Federal politics

The Murray–Darling Basin continues to experience widespread flooding in some areas, prompting an increased risk of water quality issues like low-oxygen blackwater as temperatures increase. Governments and water authorities are working together to monitor the unfolding conditions which may see low-oxygen blackwater and blue-green algae emerge that can lead to fish deaths and increased water treatment.

For rural and regional communities, especially those crying out for dams for flood and drought mitigation for decades, Budget Paper Number 2 from the Commonwealth 2022-2023 Budget makes depressing reading.

I am very pleased to the deliver the Regional Budget Statement on behalf of the Government ... This Budget delivers on our election commitments and provides funds for the Government’s purposeful and targeted approach to investing in regional Australia. It contains more than 760 initiatives which the Government is delivering to boost regional communities and industries.

Australia's banking regulator is picking and choosing which banks it is allowing to get away with breaking the law by misreporting whether their sites offer cash service provided by a teller. Errors in hundreds of minor and foreign bank sites included in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s points of presence data for years, even decades, have been corrected over the past 17 months after being exposed by The Regional in May 2021.

As at 26 October, the flooding continues at Undera and, with no authority prepared to take responsibility for the levees, it's left to the community - somehow, sometime - to repair the multiple levee breaks.

In 1971 the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz spoke wisely and bluntly about the perils of organic farming. “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.”

The Tasmanian Government has signed a Partnership with the Australian Government under its Rewiring the Nation initiative to take the next steps in a Tasmanian energy package comprising of Marinus Link, the North West Transmission Development and Battery of the Nation.

The Biosecurity (Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) Biosecurity Response Zone) Determination 2022 covering relevant international airports has been extended to 30 June 2023 ... "Australia is currently free of FMD and we want to keep it that way. Extending this determination is a key part of our response": Director of Biosecurity and Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Andrew Metcalfe AO.

The entire Central Victorian region has been smashed by catastrophic floods, which appear to be more serious and more widespread than the 2010 and 2011 floods. With many regions experiencing record-breaking rains over catchments that were already sodden, the end result has been devastating. Gutters have turned into creeks, creeks into raging rivers and rivers into churning brown oceans ... Geoff Palmer took this photo of the spillway at Cairn Curran last Thursday.

A landmark new body of work has been released to assist governments and private organisations to tackle Australia’s growing bushfire problem and save lives, land and property. Turning the Goals of the National Bushfire Management Policy Statement into Objectives and Key Performance Indicators aims to guide improvements in bushfire management and provide consistent reporting nationally on achievements.

The Malinauskas government will embark on a six week campaign to ensure River Murray communities are afforded the best possible protection from flood waters heading to South Australia. Latest modelling by the Department of Environment and Water is predicting flows of up to 120 gigalitres per day by early December – the highest flows since the 1970s.

Shadow Minister for Northern Australia, Senator Susan McDonald has warned the Federal Government to cut the “bull” and not the national cattle herd ahead of signing up to an international methane reduction agreement ... Senator McDonald warned that any move against cattle and sheep herds would be met with fierce resistance, especially from Northern Australia’s $1.35 billion live cattle export sector which supplies much-needed beef to South East Asian countries ... Senator McDonald said attacks on methane emissions ignored the contributions made by herbivorous and ruminant feral animals.

Grain producers on the east coast of Australia are on high alert with severe flooding and more heavy rains causing significant interruption and damage to this year’s crop, and loss of critical value. Victorian grain grower and Grain Producers Australia Southern Director, Andrew Weidemann, said this year’s crop was on a knife’s edge and with more rain forecast the losses will only escalate.

“With $350 million allocated for our Voluntary Home Buy Back Program, we expect to be able to purchase roughly 500 homes. We’re implementing this process with eight councils: Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Lockyer Valley, Moreton Bay, Gympie, Fraser Coast and Sunshine Coast": Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Steven Miles.

The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have come together to prepare the Centre for National Resilience at Mickleham to provide crisis accommodation for Victorians affected by widespread flooding. From Tuesday, 250 beds at the Mickleham facility will open to help people whose homes have been inundated.

The release of the Australian banking regulator’s annual points of presence data this week will be an integrity test for both its chairman Wayne Byres and Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and Treasury are both in possession of a list of 149 bank sites that do not meet the legal definition of a branch under federal legislation. Most of them have been falsely listed in government data by their Australian and foreign owners for years.

The state’s peak agricultural advocacy body says it is opposed to Australia signing up to a global ‘methane pledge’ that is killing small towns across the ditch ... NSW Farmers CEO Pete Arkle said while the federal government had been quick to promise no tax on farmers if it signed up to the Methane Pledge, the experience of New Zealand’s farmers proved talk was cheap.

Kangaroo Island’s reputation as a pristine environment will be further strengthened, with a world-first dedicated sterile blowfly breeding facility to be built on the island to help eradicate sheep blowfly. A brownfield site will be transformed into a state-of-the-art insect breeding centre, at which up to 50 million flies a week will be bred and irradiated to be sterile before release.

Some of Australia’s brightest minds are collaborating to finalise a portable device that uses artificial intelligence to help biosecurity officers more quickly identify high-risk brown marmorated stink bugs (BMSB) on the frontline ... This app will help operational staff identify the BMSB (Halyomorpha halys) and other invasive and endemic stink bug species in the field and in real-time.