NSW floods live updates: mid-north coast natural disaster declared; Taree, Port Macquarie, Hunter region rain; Sydney weather – latest flooding news

Nurse gives evidence in Erin Patterson’s murder trial A nurse has given evidence at Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial about her hospital presentation two days after the deadly lunch. Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges The prosecution called Mairim Cespon, a registered nurse, who was working at Leongatha hospital on 31 July – two days after the lunch. She says Patterson presented at the hospital complaining of diarrhoea and nausea since the evening of the lunch. While Patterson was at the hospital on 31 July, Cespon collected a bowel motion sample from her, the court hears. The jury is shown a bowel chart for Patterson completed by Cespon on that day. It shows five bowel movements by Patterson between 10am and 11.50am. The consistency of each is described as “liquid”. Three “medium” amounts and two “small” amounts were collected. Cespon says after the first movement, Patterson told her “it does look like a wee but it’s a bowel motion”. Cespon reads her notes to the jury which state the liquid “looks like urine”. Asked about her appearance, Cespon says Patterson was “distressed and emotional”. She says: She was just saying she feels unwell. Under cross-examination, Cespon agrees she observed liquid with small brown bits. She says she has seen other patients with diarrhoea with similar bowel movements. Old Bar resident: ‘a national disaster should have been declared’ Earlier we brought you news of Miranda Saunders, the station manager of 2tlp 103.3 Ngarralinyi, who broadcast live to the flooded Old Bar community for 15 hours on Tuesday from her kitchen, to bring comfort to people who’d lost power. She made the decision to head to the radio station and collect outside broadcast equipment on Monday, just in case of road closures. From 7am to 9pm, I was on air … bringing comfort, connection, and critical updates to our community during one of the toughest days we’ve faced. Saunders says the feeling across the community is “absolute devastation”. She hasn’t been personally affected by the flooding, but her sister-in-law, along with her husband and four children, had to evacuate their home by boat late yesterday as flood waters entered their home. I know so many people that had to leave or are staying to try save their homes. In 2019, we had the fires. In 2021, the record floods. And now this. In Taree … streets are waist deep. Wingham is completely underwater. Here in Old Bar, lots of stuff is washing ashore as Farquhar Inlet is one of the entrances for the Manning River, so we have church chairs, lounges, mattresses, even live cows, council barriers and people’s shoes. A national disaster should have been declared on Tuesday afternoon … our first responders do an incredible job, but they are overwhelmed. Searches under way for two missing people on mid-north coast amid flooding Searches are under way for a woman and man missing in separate flood-related incidents on the mid-north coast. A woman was travelling between Armidale and Coffs Harbour last night when her 4WD reportedly became trapped in flood waters at 7:45pm on Morora Rd, Brooklana, NSW Police said in a statement. Police and SES officers searched the area but were unable to find the woman or her vehicle. Their search resumed this morning, when the woman’s vehicle was found at Brooklana. Officers are working to access the vehicle and inquiries continue. In a seperate incident, police received a report about 9:20pm last night that a man failed to return home after walking near a flooded roadway at Nymboida. Police, SES, RFS and FRNSW officers searched the area but could not find the man. Their search resumed this morning. Police urge anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers. Dead livestock found as major flooding across NSW continues Locals are reporting dead cows washing up on beaches amid destructive rains and flooding in the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast regions. One Facebook user posted a photo of a tagged cow washed up on One Mile Beach, Forster. Another replied with a photo of a different tagged cow washed up on Back Beach, Black Head, which falls in HazardWatch’s alert to monitor severe weather conditions. Sussan Ley confirms Liberals will discuss Nationals policy demands after Littleproud yields on shadow cabinet solidarity Liberal leader Sussan Ley has confirmed further negotiations will occur over the coalition agreement and that the Liberals will further discuss the Nationals’ policy demands. She has also confirmed she will pause her announcement of a shadow ministry, which was expected today, to allow more time for discussions with David Littleproud and her Liberal colleagues. “It has always been the Liberal party’s objective to form a Coalition and we welcome the Nationals’ decision to re-enter negotiations,” Ley said. This morning, David Littleproud has made a public statement that the Nationals are willing to accept shadow cabinet solidarity as part of a Coalition Agreement. This is the first time this commitment has been made and I welcome it as a foundation to resolve other matters. Earlier today I wrote to, and met with, David inviting him to re-enter good-faith negotiations. I am pleased he has accepted. In relation to the policy positions proposed by the National party room, consistent with my consultation commitment, the Liberal party will consider these, utilising our party room processes. Littleproud