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Hiding from the heat on Australia Day. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
Sydney is experiencing its hottest Australia Day in 20 years, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
A high of 31 degrees was reached in Sydney’s CBD about 2pm today, making it the hottest Australia Day on record in the city since a high of 32.1 degrees was recorded in 1991.
In the western suburbs the temperature had reached 34 degrees by 2pm, which was below the forecast peak of 42 degrees predicted for Penrith.
But the bureau said the temperature in the west was continuing to rise.
“Penrith hasn’t peaked yet – it’s still rising,” a bureau spokeswoman said.
The hottest Australia Day on record for Penrith was 42.3 degrees in 2003.
“I’m not sure it will get as warm as we expected in Sydney,” the spokeswoman said.
“The temperature dropped a couple of degrees at lunchtime [due to] a southeasterly sea breeze.”
Posted by Henry Sapiecha in WEATHER | January 26th, 2011
Cyclone Bianca closes in
on WA’s north
January 26, 2011 – 4:03PM
Tropical cyclone Bianca is fast approaching the Pilbara.
Residents on West Australia’s Pilbara coast have been urged to get ready to take shelter as tropical cyclone Bianca closes in.
The Bureau of Meteorology has upgraded the cyclone threat to a red alert for large parts of the Pilbara.
The storm is currently lingering about 110 kilometres north north-west of Port Headland and 205 kilometers north-east of Karratha.
It is moving west south-west at 27 kilometres per hour.
A relocation point has been set up at the Karratha TAFE on Dampier Road and poeple are asked to bring bedding, food and water to last 24 hours.
A number of roads have been closed including the North West Coastal Highway between the Great Northern Highway intersection and west of the Pannawonica turnoff.
Dampier Road in Karratha and Roebourne Road in Point Sampson are also closed.
The bureau warns Bianca is expected to intensify overnight and on Thursday as it moves parallel to the Pilbara coast.
”Destructive winds with gusts up to 160 kilometres per hour are possible between Port Hedland and Karratha later today and moving further west overnight,” the bureau said.
People in Port Hedland and Karratha are being warned about the potential for a dangerous storm tide.
”Tides may rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with damaging waves and dangerous flooding,” it said.
Damaging winds with gusts to 120 kilometres per hour are expected between De Grey and Whim Creek this afternoon, extending to Karratha late this afternoon or this evening and in Onslow and Exmouth on Thursday.
Destructive winds with gusts to 160 kilometres per hour are possible between Whim Creek and Mardie later today, moving further west overnight.
People west of Whim Creek are warned of the potential for a dangerous storm tide. Tides may rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with damaging waves and dangerous coastal flooding.
Residents in the coastal communities extending from Wallal in north to Whim Creek in the south, including Port Hedland and South Hedland, have been told to get ready to shelter from the cyclone.
”Fasten all cyclone screens and secure boats, caravans, trailers, garden sheds, outdoor furniture, rainwater tanks and LPG bottles,” the bureau said.
People living in towns south of Whim Creek to Mardie, including the towns of Dampier and Karratha, have been told to prepare for dangerous weather.
Kelsey and Ebony White soak up the atmosphere at last night’s Australia Day concert in Canberra. Photo: Andrew Sheargold
MORE than a dozen former Australians of the Year have sparked a fresh debate on the national flag, saying the time for change is long overdue.
In an unprecedented show of strength and purpose, the award recipients signed a statement saying the present flag is a transitional symbol that “highlights and promotes the flag of another nation”, the British Union Jack.
Organisation seeks support for a new Australian flag.
The Eureka flag.
The current design was a source of confusion overseas and considerable embarrassment at home, Patrick McGorry, the outgoing 2010 award winner, said yesterday.
“It’s time Australia grew up. Right now, it’s a bit like a slowly maturing Generation Y adolescent, a 27-year-old who just won’t leave home,” he said, calling on the nation to move belatedly into “independent adulthood”.
Professor McGorry, a mental health expert who believes a new flag is now an “achievable goal” on the way to the greater prize of a republic, is one of 15 former winners to have signed a statement calling for change.
Other signatories include clean-up campaigner Ian Kiernan (Australian of the Year 1994), swimmers Dawn Fraser (1964) and Shane Gould (1972) and scientists Sir Gustav Nossal (2000), Ian Frazer (2006) and Tim Flannery (2007).
