Australia news live: Daniel Andrews announces $315m in funding for Victoria floods clean-up and road repairs | Australia news
Victorian premier commits over $300m for flood clean-up and road repairs
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is speaking in Melbourne where he is announcing more financial support to aid flood recovery.
In terms of roads, first and foremost, the immediate concern is to repair those roads so that people can start moving around to support emergency services and freight and all our people to get back into community and where they need to be. We have already got crews out doing the repair work right across the state and we have bolstered their efforts and their overall efforts by $165m. I can announce today $165m in emergency road funding has been provided. That will help us to find and fix those potholes, ash melting and repairing road surfaces that have been damaged by this flood event and to make those hardest-hit roads safer trouble again. The package will also cover larger works, like completely rebuilding roads and bridges, particularly in the … Loddon and Loddon Valley regions which have been worst affected.
… We can in some parts of the state move to a clean-up phase. That is why I am also pleased to be able to announce $150m in additional funding for a coordinated cleaning effort in those areas hardest hits and particularly where waters are falling and we can follow that water and support each and every one of those communities, noting that won’t be everybody right now because some waters have not reached their peak in some communities. In terms of the lead contractor for those arrangements, Johns Lyng who have experience in fire clean-up and flood and storm clean-up here and New South Wales have been appointed as the lead contractor … There will be other subcontractors to work with them.
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Sarah Collard
Indigenous communities affected by Victoria flooding
The devastating floods are having a big impact on the local Indigenous communities nearby Shepparton, Moama and Echuca, according to local residents and the Njernda Aboriginal Corporation in Echuca.
The chief executive, Tracy Dillon, said she has been meeting with local organisations and the local government to get a sense of how the community is faring but she said things are “extremely worrying” and that Njernda is working with local authorities to support people who are being evacuated.
She said:
We’ve got extended family members and don’t have the funds to sort of get hotels and things like that, so the government is helping out organis[ing] things there for us and that’s really beneficial.
Dillion said the community is on edge with concerns the inundated waterways and rivers could break with more heavy rains expected in the coming days.
We’re doing OK, right at the minute. But that can change in a minute because it’s in pockets where the flooding is happening so if it breaks the levee, then that can be much more serious and more families impacted.
Merinda Slater lives on the western side of Echuca which is currently “cut in half” as the flooded river splits the town in two.
Echuca has been split into pretty much two towns so I need to cross the Campaspe River to get into town and so both sides have been blocked off by police and SES, it’s just water over the roads.
Merinda said that once the alerts came through warning of evacuations and flood warnings the supermarket shelves were “stripped bare”.
It’s doomsday behaviour, there’s no bread, it’s like Covid.
As a joke I’ve been saying, ‘Should we go back to making our own bread again? get out a sourdough starter like everyone did in Covid’.
Slater, who works in Shepparton, said that there “everything is just gone under” with rising flood waters and rains adding to the stress.
They are not good at all. Some of them are like it’s in their house. My work family were telling me like ‘it’s in their house’ . I’m the only one that works outside of Shepparton so it’s a big worry there.
Adeshola Ore
Father of murdered Melbourne woman to run as Justice party candidate in Victorian elections
The father of a Melbourne woman who was beaten and murdered in 2019 will run as a candidate for Derryn Hinch’s Justice party at next month’s state election .
John Herron, a navy veteran and lawyer with practices in regional Victoria. will run for the party in the upper house, alongside Simone O’Brien, a domestic violence survivor. Justice party MPs Tania Maxwell and Stuart Grimley – elected in 2018 – will also recontest next month.
Herron said he was an “accidental candidate” who wanted to fight for his daughter and other female victims of crime. He said in a statement:
The killer was released early from prison and was on bail – like so many other stories. I saw the Andrews’ government’s indifference to victims, violent crime and violence against women.
My daughter would have wanted me to fight for her and other female victims of crime to ensure both her killer and others are not allowed to perpetrate these crimes in the first place, and to level appropriate punishment and treatment, so Victorian society can again be a functioning democracy.
Herron’s daughter, Courtney was beaten to death in Melbourne’s Royal Park in May 2019. The perpetrator – who was on a community corrections order – was later found not guilty due to mental impairment but was ordered to 25 years in a psychiatric facility.
