Australia live news: NSW floods clean-up begins; nation records 35 Covid deaths | Australia news

Eight more local government areas in New South Wales are eligible for disaster assistance in the wake of this week’s floods, the NSW and federal governments have announced.

The areas are:

• Cumberland
• Mid Coast
• Muswellbrook
• Nambucca
• Newcastle
• Port Stephens
• Randwick
• Warren

It takes the total disaster-declared LGAs to 37.

People can now apply for disaster recovery funding assistance, as well as the disaster recovery payment of $1000 for adults and $400 for children.

Federal minister for emergency management, Murray Watt:

I’ve been out in impacted areas this week and it’s clear this is a widespread event, which is going to take some time to recover from.

As the damage continues to be assessed, the New South Wales and Australian governments are working to quickly and efficiently provide access to financial and other assistance.

The NSW minister for emergency services, Steph Cooke said:

Declaring a natural disaster is an essential first step towards getting a range of support out the door and in the pockets of individuals, families, farmers and business owners.

Here are the latest coronavirus case numbers from around Australia on Friday, as the country records at least 35 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 1,701
• In hospital: 137 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 7
• Cases: 12,768
• In hospital: 1,901 (with 60 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 380
• In hospital: 17 (with no one in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 13
• Cases: 5,726
• In hospital: 714 (with 17 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 3,809
• In hospital: 249 (with 9 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 3
• Cases: 1,589
• In hospital: 88 (with 3 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 9
• Cases: 9,676
• In hospital: 629 (with 37 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 3
• Cases: 6,217
• In hospital: 242 (with 11 people in ICU)

Mostafa Rachwani

Melbourne and Adelaide airports avoid long wait times seen in Sydney

Fears of long waiting lines at airports around the country have yet to materialise today, with Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide airports avoiding some of the horror wait times seen in recent weeks.

With school holidays in Victoria, NSW and Queensland coming to an end, just as holidays begin in South Australia, authorities had warned travellers to arrive early for their flights, and to expect big crowds.

A spokesperson for Melbourne airport said that while 90,000 people were still expected to pass through the terminals on Friday, and 80,000 on Saturday, longer wait times had been reduced:

A little over half of passengers today are arrivals, which suggests people returning to Victoria as the school holidays end. There has been some queueing at peak periods, but the lines are moving quickly.

A spokesperson for Adelaide airport said today was the busiest day since the pandemic, with more than 30,000 travellers expected today, but with lines moving quickly:

Adelaide airport is very busy this morning as expected but the lines for check in and security have been moving well, and all of our security lanes are open.

Caitlin Cassidy

On the ground in Hawkesbury

Melanie Woods is a self-described “Hawkesbury-ite”, her family has grown up on its banks for generations.

We know what it does, it doesn’t shock us … it is what it is, but it came up very quickly, and we’ve had three this year.

On Friday afternoon, Woods was carting boxes of Christmas decorations and camping gear out into the street, discarding items too covered in mud muck to salvage.

Her daughter, Elora Kingsbury, sat in their yard, wiping grime off her wedding decorations in the sun. Kingsbury was married during Covid, when you could only have 11 guests, and was planning a proper celebration in September (pending more floods).

It’s the shock, the fact we’re here again, like, seriously? It’s unprecedented.

A sense of resilience has been echoed by politicians, however there is a grim acceptance of one’s fate amongst locals who’ve been here before.

Woods and her family have lived in their current property for two years, and have experienced four floods in that time.

They evacuated this week when the river exceeded 13 metres, with no time to move everything upstairs, and Woods says it’s been the worst one yet.

The last one that went into our house was one in 100 years, well, so is this one. We’ve lost of a lot of my parent’s stuff this time, their memorabilia, but I think we’re tired. We’re disaster weary … I’m sick of it. But there’s people worse off than us.

If you choose to live in Hawkesbury, this is what you get.

Paul Karp

Australia won’t need to ‘compromise’ with China on trade sanctions, Birmingham says

The shadow foreign affairs minister, Simon Birmingham, has taken aim at trade minister Don Farrell for comments to Guardian Australia about possible “compromise” with China.