says it is ‘the intent of everybody’ that Coalition and Nationals reunite before parliament sits There have been a few questions in this Nationals press conference about the timeline – of policy reviews, of party room meetings, of decisions. The Liberals will need to appoint a shadow cabinet before parliament sits at the end of July, Littleproud says, so “there’s some clear timelines without having to define them”. He says it’s a “reasonable assumption” that the resolution of the split, whatever that is, would have to happen before then. He continues: And I think that that would be the intent of everybody. Because it would be great to walk in as a shadow cabinet together, and that’s the process that will now happen. But I don’t want to put specific days or weeks on it, and I don’t think that that is constructive. I think that this is a positive development. One that does show good faith and that’s why I wanted to reciprocate today by this. Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has accused the Liberals of breaching trust inside the Coalition, in a spectacular swipe after a letter to Michaelia Cash was leaked to media. First published by news.com.au, the letter from McKenzie to Cash, sent before the split, warned the Nationals would have to consider whether it continued to sit with the Liberals in the Senate after Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection to the Liberals. Asked about the letter in the press conference with David Littleproud, McKenzie said the correspondence was seeking “a resolution” with the Liberals about the Nationals’ party status. McKenzie was critical that there was “a lot of leaking going on, it would seem, of texts, of letters, of conversations” in the Nationals split. She said: I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interests for those matters to leak, because it actually breaches and breaks trust. Nationals and Liberals agree to delay naming shadow ministry as negotiations to reunite reportedly under way Sussan Ley and David Littleproud have agreed to delay naming frontbench positions for the Liberal and National parties, in a sign the fractured Coalition could reform before Parliament returns in July. After two leaders held direct talks on Thursday morning, Littleproud said he had sent home Nationals MPs from Canberra and wanted a resolution to the historic breakdown announced on Tuesday. Littleproud said the Nationals would maintain their four key policy demands but were prepared to give the Liberals time to consider policy changes stemming from the 3 May election loss. The Nationals are demanding the opposition maintain policies for the introduction of nuclear power, forced break-up powers for the big supermarkets, a $20bn regional infrastructure fund and telecommunication service guarantees in the bush. Asked if he could trust Ley, Littleproud said yes and that he was prepared to delay naming his senior appointments: We will allow this process to take place. I think this is a far more important development. In a major sign reconciliation could be possible, Littleproud confirmed the Nationals would be prepared to accept a lifting of the Howard-era moratorium on nuclear policy in Australia, rather than for a government-owned and operated network of nuclear power stations. Finnish ambassador readies car to compete in Australia’s cancer-fighting ‘Shitbox Rally’ A quick update on the outback diplomacy saga we reported on in April: the countdown is on for Finland’s ambassador to Australia, Arto Haapea, who will navigate the Shitbox Rally from Perth to Darwin this June. His vehicle – a 2005 blue Toyota Camry dubbed the “Happiest Car in the World” – has been decked out with all the trimmings, covered in stickers and is of course proudly waving a Finnish flag from its roof racks. “Honorary Australian” Valtteri Bottas, a Finnish F1 driver who won the 2019 Grand Prix in Melbourne, took to Instagram yesterday to wish the ambassador good luck. He offered his expert driving advice, which was to “send it.” Haapea was inspired by the US ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, who took part in the rally from Adelaide to Perth, crossing the Nullarbor in a beat-up Ford Falcon. The Shitbox Rally has gained a cult following in the 15 years since its 2010 inception, raising $50m for the Cancer Council – a cause close to Haapea’s heart as a cancer survivor. The Finnish team has set a $30,000 fundraising goal and has received a strong response from Australia’s Finnish diaspora so far. The Liberals and Nationals have agreed to delay announcing their frontbench lineups after Sussan Ley and David Littleproud held crisis talks to reunite the coalition just two days after the dramatic split. Ley instigated a meeting with Littleproud on Thursday morning in an attempt to broker a peace deal between the two parties. Guardian Australia understands the Nationals are prepared to commit to shadow cabinet solidarity and give the Liberals more time to consider their four policy demands. Asked if there was a chance the Coalition could reunite, Littleproud said: “Of course there is”. Nature groups say Victorian budget for environmental survival ‘pitifully small’ Environment groups say nature and biodiversity has been short-changed by the Victorian budget. Environment Victoria welcomed new money for efficient electric hot water and home insulation, but raised concerns about the lack of support for nature or threatened species. The nature campaigner, Greg Foyster, said “If the government wants to invest in the great outdoors for the longer term, we