cent pay rise for early educators is working. Applications are up and job vacancies are down.
Labor has put childcare at the heart of its re-election bid, promising three days of subsidised childcare a week for families earning up to $530,000 and $1bn to build centres in areas of high need.
The commitments, which the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, announced in December, are framed as the next steps in Labor’s long-term plan to create universal childcare.
Anthony Albanese will reiterate that vision today:
Building Australia’s future is about more than bricks and mortar. It’s about investing in people, especially our children and their future opportunities.
We want to make sure we are putting in place the building blocks for a universal childcare system, while providing immediate cost of living relief for families and educators now.
Sydney temperatures tipped to hit 40C
Petra Stock
The Bureau of Meteorology is anticipating milder conditions across much of the south-east today – with the exception of New South Wales – after very high temperatures on Monday.
Senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said it would be a “much milder, more settled day” for the south-east, meaning Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria, but the heat was still peaking through New South Wales.
Sydney CBD is forecast to reach 40C today, with temperatures likely to be higher in the western suburbs.
The risk of wet weather in Queensland is also expected to ramp up, Bradbury said.
We do have that risk of pretty high rainfall totals, the possibility of flash flooding about the north-east tropical coast, just as moisture is directed against the coast and just really ramps up any showers and storms that develop.
Looking ahead into the weekend, Queensland could also see its first tropical cyclone this summer, she said. Low pressure systems forming over the Coral Sea and Gulf of Carpentaria posed a low to moderate chance of becoming a tropical cyclone.
We’ve only seen two cyclones in the Australian region so far, or that have originated in the Australian region so far this season, and they’ve both been in Western Australia.
The forecast this morning for capital cities today is:
Major bushfire warnings in Victoria
There are two major bushfire warnings in Victoria this morning.
Last night at 9pm the CFA issued a “leave immediately” warning for the Grampians, Mirranatwa and Victoria Valley, over a bushfire at Victoria Valley’s Bullawin Rd that was out of control and moving north-east.
And just before 6am the CFA issued a “take shelter” warning – meaning it is too late to leave safely – for Dimboola, Wail, over a bushfire at Little Desert national park that is not yet under control and moving east.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it’ll be Rafqa Touma to guide you through the news day.
Anthony Albanese will be out and about today to spruik his government’s childcare subsidy changes after federal education department figures showed that families have saved an extra $2,768 on average since the extra payments kicked in last year. More coming up.
And on the subject of the cost of living more generally, we have a special investigation today into how the inequality of Australia’s dental care system is forcing people to skip regular checkups and leading to record numbers are turning up to hospitals for dental procedures. The share of costs that the patient pays for dental care is nine times higher than GP visits, and half of the federal money earmarked for dentistry goes to subsidising the uptake of private health insurance.
Most of New South Wales including Sydney and some of its western suburbs can expect temperatures in the high 30s or low 40s today as the state takes the brunt of the front that sent temperatures in parts of South Australia and across Victoria into the 40s yesterday. A cool change has brought relief to the south-east and that cooler air is expected to move north as the day goes on.
But in the wake of the heat there were two major bushfires in Victoria overnight, with some residents in the Grampians and Victoria Valley being told to leave their homes. More on that soon.
