Australia news live: search for missing Kosciuszko hiker to enter 12th day; cool change to break east coast heatwave
Key events
Federal government announces $7.2bn funding for Bruce Highway
The federal government has today announced a $7.2bn funding injection for the Bruce Highway in Queensland – around 80% of the upgrades needed to make the 1600km stretch safer.
The transport minister Catherine King spoke with ABC News Breakfast just earlier about the announcement, which is aiming to get the road up to a three-star rating:
At the moment there are sections of this road that remain at one and two-star rating … When you have grade separation, when you have barriers, when you take out some of the dangerous curves, that really does reduce the road safety risk of a road and there are sections of this road – particularly up around the Mackay end – that are still at one star.
And we have seen over 40 people last year [lose] their lives … on the Bruce Highway, and this investment will go to lifting the road safety improvement and productivity of what is the single biggest artery right the way through Queensland.
Search for missing Kosciuszko hiker to enter 12th day
A search will resume for a missing bushwalker last seen on Boxing Day, AAP reports, after the deployment of specialist search-and-rescue crews, as temperatures climb and a bushfire burns in the area.
Hadi Nazari, 23, has not been seen since about 2.30pm on 26 December when he began descending the Hannels Spur trail in the Kosciuszko National Park near Geehi, between Khancoban and Thredbo.
Two friends reported him missing when he did not arrive at the campground where they planned to meet. Rubbish and hiking poles believed to have belonged to Nazari were found on Tuesday but there has been no sighting of him despite the ongoing search efforts.
Specially trained volunteers camped overnight as other experts were winched in by aircraft to search at the weekend, with hot and humid conditions adding to the difficulty of searching the rugged terrain. More than 300 people have been involved in the search operation, NSW Police said.
Temperatures reached 37C at Geehi on Sunday afternoon with a milder top of 28C forecast today. A fire in the national park near Hannels Spur was brought under control by Sunday afternoon with an alert area of some 40 hectares.
Welcome
Emily Wind
Good morning, and welcome back to the Australia news live blog – our first for 2025. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage.
A search will today resume for missing bushwalker Hadi Nazari, 23, who was last seen on Boxing Day in the Kosciuszko national park. The search is entering its 12th day, AAP reports, after the deployment of specialist search-and-rescue crews, as temperatures climb and a bushfire burns in the area. We’ll have more on this in a moment.
Meanwhile, winds from the Southern Ocean will bring relief to parts of south-eastern Australia who have sweltered through a three-day heatwave. As Royce Kurmelovs reports, the wind change is expected to draw cold air up through Victoria and bring much-needed relief, including to fire crews working on the fire front in the Grampians.
As always, you can reach out with any questions, feedback or tips via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s get started.