need to see a massive increase in funding for parks and reserves, biodiversity programs and saving threatened species”. The Parliamentary Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline recommended increasing funding for parks and reserves to 1% of gross state product. One percent doesn’t seem too much to ask to ensure the survival of all the animals, plants, wetlands, forests and special places in Victoria, but the current funding is pitifully small. Energy and environment department funding was down overall in 2025-26 compared to the previous year. The budget also included a 19% cut to environment and biodiversity, and a reduction in funding for the management of public land and forests of 26%. The Victorian National Parks Association said the budget also locked in previous cuts to Parks Victoria and fisheries officers, with few new initiatives for nature. “Last year we saw Parks Victoria hit with severe staff cuts, arbitrary reviews and the sacking of an experienced CEO. That’s no way to treat the agency responsible for looking after the places millions of Victorians love and rely on,” said the VNPA’s Matt Ruchel. Friends of the Earth Melbourne said it welcomed the continued focus on the energy transition, though it also called for greater acceleration away from coal and gas: The government continues to encourage recreation in nature, but has not committed to funding for parks management to manage increases in recreational users. The parks system is already underfunded, and there have been staff losses across DEECA and Parks Victoria. Taree community bands together in face of devastating floods Community members in Taree have banded together as flooding continues to inundate the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast. Shirley Thatcher has been running a Facebook group updating residents on evacuation centres and emergency warnings. Her and her partner are in a safe area without current flooding and are “just staying at home while this crazy weather is going on”: We’re lucky that we did a grocery shop last weekend, so have plenty of food … I’m just trying to keep everyone informed on what is happening in the area.” Meanwhile, a car detailing service has been offering free emergency water extraction services to as many residents without insurance as they can reach until it’s no longer safe to continue, while other businesses have been offering free food and hot showers. At St Joseph’s primary school in Taree, locals have been taking care of five horses that were rescued by boat after becoming stranded. Miranda Saunders, the station manager for 2TLP 103.3 Ngarralinyi, broadcast to the Old Bar community for 15 hours on Tuesday from her kitchen to bring comfort to people who had lost power but still had battery-powered radios and similar devices. She told ABC News “if it wasn’t for community spirit there, thousands of people would still waiting to be rescued”. Focus is on immediate flood assistance, Kristy McBain says McBain is talking to how the government can can address damaging weather events. The federal emergency management minister is speaking live: We came to government in 2022 saying that we have to work more on disaster mitigation and resilience, which is why we put in place the Disaster Ready Fund. And it’s really important that we are working with local communities on infrastructure and asset protection. We’ve heard directly from local councils and insurance companies that there has to be money put in to mitigation, resilience and response efforts and that Disaster Ready Fund is absolutely doing that job now. We know that we’ve got the review, which is the way in which the three levels of government need to react to these incidents together, and we’ll respond to that over the course of this term. But I think it’s really important right now, when we’re in a disaster, to focus on what’s at hand, and right now what’s at hand is the safety of people across the mid-coast as well as the Hunter, and making sure that we are assisting people where they are right now. Emergency management minister links floods to climate crisis Climate change is bringing “more devastating events like this” to Australia, federal emergency management minister Kristy McBain says. She is speaking live: I don’t think that there is a question out there that climate change is having a significant impact on weather events right across the world. In Australia here, we’re not immune to that. We’re seeing more devastating events like this happen more frequently. Rain will ease on Friday, emergency management agency spokesperson says Heavy rainfall on the NSW mid-north coast will persist until Friday, a National Emergency Management Agency spokesperson says. He is speaking live: Heavy rainfall on the New South Wales mid-north coast today. It is remaining persistent and severe weather warnings are current. The activity will ease on Friday, which is promising. But I just want to reinforce that it remains persistent at the moment. There is areas that have had localised very heavy rain, and that will spread south along the Central Coast and southern New South Wales coast and further inland today. There’s a cold front also that will spread across New South Wales early next week bringing some damaging winds. Flood-hit residents to get up to 13 weeks of disaster allowance, federal minister says People affected by flooding in Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog and the mid-coast council areas will have access to up to 13 weeks of disaster allowance. The federal emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, is speaking live: What we’ve seen over the last couple of days is some intense activity focused mainly on the mid-north coast and across the Hunter. Today I’ve enacted the disaster recovery allowance to look initially at four local government areas. Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog and the Mid Coast Council area. That is to assist people who have been impacted with up to 13 weeks allowance of lieu of them being able to undertake their usual course of employment. And back to the floods. Drone footage shows flood waters around Smithtown, NSW along the Macleay River: Mark Butler says Medicare urgent care clinics have reached milestone of 1.5m visits Medicare urgent care clinics have now treated more than 1.5 million Australians, saving the health system an estimated $254m in avoided hospital visits, according to the government. The clinics are designed to provide faster care to patients, who would otherwise would be waiting as a lower-priority presentation at emergency departments for problems such as fractures or eye injuries. They also provide their fully bulk-billed care for issues that need to be seen to quickly but a GP isn’t available, often after hours or on weekends. The health minister, Mark Butler, said on the occasion of the “new milestone” reaching with over 1.5 million visits: In two short years, Medicare urgent care clinics have become a vital part of Australia’s health system and clocked up 1.5 million free visits. They’re starting to take the pressure off hospitals and patients, delivering fully bulk billed care quickly and with no appointment needed. By July next year, another 50 urgent care clinics will open their doors to patients, and four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare urgent care clinic. You can read more about how the model functions here: Moving away from NSW flood news for a moment. Children as young as 10 will face adult jail time for a range of new offences after Queensland passed its second tranche of controversial youth crime laws. The “adult crime, adult time” laws now include 20 more offences after passing through during a late-night sitting in Queensland parliament on Wednesday. Young offenders can now face lengthy adult sentences for attempted murder, rape, sexual assault, torture and kidnapping. It is the second wave of the laws that were central to the Liberal National government’s pitch to voters at the 2024 election. Other states and territories have also cracked down on youth crime amid Queensland’s law changes. The Northern Territory is strengthening its bail laws after the fatal stabbing of a 71-year-old Darwin store owner allegedly at the hands of a teenager. Victoria recently removed remand as a last resort for children, while NSW has made it harder for 14 to 18-year-olds to be released on serious charges while out on bail for similar offences. - Australian Associated Press Pacific Highway submerged as major arterial remains closed near Taree amid NSW floods – video Summary of NSW floods press conference Summarising that media conference with the NSW premier and emergency services just now: one man has died and authorities hold grave fears for three people reported missing in unprecedented flooding on the NSW mid-north coast. The premier, Chris Minns, said the region had experienced a very difficult 48 hours and more heavy rain was expected. Acting NSW police commissioner Peter Thurtell confirms a 60-year-old woman in the Dorrigo area, a 25-year-old man in the Wauchope area, and a 49-year-old man have been reported missing. The 25-year-old is believed to have driven into flood waters and a vehicle is reported missing. The 49-year-old is believed to have walked into flood waters. “That’s all yet to be confirmed,” Thurtell says. I don’t want to pre-empt any results of anything, but obviously, as we said, we hold grave fears for all three individuals. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also said “we’ve got grave fears” for the three people: The grim reality is that the community on the mid-north coast will have to brace for potentially more bad news in the day ahead. It’s not what we want to hear, but unfortunately this disaster was major. Three people have been reported missing amid floods inundating the NSW hunter and mid-north coast. Acting NSW police commissioner Peter Thurtell is speaking live: Sadly, as the premier has already indicated, one life has already been confirmed lost. And we have reports of three other people missing. I know the message has already gone out, and the premier and the commissioner of the SES have just mentioned it, really, the danger of driving or walking through flood waters cannot be understated, and people need to avoid doing that. The emergency services minister, Jihad Dib, says the state government is “throwing every single thing we’ve got” at the response to the rains and floods inundating NSW’s Hunter and mid-north coast regions. He is speaking live: Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased gentleman. As you’ve just heard, we’ve got an incredibly volatile situation. I said a few days ago that this will break some records, and these aren’t the records that you want to break, but we’ve seen more rain and more flooding in the mid and the north coast area than we’ve ever seen before. We’ve seen an impact that’s affecting tens of thousands of people. But we’ve also seen the way that our emergency services have responded. Around 2,500 personnel are on the ground, including SES, police, ambulance, fire and rescue, surf lifesavers