Key Points
- Deadly east coast storm heads south
- Millions of Sydney residents subject to transport delays
- Bryce Cotton will return to NBL for Adelaide
TRANSCRIPT
Resupply efforts for 50,000 isolated NSW residents are ramping up, as heavy rain and flooding continues along Australia's east coast.
The slow-moving trough is heading south toward Central Coast, Sydney and South Coast, after bringing heavy falls to the Hunter, Blue Mountains, Sydney and Southern Highlands.
Four people have now died as a result of the floods, with the body of a man in his late 70s found after a car was discovered in floodwaters at Nana Glen near Coffs Harbour.
More than 675 flood rescues have already been conducted, and the Australian Defence Force says it has rescued more than a dozen people by helicopter.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting flood affected communities and says more ADF support is ready to be deployed.
"We will make other defence force personnel available for assistance should it be requested; they remain always ready to help their fellow Australians."
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More than six million people are being warned of transport delays, blocked roads and flash flooding as Sydney and surrounds are impacted by heavy rain.
The Nepean Dam is overflowing, and Australia's largest urban water supply, the Warragamba Dam, may spill depending on where rain falls through the afternoon.
Train services have been thrown into disarray across the central region as floodwaters affect services in the city loop, Blue Mountains, Mittagong, Cockle Creek and Sandbridge.
The Coordinator General of Transport new South Wales Howard Collins urges caution on the roads, saying non-essential travel should be minimised.
"It's very dynamic and changing, so just because you've had a glance at your internet and set out on the road, the situation may change. The advice from the roads is if you don't need to travel this afternoon, please minimise those essential journeys, particularly as you head out west, south, and north of Sydney."
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Former Nationals Leader Michael McCormack says he was just joking when using a phrase that has historically preceded a leadership challenge.
Mr McCormack, who is the current Member for Riverina, said he was 'ambitious for him' when asked about current leader David Littleproud's ability to lead the party, a phrase said by Scott Morrison in 2018 two days before he successfully challenged Malcolm Turnbull to become Prime Minister.
Michael McCormack is one of several Nationals who opposed leaving the coalition during a party room meeting earlier this week.
Speaking with SBS News, Mr McCormack clarified his remarks.
"Oh, it's just a bit tongue in cheek. You know, we can't all be deadly serious all the time, Anna, I mean, you know, you can have a bit of humour along the way. I support David. He knows that. And I mean his tenure as the as the party leader, is up to the party room."
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Greens leader Larissa Waters says it would be 'climate craziness' to approve Woodside's Northwest Shelf expansion project.
Newly minted Environment Minister Murray Watt will decide on the fate of the expanded gas project in Western Australia by the end of the month, with Woodside seeking a license that lasts until 2070.
Overnight, the federal government dismissed conservationists' request for an eleventh-hour review of the project.
Ms Waters says the project needs to be scrapped to protect the climate.
"Approving a project out to 2070 when we're meant to be having net zero by 2050 and when the science says we need it even before then is just unthinkable. The Labor government didn't campaign on approving fossil fuels out to 2070, they said they cared about the climate, and people want that."
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The national peak body for First Nations children says support for the Aboriginal community-controlled sector has never been more important, in the wake of new out-of-home care data.
The report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found Indigenous children in out-of-home care are less likely to be reunified with their families than other children.
It also highlights that in the last five years, Indigenous children have become increasingly less likely to be reunited with their families.
The data is part of ongoing national monitoring of the child protection system and has sparked renewed calls for urgent reform to close the gap.
CEO of SNAICC – National Voice for Our Children, Catherine Liddle, says children supported by Aboriginal controlled organisations in their out of home care are much more likely to reunite with their families.
"Where there has been an Aboriginal community-controlled service involved the stats are different, and we're actually getting a higher return of children to their communities, so the evidence has never been so stark. We need immediate transition of service delivery into the Aboriginal community-controlled sector, if we're really going to be serious about making sure children get home."
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To sport and in basketball, the Adelaide 36ers have confirmed NBL icon Bryce Cotton will be returning to the league, after he appeared likely to have played his last game.
Cotton will join the team on a three-year deal.
It comes only months after the man widely regarded among the NBL's greatest-ever players knocked back a contract extension at Perth and said he was unlikely to play for another NBL team.
Cotton's arrival at the Sixers looms as a major boost for a side that returned to the post-season this year for the first time since 2018.
