Australia news live: evacuation warnings as NSW flood waters rise; Victoria’s budget to be handed down; RBA expected to cut cash rate
Key events
‘Udderly devastated’: fibreglass cow stolen from Victorian business
A lifesize fibreglass cow called Betsy has been stolen from a business in Truganina.
Victorian police are appealing for witnesses after the theft at 1:20am Saturday 27 April this year.
They have been told three unknown offenders attended the business premises on Peterpaul Way in the trailer of a Holden VE Commodore station wagon. Two of them exited the Holden in balaclavas and dark clothing, and the third and a driver stayed in the vehicle.
The pair lifted Betsy into the back of the trailer before leaving the scene east along Schembri Drive, police said
“Betsy’s owners are udderly devastated.”
Betsy is red and white, life-sized, and estimated to be worth $3,500. Police have released an image and CCTV footage of Betsy in the hope someone knows of the statue’s whereabouts.
Rafqa Touma
Thanks to Martin Farrer for kicking off the live blog this morning. I’ll be keeping you posted from here – let’s go.
Flood warnings from the NSW SES this morning include:
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Advice to evacuate Gloucester Caravan Park by 6am due to rising floodwaters,
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Advice to evacuate Ferndale Caravan Park due to floodwaters,
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Advice to evacuate parts of Bulahdelah by 6am due to rising floodwaters,
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Advice to evacuate parts of Dungog due to major flooding, and
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Advice to evacuate parts of Paterson due to major flooding.
There are more details on the Hazardwatch site.
NSW issues severe weather warning for mid-north coast
The NSW SES issued a severe weather warning early this morning for the mid-north coast, advising people to stay indoors due to heavy rainfall, intense rainfall and damaging winds.
The warning covers:
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Port Macquarie
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Taree
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Kempsey
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Barrington Tops
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Wingham
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Yarrowitch
The SES said 166mm of rain was recorded at Taree airport in the 6 hours to 3:30am, 130mm at Port Macquarie, 97mm at Mount Barrington and 90.4mm at Careys Peak (Barrington Tops).
There were 70km/h sustained winds at Norah Head at around 9:30 pm.
The Bureau of Meteorology says a coastal trough – currently positioned offshore from the southern mid north coast – is forecast to slowly track northwards into Tuesday, with heavy, locally intense rainfall and possible damaging winds expected over coastal and inland areas on the southern side of the trough. Damaging winds are likely to ease during Tuesday, while heavy, locally intense rainfall may continue into Wednesday.
The rain may lead to dangerous flash flooding and the damaging winds are expected to ease by the afternoon.
Residents are advised to move or stay indoors clear of windows, bringing children and pets with them. The SES said to reconsider unneccessary travel and to have an emergency kit and grab-and-go bag handy in case of loss of power.
Japanese firms ‘profiting from on-selling Australian LNG’, report claims
Japanese energy firms could be making upwards of $1 bn on-selling Australian liquefied natural gas to other countries at a time when domestic shortfalls loom, Australian Associated Press reports.
Australia is the top supplier to Japan’s third-party trade business, a new analysis suggests, making up roughly 40% of cargos with an estimated 600-800 petajoules on-sold via the intermediary.
The findings from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis follow repeat warnings of domestic gas shortages as well as several interventions into Australian energy policy debate by Japanese figures.
IEEFA Australia’s chief executive, Amandine Denis-Ryan, said it was “quite extraordinary” for Australia to be running out of gas for domestic use – and considering importing it – while Japan resells “enormous volumes of our gas overseas for a profit”.
The energy analysts drew on shiptracking and contracts data to understand how much Australian LNG was being resold via Japan.
The upwards of 600PJ estimated annually surpasses the 511PJ used by eastern Australian markets last year.
Resales from both eastern and western Australia also eclipsed projected annual gas shortfalls in those regions. In addition, emerging nations were not the top customers of repackaged Australian LNG – two-thirds of on-sold Australian product was going to Taiwan and South Korea.
Good morning from overnight
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 take charge.
It’s a big day for anyone with a mortgage with an overwhelming majority of economists expecting the Reserve Bank to cut the cash rate by a quarter point at its monthly monetary policy meeting. But the experts don’t all agree this is the most likely outcome. We’ll have it as soon as it happens at 2.30pm.
Victoria’s health system will receive an $11.1bn cash injection when the state budget is handed down this morning, with hospitals to receive more funding and pharmacists given greater powers to prescribe medications without the need for a GP visit. We’ll have all the details as soon as it happens.
Penny Wong, the foreign minister, will visit three Pacific island nations this week in her first standalone trip after Labor’s election win. Anthony Albanese, who is near the end of his first trip overseas trip since the election, will be in Singapore.
Also in politics: we’ll bring you all the latest from the counts in the few seats left uncalled – plus the tricky Coalition negotiations.
And there’s some wild weather north of Sydney, with strong winds in the Hunter and evacuation warnings for towns there and on the mid-north coast. We’ll have more details of that for you very soon