Ausflag, which drafted the statement, believes it can secure support from other award recipients, including runner Cathy Freeman (1998). It is understood only a few of the previous winners approached withheld support.
“This is a major breakthrough, backed by some of the nation’s most respected people,” said Harold Scruby, who founded Ausflag in 1981.
“We must boldly take the next step and define ourselves confidently and distinctly before the world. Our new flag must be unambiguously and inclusively Australian, representing all of us equally.
“We believe the time has come to embrace a flag worthy of our sovereign, independent, mature, egalitarian nation; our own flag.”
The proposal, which comes after a series of unsuccessful moves to replace the flag, calls on Parliament to produce a design which, “like our national anthem, can be put to a plebiscite of the Australian people”.
Supporters concede that, like devising an acceptable model for a republic, designing a flag to meet Australia’s needs will not be easy. “So much mythology is involved that a redesign will always be contentious,” said Mr Kiernan.
Ausflag alone has promoted three design competitions: in 1986 leading up to the bicentenary; in 1993 after Sydney won the right to host the 2000 Olympics, and in 1998 in the run-up to the new millennium.
Not surprisingly, though the signatories insist the process should not be divisive, they have different views both on the shortcomings of the present flag and the design of what might replace it.
For example, retired public administrator Lowitja O’Donoghue (1984) said the current design “symbolises dispossession and oppression . . . represents a monoculture and intolerance” towards indigenous people.
But she does not propose replacing it with the Aboriginal flag. “We have lost so much, I’m afraid. We don’t want to lose our flag,” Dr O’Donoghue said.
Professor McGorry said: “I am sure some people will say, ‘Oh, this is not the time, Australia has other priorities.’ But that’s pathetic. Governments can deal with dozens, hundreds of issues at one time. We can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know.”
Federal police are expected to lay charges over the Christmas Island boat disaster soon, the federal government has revealed.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland today said the Australian Federal Police had been working tirelessly on its criminal investigation into last month’s tragedy.
“There is certainly a high likelihood of prosecutions happening and happening relatively quickly in this matter,” Mr McClelland said.
“Certainly there will be some action anticipated reasonably soon I’m advised.”
The AFP’s investigation encompassed the boat’s Indonesian crew and “more substantial operators”, Mr McClelland said.
“As I understand it the action that will be taken shortly will be in respect to the Australian jurisdiction,” he added.
Asked for further details, the AFP said it could not make any comment on an “ongoing investigation”.
At least 30 people died when the asylum seeker boat – known as SIEV 221 – crashed on rocks and broke apart off Christmas Island’s Rocky Point on December 15.
Another 20 people are also believed to have died but their bodies were not recovered. Forty-two people survived.
The news on prosecutions came as Customs and Border Protection Command released an internal review clearing itself of any wrongdoing over the disaster.
Customs chief executive Michael Carmody said his people had followed procedure, displayed good judgement and deserved high praise.
“I am pleased that the internal review recognises the brave efforts of those personnel involved in the difficult rescue,” he said.
The report – the first of several into the disaster – also found Customs had no intelligence to indicate when the boat left Indonesia or when it was likely to arrive at Christmas Island.
The government has accepted the review’s eight recommendations, including the trial of a land-based radar system and additional safety and rescue equipment at strategic locations.
Mr McClelland welcomed the review and praised rescuers for their bravery and professionalism.
But the review was no substitute for broader investigations by the AFP, West Australian police and WA coroner, he said.
The government would also move to set up a joint parliamentary committee to probe the disaster, he said.
Mr McClelland defended the government’s inability to track the vessel’s journey to Australia.
“Intelligence is an imprecise science,” he said.
“All I can say is our agencies do their best. They are well resourced to do it, but given the clandestine nature of these criminal activities, it is necessarily the case that not each and every voyage will be identified.”
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the coalition also backed the review’s recommendations.
“What is missing from this and likely all other reports into this tragic incident, is the changes that need to be made to the Gillard Labor government’s failed immigration and border protection policies,” he said.
Sky-high house prices in some of our biggest cities have made Australia one of the least affordable places to live in the world.
Update Australia’s home prices are expected to remain flat this year amid signs the slowdown in price gains could become entrenched, ANZ Bank says.
