Australia news live: remote WA communities escape worst of Tropical Cyclone Zelia; Labor to match foreign investors ban on housing
Key events
Independent MP Allegra Spender will speak to the ABC Insiders host, David Speers, this morning.
Meanwhile the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has given a long interview to Sky news.
We will bring you all the latest as it happens.
WA residents pick up pieces after tropical cyclone
Regional towns lashed by Tropical Cyclone Zelia face being isolated for days with limited food supplies as communities begin to count the cost of the destructive weather event, AAP reports.
The cyclone made landfall at Port Hedland in north-west Western Australia as a category four, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds, but has weakened to a tropical low as it tracks southwards.
The WA premier, Roger Cook, said there were no reported deaths or injuries as on-alert communities escaped the worst of the cyclone.
Emergency crews have begun assessing the damage but the downgraded weather system is still dumping significant rain on parts of the Pilbara region, exacerbating flooding.
Major roads have flooded, cutting off critical connections for supply deliveries including the North West Coastal Highway between Port Hedland and Broome.
Emergency warnings remain for people in the Pilbara towns of Warralong and Marble Bar, with the WA Fire and Emergency Services commissioner Darren Klemm warning heavy rain and flooding was not expected to subside until next week.
The DeGrey River is expected to reach major flood levels at the Great Northern Highway.
The weather bureau warns flood peaks at DeGrey are approaching the 2013 level of 8.61 metres and could reach 8.86 metres – a height not seen in a quarter of a century.
Good Morning
And welcome to another Sunday Guardian live blog.
Pilbara residents are beginning to clean up after Tropical Cyclone Zelia made landfall at Port Hedland in Western Australia’s far north, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds. The cyclone struck as residents of northern parts of Queensland have started their own recovery process after two weeks of torrential rain and major flooding.
The Albanese government will match an existing Coalition policy by moving to ban the purchase of homes in Australia by foreign buyers for two years. The decision will contain some exceptions for investments that “significantly increase housing supply” and for participants in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs and I’ll be taking the blog through the day.
With that, let’s get started …
