Health News at Your Fingertips

Morrison is now speaking on the renewed flooding risk in northern NSW and south-east Queensland. He says the government is ready for any eventuality.

He makes a point of noting that Australian Defence Force and other federal resources have been made available, “as they always are”.

Already ADF helicopters have been forward deployed to Ballina and surrounds to assist the SES with search and rescue capacity.

He likens what happened earlier this month in the NSW Northern Rivers and Lismore, in particular, as an “inland tsunami”, and thanked everyone involved, including those “neighbours helping neighbours”.

He lists the federal assistance provided in the wake of the floods, which totals $2.4bn. It includes $291m support for mental health, financial counselling, and business recovery, and $1.3bn paid directly through disaster allowances and payments.

Following criticism of the sluggish defence response, Morrison says the ADF was “always” pre-positioned for the floods, flew hundreds of missions, and have continued to help with the ongoing clean-up.

We have seen the best of our community again in response to these terrible floods.

He goes on to say no-one could have expected what happened, but that:

Too much support can never be enough in these circumstances.

In the lower house, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese speak to a condolence motion for Moss Cass, a minister in the Whitlam government and leading progressive. Cass was Australia’s first minister for environment and conservation. He ushered in the first set of Australia’s environmental protection laws, and laid the groundwork for the end of sandmining on Fraser Island and government protection for the Great Barrier Reef.

But he achieved much more. He was a leader in advocating for the decriminalisation of homosexuality and marijuana and the legalisation of abortion. As media minister, he was crucial in setting up community radio networks and convincing big media companies to join the Australian Press Council.

Cass passed away late last month.

Morrison quotes a tribute from Cass’s son, Dan.

He demonstrated a purposeful life… he could imagine a green and fair world and did as much as anybody to bring it about.

The ACTU have been busy today. They were also involved earlier in a campaign launch near Cobargo, which was hit hard in the 2019 bushfire disaster.

The campaign features corflutes picturing Morrison, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, with the slogan “doesn’t hold a hose”.

The launch was helped by Danielle Murphy, Pixie the Goat and Zoey Salucci McDermott. The latter was pregnant at the time she met Morrison and famously refused to shake his hand at the Cobargo Showground in 2019.

Sticking with the budget, Michele O’Neil, ACTU president, says she has no faith in treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s claims of a forecast wage rise

O’Neil:

The government has never got their wage forecast right, in every single budget they’ve delivered since they’ve been in power. Every time, they’ve got it wrong.

Asked about temporary measures to ease cost of living pressures, she says:

One-off payments in this budget, which seems to be what they think will get them through, will be seen pretty cynically by working people as an election bribe.

Gabriela D’Souza, CEDA’s senior economist, is on the ABC, predicting a lot of fiscal stimulus through cost of living measures in the budget tonight.

She says the cut to the fuel excise – a well-publicised measure contained in tonight’s budget – will help ease cost of living pressures. But D’Souza says she hopes it is only temporary:

It will help people in the short term … obviously there are other reasons why we have a fuel excise, we do need to fund the cost of running governments. It also effectively does act as a bit of a deterrent for trying to get people to go into electric vehicles.

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 24 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 1,063
• In hospital: 49 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 9
• Cases: 21,494
• In hospital: 1,283 (with 53 people in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 9
• Cases: 10,326
• In hospital: 325 (with 14 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 2,324
• In hospital: 22 (with 0 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 5
• Cases: 10,916
• In hospital: 284 (with 33 people in ICU)

Our photographer extraordinaire Mike Bowers was in the lower house a little earlier for Anthony Albanese’s condolence motion for senator Kimberley Kitching.

With that, I shall hand you over to the fantastic Christopher Knaus, who will take you through the afternoon’s news.