The bank estimates house prices will plateau this year, at just over $550,000 on average, as contending forces of rising interest rates and a strong demand for employees work themselves out in the market.
“Further price weakness is expected over 2011 as the prospect of additional rate rises weigh on both affordability and investor sentiment,” said ANZ senior real estate economist Ange Montalti.
“While the market is vulnerable to weaker momentum becoming more entrenched, good support from healthy economic growth and a further tightening in rental markets should begin to shift perceptions over 2011-12,” Mr Montalti said.
The Australian house prices have jumped from about $460,000 at the beginning of the 2009 to close last year at about $550,000, according to ANZ analysis of their own research as well as data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Reserve Bank.
However, house prices began to flatten out as buyers faced rising borrowing costs and the outlook for the global economy became more uncertain.
ANZ predicted that a shortage of available homes for rent would help spark prices by next year, perking up what’s been a lacklustre construction sector – now disrupted by major flooding across large swathes of the country.
The rental vacancy rate is tipped to fall from 2 per cent in 2010, to under 2 per cent this year, ANZ said.
“Builders will remain cautious while margins are vulnerable to sluggish house prices,” the report said.
More construction is needed to stimulate more purchases of homes, which in turn helps push prices higher as overall confidence remains bullish. Additional supply would also help alleviate the nation’s chronic shortage of affordable housing, analysts say.
However, dwelling starts are expected to fall to 131,000 in 2011-12, from 149,000 in 2010-11, before picking up in 2012-13. But this expected increase is “a far cry from the 180,000 plus dwellings required to merely stabilise the shortage at its already record high levels”, the report said.
Swelling cities
Separately, a report from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship calculates that if 260,000 migrants come to Australia per year, both Sydney and Melbourne would need to expand by 430,000 hectares, or 4300 kilometres by 2060.
“Expansion of urban areas raises issues such as likely increases in traffic congestion, city (air) pollution, and competition for land as a resource,” the report concluded. “The latter is an important issue since peripheral land of a number of capital cities has been relatively productive agriculture land, which can supply fresh food to the local area with fewer freight requirements.”
The report on the physical impact of immigration was prepared by Flinders University and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Sustainable Ecosystems Department of Immigration and Citizenship.
Australia’s housing markets are already among the least affordable in the English-speaking world, according to a recent report by US-based real estate research group Demographia. Examining house prices against household income in 325 markets, the research ranked Sydney the second least-affordable place to buy property after Hong Kong, with Melbourne also near the bottom of the pack.
Rates outlook
On the interest rates front, ANZ predicts the RBA will lift its official cash rate from their current 4.75 per cent level this year, deterring some buyers by pricing housing beyond their reach.
Credit Suisse debt markets predict an official interest rate of 5 per cent by year’s end, while investors see no chance of rate a rise when the RBA next meets on February 1.
“The absence of a co-ordinated political commitment to mobilise the supply-side of the housing market suggests continued exacerbation of an already record dwelling shortage,” Mr Montalti said.
BHP BILLITON DONATES FORTUNE TO STATES FLOOD APPEAL
23 January 2011
BHP Billiton will donate a further A$10 million to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal to assist with Queensland flood relief and recovery efforts. This is in addition to the previous $1 million announced on 1 January 2011. It also adds to the Company’s significant in kind contributions and the volunteer efforts of our people in Queensland regional areas.
“As a major employer in Queensland and given our large contribution to the Queensland economy, we want to play a leading role in the recovery efforts. We have increased our donation to demonstrate our support for the State in which so many of our people live and work, and hope that others will also be able to do so,” said BHP Billiton CEO Marius Kloppers.
BHP Billiton Metallurgical Coal President Hubie van Dalsen also noted the direct role played by the Company’s workforce in recovery efforts.
“Our Company and our workforce will continue their direct on the ground recovery work and rebuilding efforts in Central Queensland, especially in Emerald, in the months ahead, ” Mr van Dalsen said.
BHP Billiton has nearly 12,000 employees and contractors in Queensland. Our joint venture operations comprise eight major metallurgical coal operations in the Bowen Basin and a major silver, lead and zinc mine at Cannington. We also have close to 800 people working in Brisbane.
As well as our A$11 million cash donation, BHP Billiton has announced it will match all employee donations made through the Company’s Matched Giving Program.
