Disgraced cop Roger Rogerson dies in jail
Australia’s most notorious disgraced police officer, Roger Rogerson, has died in jail.
Corrective Services NSW confirmed that an 83-year-old inmate died at the Prince of Wales hospital last night about 11.15pm.
A spokesperson said:
As a matter of protocol, Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances.
All deaths in custody are also subject to a coronial inquest.
Last March Rogerson failed to have his murder conviction overturned almost a decade after the cold-blooded killing of a Sydney drug dealer, Jamie Gao.
Both hero and villain during a 28-year NSW police career, Rogerson was at one time considered the force’s most decorated officer.
The culmination of his recognition was to receive the coveted Peter Mitchell award for outstanding police work in 1980, but within six years his career had unravelled spectacularly. You can read more below:
Key events
Defence on stand-by to evacuate NT town amid flooding
Emergency management minister Murray Watt also spoke to ABC News Breakfast during his rounds this morning, and provided a bit more detail on the resources being allocated amid tropical cyclone Kirrily, and the monsoon weather in the Northern Territory.
He said discussions around resources are “continuing in earnest” and would be stepped up during the course of today. A meeting is convened with all the states and territories, and defence is on stand-by to conduct evacuations in Kalkarindji, around 550km south of Darwin.
This comes amid rising water levels at the Victoria River, which runs south and southwest around Katherine.
Watt:
The Kalkarindji community is now facing a major flooding warning. Yesterday, there was a fair bit of work put in with the Northern Territory government, ourselves and the ADF to arrange for evacuations if that’s necessary.
A decision will be made this morning as to whether those evacuations occur and people will be taken to Katherine. We’re talking roughly 450 people that would need to be moved… those evacuations happen today if they end up being necessary.
‘No plans to change’ Australia Day, minister says
Speaking on the Today show, Amanda Rishworth is asked about a decision by Cricket Australia to scrap the term Australia Day at the Brisbane Test match this Friday.
She says these decisions are “ultimately … made by private organisations” but the government’s position is that Australia Day is still recognised on 26 January:
We have absolutely no plans to change that. The prime minister has said that on a number of occasions.
I think it is important that we do, though, acknowledge that Australia Day for some people is a difficult day. For others, it’s a day that is the day they became an Australian citizen and that’s really important to them.
So, it does mean different things to different people, but the government has absolutely no plans to change it and it is a day where we can recognise the resilience of our First Nations people as well as the achievements that we’ve made as a country.
Why fly the caucus to Canberra now?
Minister for social services Amanda Rishworth spoke to the Today show this morning, amid news prime minister Anthony Albanese has summoned the Labor caucus to Canberra to map out cost-of-living measures on Wednesday.
Host Sarah Abo:
This is something you’ve been aware of for several months, in fact, perhaps longer than that. So, why fly to Canberra now?
Rishworth said it was the beginning of the new year and the next phase of cost-of-living relief would be “done this year”:
This year will be a year of delivery. And so at the beginning of the year, it’s not uncommon for political parties to get together. I would suggest that the opposition, from time to time, has flown people to all one place. So, it is a bit two-faced to be criticising the Labor party here. But it will be an important meeting, as will this year be of us continuing to deliver help for Australians.
The criticism Rishworth mentioned here is that it is expensive to bring the Labor caucus together in Canberra on short notice, rather than on Zoom, to which she responded:
We don’t have parliament by Zoom. We don’t have a number of political meetings, committee meetings by Zoom. They are done in person. It is important that MPs do get together and actually put their views forward.
Port Douglas water supply turned off
The water supply to Port Douglas in far north Queensland has been turned off “until further notice”, according to Douglas shire council.
Late last night the council issued an emergency alert that people in Port Douglas, Craiglie and Mowbray would “need to fill water containers now” due to the loss of water services.
The council wrote on Facebook:
The water supply to Port Douglas will be turned off shortly until further notice.
A dramatic drop in the reservoir level a short time ago suggests there might be a major leak in the pipeline.
Previously people in Port Douglas had been urged to reduce their water usage as the council worked to repair leaks in the pipeline network in Mossman.
Watch out for fallen power lines, Sydneysiders warned
Fire and Rescue NSW is warning people across Sydney to be cautious around fallen trees, as live powerlines may be brought down with them.
This comes as the city was lashed by strong winds overnight.
The NSW SES said it responded to nearly 50 incidents across Sydney overnight, with the strong winds mostly impacting the coast.
The hardest hit area was Sutherland, with 15 incidents, but other coastal locations had two or three incidents each.
The Central Coast recorded a few incidents too, the SES said, but the impact was mostly felt in Sydney. No significant damage was reported.
SYDNEY AREA | #FRNSW Please exercise caution around fallen trees as there may be live power lines brought down with them.
— Fire and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) January 21, 2024
Planning for Cyclone Kirrily
Turning to Tropical Cyclone Kirrily, emergency management minister Murray Watt said there was concern about it hitting communities already impacted by Cyclone Jasper last year.
He told ABC RN:
If we’re talking about a category-three system that could have pretty serious effects wherever it crosses landfall.
Watt said he has already started working with the Queensland government to make sure agencies are ready to respond.