Top medical body says reports of Medicare rorts are ‘unjustified slur’ on the profession
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) have released a statement expressing their disappointment at allegations from the joint Nine and ABC investigation that up to $8bn is being defrauded each year from Medicare by health professionals including doctors.
The statement says:
These claims are an unjustified slur on the medical profession, with the vast majority of doctors doing the right thing by their patients and by Medicare rules.
Our health system is built around universal access to healthcare that Medicare supports, and the AMA supports effective stewardship of this Medicare funding.
The Department of Health has extensive data at its disposal and the AMA believes that this should guide Medicare compliance activities as opposed to the anecdotal evidence of a small number of individuals.
Where evidence of fraud is found, the AMA fully supports efforts to stamp this out including referral top the Professional Services Review when required.
The president of the AMA, Prof Steve Robson, said:
Australia’s doctors have worked incredibly hard through Covid – treating Australians during lockdown, rolling out the nation’s vaccine efforts, putting themselves at risk every day to treat Covid patients on the front line – so today’s coverage is as appalling as it is inaccurate.
Doctors will be sickened by today’s reporting which is an undeserved attack on the whole profession based very much on anecdotes and individual cases.
The vast majority of doctors do the right thing, and are working hard for their patients under tremendous pressure within the system.
The AMA works closely with the Department of Health on compliance and we have never seen any concerns or numbers that would support the figures reported today.
We do not tolerate fraud and examples of fraud should be tackled and stamped out – but the figures reported today are grossly inflated.
Rollover on the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane’s north
JUST IN: A driver has been pulled from the wreckage of a rollover on the Gateway Motorway in Brisbane’s north.
A piece of heavy machinery flipped onto its side, blocking all northbound lanes. #9News pic.twitter.com/AfQlYsTPhN
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) October 17, 2022
Sandbagging working in Shepparton
Victoria police acknowledges ADF and Lifesaving Victoria support
Over a hundred ADF are working mainly in north of the state around Bendigo, Echuca and the “significant effort” in Shepparton. Crisp says they are undertaking a range of tasks, including filling sandbags, moving sandbags, door-knocking in places authorities are asking people to evacuate.
We sincerely thank the Australian defence force for what they’re doing. They’re committing a number of planners and logisticians. We have another two working on relief planning. We’ve submitted an addition al report for aviation. We have aircraft undertaking a wide variety of roles, but given the circumstances at the moment and what we’re looking at in the next couple of weeks, we’ve made this request and we’ll have additional aviation support in the state from tomorrow.
I would suggest it is probably not the last time that we’ll be standing up and talking about the Australian defence force.
Crisp also says that Victoria police have been working in the air, traffic management, swift water rescue as well as patrolling areas that have been impacted by flood events.
All of our emergency services have been working so strongly together and it’s been such a strong partnership. But there’s one particular organisation that doesn’t usually get a mention or seen in these situations and that’s Lifesaving Victoria. Again, they do incredible work. We see them a lot during the summer. But in this particular event, they’ve used the rescue helicopters so working in cooperation with Ambulance Victoria and police and a number of tasks with rescues. They’ve got a drone capability, so when we want to understand the impacts from this particular event, been working in Metropolitan Melbourne and also in Geelong. And the boat crews have been up in Rochester and going into the Shepparton area to work side by side with the SES. So an incredible effort by Lifesaving Victoria.
Police investigating looting of flood affected property
Andrew Crisp from Victoria police has just spoken at the press conference.
We brought you the news on the blog earlier about the Chanel Nine weatherman seeing looters in the Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong. Crisp now provides more details about that incident.
During emergencies such as this, we see the absolute best in behaviour across all of our Victorians. Sadly, we also see the absolute worst in behaviour.
And I’ve seen this in a number of emergencies over many, many years. Victoria police at the moment are investigating a burglary at a premises in the Maribyrnong area.
The situation being where someone has left during the flood event and their home has subsequently been burgled.
There is information on the police website but I know that they’re looking for information in relation to a blue Ford Territory seen in that area. If you can support police, then please do so. If you’ve got information, call Crime Stoppers on 1800333000.
