Townsville residents advised to shelter in place ahead of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily
The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, is speaking to the media after the council held its local disaster management meeting.
She said the council will soon send an emergency alert, advising people to shelter in place from 2pm today, local time – when wind gusts above 80km/h are forecast.
We don’t want to have people at our sandbagging locations, we’ll have to close those, and if you’re planning to pick up any late items, please do so now.
She said the latest advice from the Bureau of Meteorology was that Tropical Cyclone Kirrily will begin crossing the coast from 10pm tonight.
It will cross as a category-two system with winds beyond 120km/h, up to 165km/h, she said.
Key events
Queensland premier Steven Miles is now providing an update on Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.
He said that as of 10am (local time), Kirrily has officially been declared a category two cyclone. The state is “prepared and ready for the worst”, he said.
Miles said those in the affected areas should make sure they are prepared, with “enough essential items to potentially have to get through days without power”.
If your home is not safe, please make the decision early to get out of it. Nine people have already made that decision and are in our evacuation centres…
From here on, the Bureau will provide hourly updates until the cyclone crosses the coast… We have already received 146 calls for assistance from the SES – most of them are from Charters Towers, Townsville, and the Whitsundays region [and] most of them asking for assistance with sandbagging.
For more on Kirrily, senior forecaster Angus Hines from the Bureau of Meteorology has just shared this update:
Looking ahead, Weatherzone has provided a forecast of what Tropical Cyclone Kirrily may do after it makes landfall.
Weatherzone says Kirrily is a large tropical cyclone in terms of its size and the area it covers, as opposed to its strength. Currently a category one system, it is expected to cross the coast as a category two system this evening.
After making landfall, Weatherzone says the after-effects could be more severe and devastating than the immediate impact of the storm due to the “strong likelihood” of flooding:
Heavy rainfall which could lead to flash flooding is likely to develop from [this] evening into Friday along a huge stretch of the coast from Innisfail to Sarina. Those two towns are almost 700 km apart.
The cyclone will likely become a tropical low by [tomorrow], meaning its winds will lose strength but the potential for heavy rainfall will persist.
At this stage, the impacts of heavy rainfall look likely to extend to an area well beyond the Qld coast, with heavy rainfall potentially developing across the northern interior and western Queensland into the weekend as the system tracks inland.
The wind is steadily picking up in the Whitsundays, as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily approaches the coast of Queensland.
Hamilton Island recorded wind gusts of 115km/h at 9.30am, local time.
Stephanie Convery
Acoss praises changes to stage-three tax cuts
The Australian Council of Social Service has commended the federal Labor government for its changes to the stage-three tax cuts but noted that the amendments don’t help people in absolute poverty.
The Acoss chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said that the council had “repeatedly urged” the government not to go ahead with a tax cut program that most benefited the highest-income earners in the country.
The changes announced today would bring “a better deal for people earning low, modest and middle incomes”, Goldie said, but “does not yet help people on the lowest incomes facing the most severe crisis: people whose incomes are below the tax threshold and pay no tax.”
It also wouldn’t solve the government’s revenue problems, Goldie said, noting that Australia is the ninth-lowest taxed country among 40 in the OECD, with the overall tax rate for the average full time worker lower than in the United States.
Goldie said:
People receiving income support payments are worst affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Right now, we’re hearing about people sleeping in tents, regularly skipping meals and going without essential medication. Last week, I spoke to a woman who has saved money to buy camping equipment because she is facing imminent homelessness. She will see no benefit from tax cuts and faces losing her home.
Jobseeker and related payments must be urgently raised and without further delay.
Acoss is urging the government to raise income support payments from the current $54 per day to at least $78 per day.
Paul Karp
‘A handful of dollars’: Peter Dutton criticises revamped stage-three tax cuts
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has taken aim to Anthony Albanese over the revamped stage-three tax cuts.
Dutton told 2GB he didn’t think “people will easily forget or forgive” the broken promise on stage three, claiming he had only ever seen one other instance of a prime minister “willing to blatantly, knowingly lie to the Australian public”, likening this to Julia Gillard’s promise not to legislate a carbon tax. In fact, Labor didn’t – it legislated an interim carbon price, which even Peta Credlin has accepted wasn’t a tax.
Dutton said the government had taken a decision in December to get work done on income tax changes and had an “ad campaign ready to roll, at taxpayer expense”. We’ll fact-check this claim but the ad has Labor branding on it so it can’t under the rules be taxpayer funded. Seems obviously incorrect.