and marine rescue, Dib says. We are throwing every single thing that we’ve got at this incident. SES commissioner says flood-affected zones are still an ‘active environment’ for rescues Wassing says affected commuties have not seen this level of flooding in living memory. The NSW SES commissioner says new flood rescues requests have continued to come in this morning: We continue to have flood rescue calls come in. We have worked through nearly all of the flood rescues from the previous 24 hours, but again already this morning we’ve had another 33 flood rescue requests this morning. That shows that this continues to be a very active environment for us. I do acknowledge for the communities that we are dealing, within many communities, record floods. So, in the living memory of those local communities, they have not seen this level of flooding. SES commission urges people to be ‘situationally aware’ and listen to emergency warnings The NSW SES commissioner, Mike Wassing, says there are 140 flood warnings active in affected Hunter and mid-north coast regions, with 34 of those being emergency warnings. He urges people in affected areas to listen to warnings, but to also be “situationally aware”. Wassing is speaking live: When we say emergency warnings, they are around evacuations through to either, in some cases … moving to higher ground or isolating areas. I will continue to stress the importance of heeding the warnings and that this is about us trying to help the communities prepare well in advance to any potential flood waters. We still have a very active situation in the context of the rainfall of 100mm through to embedded storms [storms embedded within other cloud layers]. The embedded storms will continue to see flash flooding. The flash flooding is a high risk [for] anyone that is travelling on the roads, and again you need to be situationally aware and not just rely on the warnings. We will continue to put the warnings out, but you cannot just rely on the warnings. If you live in areas that you feel that you’re unsafe or have concerns, that is a very good time to actually relocate, in many cases. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, is speaking live alongside the minister for emergency services, Jihad Dib, and the NSW SES commissioner, Mike Wassing, about flooding in the Hunter and mid-north coast. The premier says: This natural disaster has been terrible for this community. It’s affected a wide number of people. It’s affected tens of thousands of houses and, as a result, we are bracing for more bad news. Minns says another 100mm of rain is forcasted over the next 24 hours, with falls reach as high as 200mm and 300mm in isolated areas. Again [this] is not what we need, given the huge amount of rainfall that’s fallen in the last 48 hours. Rivers around Taree and Kempsey are stable or slightly receding, “however there is more rainfall in the mountains and we can’t guarantee that it will not peak again,” the premier says. Coffs Harbour resident warns of potential significant flooding after months of saturated conditions Mark Graham is a resident of Coffs Harbour where there has been intense rainfall overnight that is expected to continue today. He told Guardian Australia: I’m in the very middle of Coffs Harbour and we have had persistent torrential rainfall for many, many hours through the night. This is on top of months of saturated conditions, so all this heavy rainfall is immediately running off. If it doesn’t ease up we will have really significant flooding problems. Graham said the forecasts predicting the heavy rain would continue today and potentially into tomorrow were “a real worry”. He said: The oceans are at such high temperatures, there’s so much heat in the oceans it’s just driving these extreme events. Port Macquarie underwater as floods hit Pictures are in of flooding in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, this morning as a slow-moving trough inundates the east coast. Abbott says Liberal National split like ‘walking away from political family’ Abbott likens the coalition split to “walking away from political family”. The former prime minister said on 2GB: Let’s not shoot yourself in the foot by walking away from your political family, which is effectively what’s happened here. I mean, the Liberals and the Nationals have been the most successful political partnership in Australia. They’ve governed the country for 51 of the last 76 years. Generally speaking, they’ve done a pretty good job. Why blow it all up just because we’ve suffered a disastrous loss? I mean, work out what went wrong, sure, but it wasn’t the coalition that was at fault here. It was the fact that we did not adequately prosecute our good policy, and we didn’t adequately create a contest with the Labor party. People did not vote against the fact that the Libs and the Nats are together. They voted against the fact that we were not a sufficiently clear alternative to the Labor party. Tony Abbott says Liberals were in policy agreement with Nationals pre-election Abbott says the coalition split is “inexplicable” given the policy issues the Nationals sought guarantees on “were all things that the Liberal party had agreed with the Nationals on pre election”. The former prime minister said on 2GB: If they can be policy pre-election, it’s hard to see why they couldn’t be policy post-election, subject, of course, to the usual joint party room shadow cabinet processes. So it does seem to be pretty inexplicable given that all of these things could have been dealt with in the normal way, through