SES Victoria respond to over 650 flood rescues
Wiebusch:
We continue to see a significant number of rescues occurring. We have now seen over 650 flood rescues have to occur during this event. We have had another hundred or so overnight in and around the Shepparton-Goulburn Valley district. Some of those are still being responded to this morning with the sheer volume of calls.
Our emergency services, both SES, by rescue services Victoria, Shepparton search and rescue squad, are all doing an amazing effort there.
We will see additional support today from a range of other government authority such as fisheries Department of transport through their transport safety marine division, providing additional boats to that area.
Princes Highway expected to be cut off at Camperdown and Allansford from flooding: SES
Wiebusch:
At Seymour, the Goulburn River is continuing to recede despite the releases that are coming out of Lake Eildon and we are now seeing a level at the moderate flood level at 6.5m and that is continuing to recede.
Over in the south-west of the state, the Hopkins River at Allansford is expected to peak there in the next 24 hours. We’re only talking about a handful of houses that are likely to be impacted there.
The most significant impact as to the Princes Highway which is cut at Camperdown and Allansford and so we are advising people that might be travelling in that area to make sure that they are checking VicTraffic in terms of your travel plans.
Shepparton peaked this morning just above 12m, SES says
Wiebusch:
Moving up to Shepparton, if there is some light at the end of the tunnel, what we were forecasting which was 12m and potentially 7300 homes being impacted in one form or another, the good news on the Goulburn River at Shepparton is that it peaked this morning at 12.05m. That 15cm makes a significant difference to the number of properties either isolated or impacted.
We believe around 4000 properties that are now either isolated or have some levels of inundation. Again, impact assessment will occur over the next week and that is because the Goulburn River will still be at the major flood level for another four to five days.
The causeway in particular between Maroopna and Shepparton will only see the water drop below the causeway. We believe Thursday and Friday and then that will need to be assessed before it can be reopened. But it will be some time yet before we see the major flood level which is around let 11m being below that level at Shepparton and surrounds.
Campaspe River receding, but major flood levels to persist for up to 48 hours in Echuca
Wiebusch:
At Rochester, we are slowly starting to see the Campaspe River recede. It has now reached the moderate flood level but even at the moderate flood level there is still significant inundation of the township. It is still too early for our impact assessment teams to be able to get in there and do a detailed assessment of the impacts but as we have seen through aerial footage and our assessments, around 85% of the township we believe has had inundation of properties in that space.
Moving to Echuca – we have seen the peak yesterday afternoon at Echuca at 96 point to 5m. It is slowly receding on the Campaspe River. Now back around 96m at that location. But it is still going to be at that major flood level for another 24 -48 hours. That means there is still around 1,200 properties either isolated or some levels of inundation, either on the property and a number of homes above floor. Again impact assessment will occur once that major flood peak has gone through.
Noting that the second flood peak is coming from the Murray River and the Murray River is expected to peak at 95m.
Kerang could be isolated for up to seven days, SES say
Wiebusch:
The flood waters on the Loddon River are now starting to affect all of the communities upstream of Serpentine as the waters moved towards the Murray River.
In particular, we’re going to see Kerang coming under pressure. Tuesday night into Wednesday where it all start to reach the flood level. We are expecting at this stage for that major flood level to peak that Wednesday into Thursday. The challenge for Kerang is that it will be isolated potentially for up to seven days.
There was a community meeting held that yesterday the community is now readying themselves. The roads will be sandbagged to join levels around Kerang. The height we are expecting of 78m, we expect Kerang … will be isolated and so we are asking the Kerang community to consider where they should now be moving to another location giving that peak expected Wednesday into Thursday.
Good news for Horsham and Charlton
Tim Wiebusch from Victorian SES is now providing an update:
While we have a number of communities where rivers are starting to recede, there are still many rivers and communities under threat of major flooding in these coming days.
Starting on the west of the state, the Wimmera River is expected to peak at three points 6m tomorrow being Tuesday.
The good news centred around Horsham is that while we won’t see any residential inundation we will see some streets and roadways that will have water through them and we will also see the showgrounds, football fields and things like that around Horsham that will be impacted by that flooding.