Dutton told 2GB:
People have budgeted based on the prime minister’s word. His bond. Now he’s broken that. Some may get a handful of dollars but they lose it because of mortgage repayments that are higher under this government, and inflation will be higher for longer under this government.
Dutton argued that Albanese has a “credibility issue”, questioning “how can you believe these tax cuts will survive if Labor is re-elected”? Well that is interesting – after Sussan Ley walked back comments suggesting the Coalition might tear them up, Dutton now presents the threat to Labor’s tax cuts as … Labor.
Dutton said if Albanese is “prepared to lie to your neighbour, you’re next”.
The prime minister has done himself in here. I said his leadership would be dead, buried, cremated. I believe that to be the truth.
Townsville mayor expects most businesses to close doors at midday
The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, expects most businesses, including supermarkets and chemists, to close their doors around midday today.
Most of them will look to close their doors to give their staff enough time to get home before the 2pm gusts that are likely to hit.
She said that for those who can’t shelter at place in their homes, they would be “far more comfortable” at a friend or family member’s home than at an evacuation centre.
The shelters are there to provide protection, they’re not there to be a comfortable place.
She said the community had done a great job in heeding the warnings from emergency personnel and following warnings.
There’s been no need to panic or to be concerned to the point of anxiety … The rainfall data would indicate that it’s not as bad as what we first thought [and I’m quietly confident that], come Saturday, we’ll be able to begin picking up rubbish and ensuring our community can clean up quite quickly.
The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, said the latest forecast shows everything beginning to “die down” by about 6am tomorrow morning, local time.
This is when the council will send another emergency alert, advising people it is safe to come outside and conduct any damage inspection.
This means Townsville residents are being asked to shelter in place from 2pm this afternoon to 6am tomorrow morning – around 16 hours.
Townsville residents advised to shelter in place ahead of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily
The Townsville mayor, Jenny Hill, is speaking to the media after the council held its local disaster management meeting.
She said the council will soon send an emergency alert, advising people to shelter in place from 2pm today, local time – when wind gusts above 80km/h are forecast.
We don’t want to have people at our sandbagging locations, we’ll have to close those, and if you’re planning to pick up any late items, please do so now.
She said the latest advice from the Bureau of Meteorology was that Tropical Cyclone Kirrily will begin crossing the coast from 10pm tonight.
It will cross as a category-two system with winds beyond 120km/h, up to 165km/h, she said.
Here is a satellite image of Tropical Cyclone Kirrily, tracking towards Townsville and the north-eastern coast of Queensland:
Latest satellite view of #CycloneKirrily tracking toward the northeastern coastline of Queensland, Australia 🇦🇺🌀
Kirrily is expected to make landfall near Townsville late Thursday, local time. Localized flash flooding from heavy rainfall likely. pic.twitter.com/Lar3U8HDVh
— Zoom Earth (@zoom_earth) January 24, 2024
ME Bank customers unable to access accounts
Josh Taylor
ME Bank customers have been left unable to access their accounts through online banking and the ME Bank app since last night due to what the company says is a “technical issue”.
The issue seemed to first hit the bank at around 7.15pm AEDT last night. As of 7am this morning, the bank said:
We’ve been working overnight to fix the technical issue but it’s taking a little longer than expected, and ME Internet Banking is still offline. Thank you for your patience, we’re so sorry for the inconvenience.
Physical cards will still work as per normal, the bank said.
Adeshola Ore
Jacinta Allan condemns vandalism of Captain Cook statue
The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, and the opposition leader, John Pesutto, have condemned the vandalism of a Captain Cook statue in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day.
Victorian police said they were investigating “criminal damage” to a century-old Captain Cook statue in St Kilda in an apparent protest over the Australia Day public holiday. Officers said they understood the statue had been sawn off at the ankles. The plinth had been spray painted with the slogan: “The colony will fall.”
Speaking to reporters, Allan says “this sort of vandalism has no place in our society”:
We will be working with the council to repair and reinstate the statue in St Kilda that has been vandalised overnight.
In a statement, Pesutto said the incident was “totally unacceptable”.
There’s no place for acts of vandalism or any other violent acts against people or property in our community.
We support the right of people to protest and demonstrate but it must always be done in a peaceful and respectful way.
Tropical Cyclone Kirrily update
Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Kirrily tracking map from the Bureau of Meteorology:
The wind speeds are picking up in Townsville, where the coastal crossing is expected late tonight. The highest windspeed recorded so far today is 41km/h.
In the Whitsundays, the highest windspeed recorded today was 102km/h, as per the BoM.