Posted by Henry Sapiecha in Uncategorized | January 22nd, 2011
Political fight rages
on PM’s flood charge
Kirsty Needham and Clancy Yeates
January 22, 2011
FARMERS and miners alone have already lost $3 billion in the floods, according to fresh government data – highlighting the challenge the government faces to raise new funds and cut back key programs.
The nation’s most expensive natural disaster will cost coal exporters $2.5 billion this financial quarter and growers of vegetables, cotton and grain $500 million, the data shows.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has steeled the nation for tough spending cuts, and potentially a levy, to fund flood rebuilding that analysts say could cost as much as $20 billion.
Julia Gillard … considering a levy to fund rebuilding from the floods. Photo: Rebecca Hallas
Both measures have brought into sharp focus the pressure Ms Gillard will be under when she brings down her first budget and are breathing new life into the opposition’s assault on what it call Labor’s wasteful spending.
A special report on the floods from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences yesterday highlighted the financial magnitude of the disaster, and said farmers’ full costs would be ”much more” as they were forced to replace machinery and other assets.
With the damages bill yet to be fully tallied, the Coalition went on the offensive, attacking the government’s plan to ”tax” the community to fund the recovery.
”Australians have suffered enough already and they don’t need to suffer yet another new tax from a government addicted to taxing and spending, very often wasteful spending,” said the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott.
The Finance Minister, Penny Wong, hit back: ”The Howard government initiated some six levies in the time they were in government … if a levy was good enough to fund the buyback of guns, why wouldn’t someone think that a levy is good enough to help the people of Queensland as they rebuild from this natural disaster?”
The shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, said the Coalition would vote against any flood levy legislation, leaving its passage dependent on the crossbench.
The independent MPs Tony Windsor and Bob Katter have indicated support for some form of levy to fund natural disasters.
But the Greens MP Adam Bandt wanted ”to look at the specifics of any proposed levy before deciding whether to support it”. Mr Bandt said Labor should reconsider the original mining tax before looking at new levies.
The South Australian senator Nick Xenophon said ”any flood levy would have to be reasonable, targeted and well spent, otherwise it could turn into a financial disaster”.
Should a levy proceed, it will contribute only a small portion of the federal government’s rebuilding costs, expected to be shared with the states affected by the disaster.
In 1996 the Howard government raised the Medicare levy from 1.5 per cent to 1.7 per cent for a year to pay for the $500 million gun buyback after the Port Arthur tragedy. This added $70, or $1.40 a week, to the tax bill for an average income.
After the collapse of Ansett in 2001, a $10 levy was added to domestic air tickets, raising $286 million in two years.
Senator Wong accused Mr Abbott of hypocrisy, as he had proposed a 1.5 per cent levy on companies to fund the Coalition’s paid maternity scheme at the last election.
The Nationals leader, Warren Truss, said a new tax would be a burden on flood-hit industries and businesses.
Some analysts also cautioned that an extra tax on households could disrupt the already-faltering economic recovery.
The chief economist at Westpac, Bill Evans, backed a delayed return to surplus rather than a levy, which could further weaken household spending alongside higher interest rates.
”The idea of a tax could be quite damaging for that key engine room in the economy,” Mr Evans said.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said it opposed a levy, and flood rebuilding should instead be funded by rearranging spending priorities.
The Coalition has called for the sale of Medibank Private and the scrapping of the national broadband network to fund flood rebuilding. Mr Hockey listed the $429 million cash-for-clunkers scheme, the $800 million productivity places program and $750 million in environmental programs to be axed.
Senator Wong said government spending cuts in this year’s budget were a ”certainty” to pay for a ”massive infrastructure rebuild” and ”a very substantial economic cost”.
Ms Gillard said: ”As Prime Minister I’m working through what is a hard set of choices now and I will work through them in the interests of the nation and rebuilding the damage done.”
The federal government has paid out $225 million in emergency grants to 184,000 stranded householders in the past 1½ weeks alone.
Mr Abbott said yesterday flood-hit small businesses should be given a three-month holiday from GST tax burdens. The Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, said the tax office had already granted a one-month reprieve.
Kelsey and Ebony White soak up the atmosphere at last night’s Australia Day concert in Canberra. Photo: Andrew Sheargold