the normal processes. Abbott says Liberal-National split ‘recipe for permanent poor government’ Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott calls the coalition split “deeply regrettable,” and says the Liberals and Nationals “need to get back together again as soon as possible”. He is speaking on 2GB: The history shows that the coalition wins together and loses separately. The Liberal and the National party, they win together and they lose separately. And I think it’s very important that there is a strong and clear alternative to a deeply underwhelming government. And if the Libs and the Nats go their separate ways, we won’t have one strong opposition. We’ll have two opposition parties that are fighting each other as much as they’re fighting a bad government … It’s a recipe for permanent poor government in our country. So I think for our country’s sake as well as for their own sakes, the Liberal party of the National party need to get back together again as soon as possible. The Hunter and mid-north coast of New South Wales have been inundated with heavy rainfall since Tuesday, and subsequent flooding has resulted in hundreds of people being rescued by the SES. Guardian Australia’s Nick Evershed and Josh Nicholas have created interactive maps to show the extent of the rainfall, areas affected by flooding, and how the rainfall compares to historical averages. Check them out here: Kemp says local producers will be struggling for months after intense rains and floods have inundated the New South Wales Hunter and mid-north coast regions. The Nationals MP is speaking on ABC News Breakfast from Wittitrin: The Macleay is the second fastest-flowing river in flood in the southern hemisphere. We have significant impacts to farmers and shopkeepers. Everyone is doing it tough in a cost-of-living crisis at the moment and now we’ve got to deal with the recovery from such a large event like this and that’s not even to the fact that we haven’t even got through the response phase yet because we are expecting further rises with the rain that’s coming at the moment. I’d expect our graziers, shopkeepers, vegetable-producers, to all be struggling in the next few months Nationals MP gives update from Wittitrin The Nationals MP Michael Kemp is speaking on ABC News Breakfast from Wittitrin, where he is isolated at home as rain inundates the New South Wales Hunter and mid-north coast regions. He says: I’m isolated at home. This is my farm behind me. In Kempsey CBD we’ve seen the height of the river reach 6.88m. It’s a major flood warning. We have many, many isolated communities throughout the Macleay, all the way out to South West Rocks and Crescent Head. We have seen three to four rescues by the wonderful SES through the night and we’re expecting significant rain today. Victorian police investigating suspicious house fire after three injured Police are investigating a suspicious house fire that sent a woman and two children to hospital with serious injuries in Victoria, last night. Emergency services were called to reports of a blaze at a residence in Chadstone about 9:40pm, Victorian police said in a statement. A woman and two children were evacuated and taken to hospital with serious injuries. “At this stage, the fire is being treated as suspicious,” police said. An investigation is under way and a crime scene has been established, where an arson chemist will attend later today. Minns: ‘We’ve got to do better’ on Sydney rail network The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says “we’ve got to do better” after Sydney commuters experienced severe disruptions after a high-voltage wire collapsed on a train on Tuesday afternoon, crippling the city’s rail network. He said on ABC News Breakfast a short while ago: I think the commuting public has been sick of the service that hadn’t been provided. It’s a basic requirement of the state government to get people to and from work on time and we haven’t been doing it. We’ve got to do better. We’ve put about $1.5bn into the infrastructure of the heavy rail network, so that’s not including the metros that run, that we’re building underground at the moment. That’s the heavy rail infrastructure, but we need to make sure it runs well and appropriately. We need to focus on punctuality. And communication is a key thing. Sometimes there’s a major disruption to the network and it’s easier for families to organise their lives if the news comes through at 6:00pm rather than 6:00am. It’s too late in the morning if you’ve got kids and the job starts soon and there’s a lot of things happening so they’re things we need to clear up. I know we’re on a short leash and we’ve got to do better. PM shares statement after death of man on NSW mid-north coast The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has shared a statement on the death of a man in floods in NSW. “This is devastating news that a man has died at a residence impacted by flooding on the New South Wales mid north coast,” the PM said in a written statement. “The thoughts of all Australians are with his loved ones and the community at this time.” Minns says community ‘no doubt bracing’ for more bad news after flooding death The NSW premier is “bracing for more tough news” following news of a death in the state’s inundated mid-north coast. Chris Minns said on ABC News Breakfast: It’s devastating for that man and his family and his friends. [It’s] a tight-knit community on the mid-north coast, and to lose anyone in these natural disasters is obviously horrifying. So I’m very sorry for that man’s passing. We should be bracing for more tough news over the next 24 hours. We’re very grateful we got enormous amount of expertise, emergency service personnel and thousands of volunteers who are on site, but when you have major natural disasters, obviously, you get terrible news as a result, and that community no doubt will be bracing in the next 24 hours. Premier apologises to flood-affected residents experiencing ‘anxious’ hours-long waits for rescue The NSW premier, Chris Minns, says waiting hours for flood rescue response must be an “incredibly anxious period”. He is speaking on ABC News Breakfast. 