I spoke to the Queensland premier about this yesterday to make sure that our processes are aligned and that we’re all working on this together.
More work on that will occur over the course of the day, more meetings convened by the National Emergency Management Agency, just working with the Queensland government in particular, but all state governments about what support would be needed, what pre-positioning of assets and personnel would be needed.
Supermarket prices tumble
Murray Watt claimed that within 24 hours of Craig Emerson being appointment to review the food and grocery code of conduct, Coles reduced some of its prices by 20%.
Even just elevating this issue to the prime minister and making it clear what the government expects is having a result.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to be done. But the prime minister and the treasurer have made clear that they’re open to granting the ACCC additional powers to be able to do more to build on the work that Craig is doing.
I think this is … a really clear sign that the government stands with Australians at the checkouts in the sense that we want to make sure that people are getting fair prices.
This month Emerson, a former Labor trade and consumer affairs minister, was appointed to lead a review of the food and grocery code of conduct. The code governs how Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Metcash, which operates IGA, deal with suppliers and customers. This comes as supermarkets are facing accusations of price gouging. You can read more from Josh Butler below:
‘We are serious about listening to every possible idea’
Just earlier, emergency management minister Murray Watt spoke to ABC RN and commented on the snap Labor caucus meeting called for this week to discuss cost-of-living measures.
Asked whether this meeting is about optics or genuinely coming up with new ideas, Watt said prime minister Anthony Albanese wouldn’t have called the caucus meeting “if it wasn’t for a good reason”:
I think we are serious about listening to every possible idea when it comes to cost-of-living relief, and we respect the discussions that our caucus members have been having in their communities over the last few weeks and I expect some good ideas will come forward as well.
I think that this meeting will be much more than just a photo op. It’s a serious meeting to deal with the No 1 issue facing the community, and I expect that it will build on some of the cost-of-living relief measures that we’ve already introduced and unfortunately, which were always opposed by [the opposition leader] Peter Dutton and the Coalition.
Cyclone threat hangs over rain-soaked north Queensland
Queenslanders are bracing for a potential category-three cyclone forecast to cross the coast weeks after wild weather lashed the region, AAP reports.
The Bureau of Meteorology said a tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to develop into a cyclone, which will be named Kirrily, late today. Senior bureau meteorologist Dean Narramore said yesterday:
We’re getting to a severe category-three cyclone as we move through the Wednesday time-frame.
Narramore said it was likely to approach the Queensland coast as a severe cyclone into Thursday but there was still some uncertainty about where it would make landfall.
While our consensus track does cross it to the south of Townsville, there’s still a range of scenarios where we could see a cross between Cairns and Mackay.
There’s also uncertainty about where the cyclone could track after it makes landfall.
Narramore said it could move back out to sea or move south, possibly bringing heavy rain and damaging winds to parts of south-east Queensland.
Disgraced cop Roger Rogerson dies in jail
Australia’s most notorious disgraced police officer, Roger Rogerson, has died in jail.
Corrective Services NSW confirmed that an 83-year-old inmate died at the Prince of Wales hospital last night about 11.15pm.
A spokesperson said:
As a matter of protocol, Corrective Services NSW and NSW Police investigate all deaths in custody regardless of the circumstances.
All deaths in custody are also subject to a coronial inquest.
Last March Rogerson failed to have his murder conviction overturned almost a decade after the cold-blooded killing of a Sydney drug dealer, Jamie Gao.
Both hero and villain during a 28-year NSW police career, Rogerson was at one time considered the force’s most decorated officer.
The culmination of his recognition was to receive the coveted Peter Mitchell award for outstanding police work in 1980, but within six years his career had unravelled spectacularly. You can read more below:
Good morning
Emily Wind
And happy Monday – welcome back to another week on the Guardian’s Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through today’s rolling coverage.
Making news today: Australia’s most notorious disgraced cop, Roger Rogerson, has died in jail. Corrective Services NSW confirmed that an 83-year-old inmate died at the Prince of Wales hospital about 11.15pm last night.
Last March Rogerson failed to have his murder conviction overturned almost a decade after the cold-blooded killing of a Sydney drug dealer, Jamie Gao. Rogerson was once the NSW police force’s most decorated officer.
We will have more on this shortly.
The Bureau of Meteorology says a tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to develop into a cyclone late today, which will be named Kirrily, as AAP reports. It is likely to approach the Queensland coast as a severe cyclone into Thursday but there is still uncertainty as to where it will make landfall.
This comes as a heatwave has spread across three states, with temperatures in parts of northern Western Australia reaching towards 50C. The gold mining town of Kalgoorlie is still without power after a rare supercell storm. Royce Kurmelovs has all the details below:
As Sarah Basford Canales reports, a deal aimed at keeping energy bills affordable will see 260 petajoules supplied to gas-fired power stations in Australia’s south-east coast until 2033.
This comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has called Labor MPs and senators to Canberra on Wednesday for a snap caucus to discuss cost-of-living measures.
More on this soon, and you can read more below:
See something that needs attention on the blog? You can get in touch via X, @emilywindwrites, or via email: [email protected]
With that, let’s get started.
