Health News at Your Fingertips

Hello everyone, this is Cait Kelly and I will be with you over this afternoon. There is lots of news to cover so let’s get into it.

If you want to tweet me this afternoon: @cait__kelly

First up, this from my colleague Tamsin Rose:

New South Wales opposition leader Chris Minns has tested positive for Covid after one of his sons contracted the virus earlier this week. He posted a picture of his positive rapid test to his social media accounts on Tuesday afternoon.

He said:

Looks like I’ll be stuck inside for now. But for anyone leaving the house, please make sure to stay safe. Don’t walk or drive through flood water.

On Monday he took to social media to say he would be isolating for a week after his son tested positive.

That’s it for me for now. I’m going to hand over the blog now to Cait Kelly to take you through to the afternoon.

A third person from Lismore has died in the NSW flood crisis engulfing northern NSW as greater Sydney braces for a deluge, AAP reports.

“We’ve recovered a third body this morning,” NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole told reporters on Wednesday.

“That was a male in the CBD of Lismore. That now takes our total deaths to four.

“This is terrible … one life lost is too many.”

The latest fatality comes after the body of a woman in her 80s was found inside a South Lismore house on Tuesday afternoon. She was the second elderly woman to die after being trapped in a flooded home in the area.

Another man who disappeared in floodwaters in Lismore on Sunday is presumed dead, while a man died on the Central Coast on Friday.

I have to say, watching the federal treasurer start a slideshow presentation detailing the strength of the economy as Australia’s most populous state is under water or preparing to be under water is an experience I won’t forget any time soon …

Frydenberg:

There are now more Australians in work than at the start of the pandemic. With our labour market also outperforming all major advanced economies in the world. In stark contrast, in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Italy, employment is still well below pre-pandemic levels.

Frydenberg says 375,000 jobs were created in December and unemployment fell to 4.2% from 5.2% in October.

Interestingly the federal Treasurer makes a point of highlighting that the wages share of GDP has grown:

The wages bill of the economy, otherwise known as compensation of employees, grew by 2% for the quarter and is up by 5.3% through the year.

The Australian economy grew by 3.4% in the December quarter, which Frydenberg says is the “strongest growth rate in 46 years”.

Today’s national accounts again demonstrate the enormous strength and resilience of our economy, even in the face of the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression.

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg is speaking now in Canberra, where he opens with a statement about Australia’s economy with comments about the situation in Ukraine.

We are all invested in this fight, because what is at stake is far more than the sovereignty of one nation. What is at stake is the future of the liberal, international, rules-based order.

Frydenberg says both the floods and the situation in Europe will impact Australia’s economy.

There’s a lot happening right now, but there is some confusion here about the number of deaths in Lismore that were announced at the press conference.

Officially we know of three deaths in Lismore: two women and a man, whose death was announced this morning.

However, Toole responded to a question about unconfirmed reports of additional deaths that four people had died.

We are working to clarify the situation.

After discussing the severity of the event at Lismore and what authorities are doing to respond to the crisis, Toole is asked about whether the government had done enough to prepare and says there was no way to know things would be this bad.

The ground is saturated. Depending where rainfall lands, how heavy it is and how quickly it actually floods, that’s where we’re seeing areas of flash flooding. We’ve got levee banks around Lismore. They’re 10m. No one would have predicted we were going to see a 14.4m rainfall event or flooding in that area.

Asked what the government was doing to mitigate damage from flooding, Toole then launches into an extraordinary attack on those who have opposed efforts to raise the height of Warragamba Dam. Full statement here:

Today is an important message for those that want to stand in the way of building dams or raising dam walls. This actually impacts on people’s lives. It impacts on protecting people’s property. I say to those people get out of the way. Stop coming up with excuses and not allowing these dams to be built or raised where they need to be. Stop using the excuse of a moth. A moth is not a precedent to say that is better or more important than human lives. I say that protecting property and human lives should be the number one priority, not protecting some moth. Look at those images. Look at those images of people in the north of the state standing on roofs, losing everything, losing their homes, their property. We don’t want to see that happening and that’s why we should be building more dams and raising dam walls.

NSW deputy premier Paul Toole says four people have died in Lismore, but would not comment on unconfirmed reports of deaths.

At the moment, the worst thing we could do is speculate or have fear or scaremongering going on. I will release those details. The police will release those details once we have confirmation of incidences or loss of life.

This morning, I said we’ve recovered a third body. That was a male in the CBD of Lismore. That now takes our total deaths to four. This is terrible. This is terrible. One life lost is too many [and] these are communities that have been impacted, families, loved ones that have been impacted by these losses.

The SES issues specific warnings to those around the Warragamba Dam, which started to overflow at 3am this morning, telling those with family or stock animals in the area to “action their plans” to ensure their safety.

Special mention is made to those in the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain.

Some of the areas we are looking at around the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain are the same areas that were affected last year with substantial lightning and we are expecting this might be as bad as we saw last year. We know the devastation that can cause in the community. And what we don’t want to do is lose any more lives.

SES speaking now:

The SES area of operations is between the Queensland border and Victoria border.

SES are responding to multiple flood rescues in Ballina and warning communities down through the coast to be aware of the situation, prepare and heed evacuation warnings.

I remind people that you may not be inundated in your houses, but your routes of evacuation may be cut off, and may be cut off very quickly. Just because you cannot see the water doesn’t mean that we aren’t asking you to leave those premises …

The BoM is asking people to stay up-to-date with the latest warnings, particularly those that live in the catchment area of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, as many rivers will experience flooding “in the coming days”.

Moore:

Heavy rainfall associated with these storms will likely lead to renewed river, creek and stream rises as well is already saturated soils and catchments. We have a break now but unfortunately some more shower and storm activity is on the way tomorrow.

Moore says significant rainfall has been recorded in Penrith, Wollongong and the Illawarra area, which will continue today in the Hunter down through to metropolitan Sydney.