2,500 workers, 500 vehicles and boats and 13 helicopters make up the major emergency response operation, Minns says. Asked about a listener who waited six to seven hours for rescue, the premier says: I’m sorry about that. That would be incredibly anxious period, waiting that period of time for a rescue. I can assure the public that we have got a massive emergency service contingent on the Mid North Coast. There’s 2,500 emergency service workers including 2,200 SES volunteers and professionals that are on site. Over 500 vehicles and boasts, 13 helicopters, hundreds of drones, so this is a major operation. Unfortunately, we’re getting better at deploying resources because of natural disasters and the reason for that is because we’re seeing more of them, not less. Now, the job will be, as we move through the immediate response, we got to get to recovery and make sure these communities can get back on their feet as soon as possible. But as you have just heard, it’s a resilient community, they’re incredibly tough and I expect them to do that pretty quick. A man’s body has been found in a flood-affected home in Moto on the NSW mid-north coast. Emergency services were called to a property on North Moto Road about 3pm yesterday after reports a body was located, NSW police said in a statement. The body of a 63-year-old man was found in a residence affected by flooding. Police have launched an investigation and a report is being prepared for the coroner. Thousands could be isolated in Kempsey as Macleay River breaks levee 50,000 people have been warned they could be isolated today including in Kempsey on the mid-north coast, where the Macleay River has overtopped a levee and is still rising. Major flooding will continue to impact other nearby areas like Macksville and Port Macquarie. Farmers have lost livestock washed away by flood waters. Others are working to help get some of them back, taking to community Facebook pages to track down owners for cattle that have washed up on their properties. Evacuation centres have been set up at Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Manning Point, Wingham, Bulahdelah, Tuncurry Beach, Kempsey and Port Macquarie. The emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, said the commonwealth was working with the NSW government to provide support in 16 local government areas. “These floods and severe weather are having a huge impact on communities,” she said. The Insurance Council of Australia said the flooding could be catastrophic, with significant flooding in similar areas in 2022. “We are closely monitoring the severe weather across the entire state,” the council’s chief executive, Andrew Hall, said. – Australian Associated Press Tens of thousands of people are isolated, while hundreds have been rescued from disastrous flooding as intense rainfall continues. The heavy falls across the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast regions in recent days have spread to the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands as a slow-moving trough dumped rain along Australia’s east coast. Falls between 200 and 300mm in the next 24 hours are likely and may lead to flash flooding, the Bureau of Meteorology warns, around the north coast communities of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo. The bureau said the trough was expected to contract southwards this afternoon. More than 100 warnings are in place, with local residents in the path of flooding urged to head to higher ground and evacuate if they can. SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said conditions through the night into this morning had been challenging. “We’ve seen continual rainfall and very fast flowing rivers which, when combined with flooded roads, have made it very difficult to access some isolated people,” he said. While dozens of rescues have been completed overnight, they continue to be received. In the past 24 hours, the SES has carried out about 340 flood rescues and used helicopters to winch stranded residents off their roofs as they responded to 1023 incidents. More than 100 rescues were outstanding this morning, the SES said. More to come in the next post. - Australian Associated Press Thank you to Martin Farrer for kicking off the blog this morning. I’ll be keeping you posted from here. Let’s go! Weather bureau expands NSW severe weather warning The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued a severe weather warning shortly after 4am which expanded the zone from the already badly hit Hunter Valley and mid-north coast regions to include the Northern Tablelands, Northern Rivers and North West Slopes and Plains. “Areas of heavy rainfall are expected to persist through Thursday as a weak low-pressure system develops within the trough, and it slowly moves further southwards throughout the day,” the BoM warning said. It said heavy rainfall was forecast to continue over north-eastern parts of the state overnight on Wednesday and during Thursday bringing 