This comes as 977 are without power in Townsville, and 460 without power in the Whitsundays, both due to damage requiring emergency repairs.
There are now 2,163 across the state without power, as at 9am local time.
Almost 1,000 Townsville residents without power
Almost 1,000 people are without power in Townsville, as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily is expect to hit late tonight.
According to Ergon Energy, 977 customers within Townsville city council are without power due to “damage requiring emergency repairs”.
Fault finding is in progress.
The outage began around 8.30am, local time.
This comes as 1,881 customers across regional Queensland are without power, amid 12 unplanned outages and 12 planned.
More than 120 north Queensland schools closed due to Tropical Cyclone Kirrily
More than 120 schools across northern Queensland are closed as a precaution today due to Tropical Cyclone Kirrily.
According to the Queensland government website there are 123 schools closed today – 78 state schools, 17 independent schools and 28 Catholic schools.
These schools have been deemed “unsafe for students to attend”, with the website stating schools will “re-open when [the] disaster event/severe weather has subsided”.
The premier, Steven Miles, said this last night:
This list may continue to grow as the situation develops. Affected schools will also be communicating directly with their communities. The safety of Queenslanders will always be our number one priority.
Paul Karp
Sussan Ley denies saying the Coalition would repeal Labor’s tax changes
Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley has walked back earlier comments suggesting the Coalition aims to repeal Labor’s revamped tax cuts that more than double tax relief for Australians on the average income.
Ley clarified that the opposition’s position is to “support the existing stage-three arrangements” but denied promising to roll them back in a bid to head off a Labor campaign that the Coalition will claw back low and middle-income tax relief.
Labor MPs and the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, had seized on Ley’s earlier suggestion the Coalition “absolutely” supports the repeal to argue that the opposition will fight the next election promising to tear up tax cuts that are more generous to 11 million Australians.
Before the release of full details of the package, Ley was asked on Sky yesterday whether, if the Coalition wins the election, it will “roll back whatever changes are made”.
Ley replied:
Well this is our position. This is absolutely our position and the point is … it was Labor’s position too.
Ley clarified her position today on ABC RN:
I did not say that we will roll back Labor’s new proposal. I said we support the existing stage-three arrangements and we would assess the new proposal.
Labor lied about these tax cuts and now they have lied about what I’ve said.
Our position is that the stage-three tax cuts should be implemented as designed and endorsed by the Australian people at the last election.
The tax plan we support is the tax plan we took to the last election.
Earlier this morning as treasurer Jim Chalmers was discussing changes to the stage-three tax cuts, he said Treasury had consulted with the RBA, which he says does not expect the changes to add to inflation.
Chalmers flagged he would be releasing this advice given to Treasury “in full” at some point.
Yesterday, economists were predicting the same: They said the changes would not reignite inflation but may slow the pace of RBA interest rate cuts, arguing more reforms are needed to close future budget gaps.
You can read all the detail on this from our economics reporter Peter Hannam below:
Firefighters concerned about smoke alarm complacency
Firefighters at the Tamworth Country Music Festival say they are concerned about the level of complacency around working smoke alarms.
Crews from Fire and Rescue NSW have spent the past six days inspecting caravan smoke alarms across Tamworth’s riverside camping area – which is at capacity.
Of the 160 caravans and recreational vehicles inspected, 75 smoke alarms were replaced because they were not working, and 20 batteries. Zone commander Tom Cooper said:
Almost half the caravans we visited did not have a working smoke alarm. That’s disturbing, a working smoke alarm may be the only thing that saves the lives of you and your loved ones in the event of a fire.
In a few cases where the batteries were missing, the campers told our firefighters they’d removed them because cooking would often set off the alarms.
The beeping might be annoying but if your alarm’s not working it can’t save you.
TAMWORTH | Firefighters concerned about smoke alarm complacency – VIDEO. Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) firefighters, conducting a series of caravan safety inspections during the Tamworth Country Music Festival, have expressed concern at the level… https://t.co/HRWebZYEU2
— Fire and Rescue NSW (@FRNSW) January 24, 2024
Whitsundays residents lose power
According to Ergon Energy, 455 customers in the Whitsundays have lost power.
This comes as the area is lashed by wind gusts over 100km/h as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily approaches the Queensland coast.
The outage is affecting customers in Gregory, the Gregory River, Strathdickie and Woree. Ergon Energy says the outage began around 6.50am AEST and said:
The loss of supply is our repair crews are attending [sic]. Fault finding is in progress.
Across the entire state there are 15 current outages (three planned), affecting 772 customers in regional Queensland.