On Tuesday Farrell said this about trade disputes with China:

So, at the moment the plan is to proceed with those [World Trade Organisation disputes]. Obviously if the opportunity arises to have a different set of discussions, whereby we can nut out a compromise situation – then I’d be fully supportive of going down that track.

At the moment it’s the WTO process, that’s the proper way that these issues should be determined. But, if an alternative way emerges, then we’ll certainly be happy to look at that.

On Friday Birmingham told Sky News he “noted with some concern” that Farrell had suggested “that perhaps there were compromises to be had with China”, because we should expect that “unfair trade sanctions” would cease “without the need for compromise or without any acquiescence towards Chinese demands”.

He said:

We certainly shouldn’t be working through those issues by potentially pushing one Australian industry under a bus at the expense of another. We should make sure that the Australian government … is standing up clearly for all of Australia’s interests in relation to our engagement with China.

And that talk of compromise by senator Farrell was erroneous language on his part, rather than a suggestion that somehow we’re going to concede that some industries can be penalised or punished while others won’t be.

Stephanie Convery

I’ll hand you back to the intrepid Natasha May now.

On the Hawkesbury River, the floods clean-up begins

Caitlin Cassidy

If it weren’t for a helicopter hovering overhead there’d be few signs that western Sydney had been lashed with floods while heading down the Hume motorway on Friday morning.

Blue skies had finally hit the region, as strings of emergency vehicles flocked to Windsor where the Hawkesbury River was beginning to recede.

Closer in, though, mud slicks, closed roads and shuttered shops were a reminder of the torrential rainfall that had lingered in Sydney since the weekend. And, as the water dries, the clean up begins.

In Windsor’s main drag, strings of ADF crew walked the streets alongside tired SES volunteers, sat on the banks of the river, watching it flow.

The river peaked above the major March 2022 flood level of 13.8 metres on Tuesday, but was now sitting at 9.18 metres and falling slowly. The Bureau said it was likely to fall below the moderate flood level of 7 metres on Saturday.

A plaque on the side of the Macquarie Hotel pays testament to the 1867 floods, when water licked at the main street. The pub had been saved from any damage this time around, but locals agreed July 2022 had been the worst floods in their recent memory.

Down at the river bank, Melanie Woods was carting mud-drenched belongings from the bottom story of her house, as her children mopped the floors, donned in knee-high gumboots.

Australia will coordinate with New Zealand when it comes to procuring electric vehicles for its government fleet.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement on Friday when discussing opportunities for trans-Tasman collaboration in the area of renewable energy.

Albanese said:

If we are all competing against each other for procurement at the same time, we will end up paying more for it but not if there is cooperation between Australia and New Zealand.

The PM went on to say this collaboration could also include the creation of industry policy and developing domestic manufacturing capacity for renewable energy – a key issue following an International Energy Agency report on Friday that said China dominated the photovoltaic solar supply chain:

What’s more, if we are looking at the potential that I certainly see Australia having of stepping up industry policy and manufacturing in the renewable sector, then that, if it is combined across our two nations, could have a much more positive economic outcome.

Government and corporate fleet buying is considered one way to boost the uptake of electric vehicles. As governments and corporations regularly update their fleets, the old cars are sold on the second-hand market, making them available to people who can’t afford to buy a new car outright.

This announcement suggests Australian and New Zealand governments will work together rather than be drawn into a bidding war for a limited pool of electric vehicles being sent to the region, which would drive up the price.

Energy minister Chris Bowen told the National Press Club in June that the new government planned to convert three in four cars in the commonwealth fleet to “no-emissions vehicles”.

This was part of the government’s “Driving The Nation” plan which also aimed to install a fast charger every 150km on Australian highways.

The new Albanese government has been promising to make the uptake of electric vehicles a priority, promising to cut tariffs on their importation and abolish the fringe benefits tax on “affordable electric vehicles” from 1 July.

Huge breaking news out of Japan where there are unconfirmed reports that Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe has been shot – he has reportedly collapsed while making a speech, with initial reports saying gunshots had been heard shortly before he fell to the ground.

Follow the developments here:

There were 3,809 new cases in the last reporting period, and nine people are in intensive care.