At Charlton, some good news. The rivers had now peaked on the Avoca at Charlton. It peaked at 7.9m, just below the forecast peak of eight makers. That puts it in the same level as 2010 rather than the record peak we saw in 2011 of eight points 6m. At this stage, we’re not seeing significant numbers of properties inundated there.
$21m committed to helping Victorian families with housing, health and legal aid
Andrews says:
We have also spoken about immediately financial assistance to support Victorians forced to evacuate with basics like clothing, food, shelter and things of that nature.
As we move into that recovery phase there is more that needs to be done, we will also invest and announce today $21m package of critical casework support. This is about helping families with housing, health, wellbeing, financial and legal counselling, accessing grants and whose livelihoods have been affected by the event.
We are putting community recovery offices into those flood-affected communities to help people with whatever they need. It can be quite challenging to navigate your way through all the different programs of support and assistance.
Those community recovery offices will help people navigate through all of their issues and their needs and connect them to the best service response backgrounds, other assistance that is there for them.
He also has an announced that Victorians whose homes have been “profoundly damaged” but are uninsured will be able to access up to $42,250.
Finally, we are supporting Victorians whose homes have been profoundly damaged but who aren’t insured with emergency re-establishment assistant fund grants. The fund provides up to $42,250 for uninsured properties. That helps to pay for clean-up, repairs, rebuilding and replacement of some essential household contents that have been lost.
All of these payments that we have been talking about in recent days can be accessed at the following website.
Victorian premier commits over $300m for flood clean-up and road repairs
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is speaking in Melbourne where he is announcing more financial support to aid flood recovery.
In terms of roads, first and foremost, the immediate concern is to repair those roads so that people can start moving around to support emergency services and freight and all our people to get back into community and where they need to be. We have already got crews out doing the repair work right across the state and we have bolstered their efforts and their overall efforts by $165m. I can announce today $165m in emergency road funding has been provided. That will help us to find and fix those potholes, ash melting and repairing road surfaces that have been damaged by this flood event and to make those hardest-hit roads safer trouble again. The package will also cover larger works, like completely rebuilding roads and bridges, particularly in the … Loddon and Loddon Valley regions which have been worst affected.
… We can in some parts of the state move to a clean-up phase. That is why I am also pleased to be able to announce $150m in additional funding for a coordinated cleaning effort in those areas hardest hits and particularly where waters are falling and we can follow that water and support each and every one of those communities, noting that won’t be everybody right now because some waters have not reached their peak in some communities. In terms of the lead contractor for those arrangements, Johns Lyng who have experience in fire clean-up and flood and storm clean-up here and New South Wales have been appointed as the lead contractor … There will be other subcontractors to work with them.
Liberal challenger for Andrews’ seat apologises for echoing conspiracy theorists
Benita Kolovos
The Victorian Liberal candidate in the premier, Daniel Andrews’, seat of Mulgrave, Michael Piastrino, has apologised after he echoed a line used by conspiracy theorists in an interview ahead of the November election.
Speaking to self-described citizen journalist Rukshan Fernando, Piastrino said:
We will be getting rid of all the dodgy policies Daniel Andrews has put through and he will be brought to justice for the murder of 800 people … We will not be on bended knee. We will rise up, stand tall, chest out every Liberal member and we will knock down Daniel Andrews and his corruption. That is a promise.
About an hour after a clip of the interview was posted on Twitter, the Coalition campaign HQ shared an apology from Piastrino:
Statement from Liberal Candidate for Mulgrave, Michael Piastrino:
“I wish to apologise for the inappropriate language I used in an interview over the weekend.” #springst— VCHQ 2022 (@VCHQ2022) October 16, 2022
Conspiracy theorists claim political leaders will soon be put on trial for their roles during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Andrews is fending off several challenges in his seat, including from the Freedom party and independent candidate, Ian Cook, which he holds by a safe 15.8% margin.
His office has been contacted for comment.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/oct/17/floods-weather-victoria-qld-nsw-budget-economy-housing-climate Australia news live: Daniel Andrews announces $315m in funding for Victoria floods clean-up and road repairs | Australia news