24-hour rainfall totals of up to 300mm in some areas. “Locally intense rainfall which may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding is also possible for parts of the mid-north coast district and adjacent Northern Tablelands during Thursday,” the notice said. “This includes Kempsey, and coastal areas around Coffs Harbour and Nambucca Heads. Six-hourly rainfall totals between 100 and 150mm are possible with 24-hourly rainfall totals reaching between 200 and 300mm.” Some 115 warnings were in place on Wednesday night, with local residents in the path of flooding urged to head to higher ground and evacuate if they could. The SES carried out more than 300 flood rescues on Wednesday alone, using helicopters to winch stranded residents off their roofs. The NSW SES commissioner, Michael Wassing, said rescue conditions had been difficult and dangerous. “I cannot stress enough that it is important to heed the warnings of evacuations,” he said. “I cannot guarantee that our crews will be able to immediately rescue people.” “Super saturated” river catchments were responding quickly to the rain, he said. Evacuation centres have been set up at Dungog, Gloucester, Taree, Manning Point, Wingham, Bulahdelah, Tuncurry Beach, Kempsey and Port Macquarie. The federal emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, said the commonwealth was working with the NSW government to provide support in 16 local government areas. “These floods and severe weather are having a huge impact on communities,” she said. Read our full story here: Transport NSW says Sydney train network back on schedule Sydney’s rail network is again running to its regular timetable, transport authorities have confirmed in time for the Thursday morning peak, after a horror two days of network outages and delays caused by downed electrical wires that trapped a passenger train on Tuesday. Transport for New South Wales said “passengers can expect a good frequency” across both suburban and intercity lines. A “full timetable” will run on Thursday, with the exception of two damaged train sets which have been scheduled to run at a time of day with “minimal impact”. In a statement, Transport for NSW said: We thank the engineering crews who worked tirelessly to fix the issues on the ground, the operations staff in the rail operations centre who got us back to timetabled services, and the station staff who helped passengers through a very difficult period. We acknowledge how frustrating these past couple of days has been for passengers and apologise for the disruption. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has apologised to commuters, pledged a fare-free day on the transport network this coming Monday and launched a snap review into the incident. Minns said the downed wires “happened at the worst possible location at the worst possible time” on Tuesday. You can read about the vulnerability of Sydney’s rail network to widespread delays from a single point of failure, and the agency’s “archaic” internal communications approach, here: The reason for the Coalition split remains a point of dispute between the Liberals and the Nationals after the Senate leader Bridget McKenzie’s claim – that Nationals shadow cabinet members’ ability to vote against shadow cabinet decisions in the parliament was not part of the Nationals’ demands – was swiftly denied by Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s office. McKenzie told ABC’s 7.30 program Ley could not guarantee policies on divestiture powers for supermarkets, mobile phone coverage for regional Australia, lifting the moratorium on nuclear and the retention of the $20bn regional Australia future fund. She refused to. She put it in writing. We put that to our party room and our party room decided we were to leave the coalition. When asked whether Ley was lying when stating Nationals’ shadow ministers wanted to break cabinet solidarity as a condition of a new agreement, McKenzie said it was “not part of our consideration” and the demand was limited to those four policy areas. McKenzie said: Well, Sussan Ley wasn’t part of our party room discussions. I was. I won’t go into the details of that, but I can categorically tell you why we made the decision we did and what that was based on. It’s why we sought, in writing from the Liberal leader, her guarantee around those four policy areas. 7.30 host Sarah Ferguson read out a statement from Ley’s office refuting the claim: ‘It is not correct to subject that shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point’, and they – that is, Sussan Ley’s office – have that in writing. Read the full story here: Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it will be Rafqa Touma to take the wheel. With 48,000 people already stranded by flooding in the New South Wales Hunter Valley and mid-north coast regions, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe warning for “prolonged” heavy rainfall that also includes the adjacent areas of Northern Tablelands, Northern Rivers and North West Slopes and Plains. Some areas could cop 300mm over the next 24 hours and there was also a risk of life-threatening flash floods. More coming up. The reason for the Coalition split remains a point of dispute between the Liberals and the Nationals after Bridget McKenzie claimed last night on the ABC’s 7.30 program that Nationals shadow cabinet members’ ability to vote against shadow cabinet decisions in the parliament was not part of the Nationals’ demands – a claim denied by Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s office. More coming up.