NSW floods continue and market sources suggest an insurance industry loss of more than A$1 billion is possible due to the scale flooding across the eastern half of Australia

 

The rain continues across north-east NSW.

Minor flooding is still occurring along the Wilsons River at Lismore and the Richmond River is rising from Wiangaree through to Coraki where the flood gauge registered 3.98 overnight.

Overnight the flood gauge at Grafton in the Clarence Valley registered 5.55 metres which means the flooding is now classed as "Major" there.

Down river the gauge at Ulmarra registered 4.20 metres which is just 0.07 metres below major flooding, while the gauge at Maclean registered 2.01 metres.

Coutts Crossing and Glenreagh are still affected by flooding from the Orara River, a tributary of the Clarence River. Overnight their gauges read 11.60 metres and 7,65 metres respectively.

Iluka at the mouth of the Clarence River is still cut off by Esk River flooding and access to Yamba is hampered by poor road surface conditions on the Romiaka and Oyster Channel causeways.

Road closures due to water across roads, land slips or badly damaged road surfaces are making local travel very difficult.

Elsewhere in the state, it appears that every major coastal river is either on Flood Watch or covered by a Flood Warning

There is every indication that the total damage bill for this March 2021 flooding across New South Wales will be eye-wateringly large.

Reinsurance News, 22 March 2021:

The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says it is working with the New South Wales Government to understand the severe weather and flooding currently impacting large parts of the region, particularly around the Mid-North Coast and Hawkesbury-Nepean.

The ICA has also declared a catastrophe for large parts of NSW, following the evacuation of around 18,000 residents as a result of widespread and intense rainfall.

Market sources suggest an insurance industry loss of more than A$1 billion could be seen, with the worst still anticipated over the next two days.

Days of torrential downpours have prompted rivers and dams to overflow around Sydney and in south-east Queensland……

Insurers are reported to have received storm-related claims over the last four days, however it is still too early to estimate the damage bill as many communities remain isolated.

The ICA adds that insurance assessors are standing by to move into these communities once the flood waters recede.

“The volume and intensity of rain that has fallen in the past few days has caused damage over a huge area of NSW,” said Andrew Hall, Chief Executive Officer, ICA.

“Insurers are assisting customers with their claims to help alleviate the stress and uncertainty associated with this unfolding weather event.

“Insurers have placed disaster response specialists on standby to move into affected communities and assist customers with claims as soon as it is safe to do so.”

The Daily Telegraph, 22 March 2021:

The state’s flood disaster is expected to produce a massive clean-up bill, with insurers yesterday warned not to try and reduce payouts to people facing the worst of it.

Immediate disaster recovery payments were yesterday made available for families in 34 local government areas, with more council areas set to be added to the list.

Those eligible will be able to access a one-off payment of $1000 per adult and $400 per child to cover emergency costs.

The payment will be made available immediately to people in areas including Armidale, Bellingen, Central Coast, Cessnock City, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Dungog, Hawkesbury, Kempsey, Lake Macquarie, Maitland City, Mid-Coast, Nambucca Valley, Newcastle City, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Penrith, Port Stephens and Tenterfield.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was yesterday briefed by Emergency Management Australia on the extreme weather issues in NSW. “This is a very complex weather system that is impacting on NSW at present over a very large area,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr Morrison and Premier Gladys Berejiklian have discussed the unfolding disaster with the Australian Defence Force. All mutual obligations for people on Jobseeker have also been suspended for those in the local government areas impacted by the NSW floods until at least April 6…….

The Daily Telegraph, 18 March 2021, p.11:

THE NSW government has waived the waste levy fee for residents disposing of storm and flood generated waste in seven North Coast local government areas declared Natural Disaster Areas.

NSW Environment Protection Authority CEO Tracy Mackey said the levy waiver followed storms and localised flooding that severely impacted the region in February.

“We hope that this assistance helps communities to expedite their clean-up operations to help them get back on their feet as soon as possible,” she said.

The councils exempted include Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour City, Kyogle, Lismore City, Nambucca Valley, Port Macquarie-Hastings and Richmond Valley. The exemption applied until May 31 on debris and waste created by local flooding. The levy would be waived at waste facilities nominated by the councils and local waste facility gate fees could still apply. 

Details of financial assistance available to flood affected individuals and families in New South Wales through Services Australia can be found at:

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/new-south-wales-floods-march-2021-australian-government-disaster-recovery-payment

List of eligible local government areas in which individuals and families are eligible for assistance:

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/new-south-wales-floods-march-2021-australian-government-disaster-recovery-payment

Widespread rain set to continue into next week across much of Australia

 

ABC News, 22 March 2021:

BOM warns more wild weather to come as tropical cloud band collides with east coast trough

Heavy rainfall is expected to continue in the coming days before starting to ease off Wednesday.
(

Supplied: Bureau Of Meteorology

)

"Absolutely incredible" totals are set to continue as weather systems collide, bringing a peak to the rain overnight and into tomorrow morning.

Every state and territory, except Western Australia, is expected to be under some sort of heavy rain warning by this evening.

Very dangerous conditions continue for flood-affected areas as another 50 to 100 millimetres is expected to fall on already swollen catchments today…...

• Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Warnings Current as of 7.28pm 22 Mach 2021:
• 
  
• Marine Wind Warning Summary for New South Wales,
• Severe Weather Warning for Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains, Central West Slopes and Plains, Upper Western, Snowy Mountains, Australian Capital Territory, Northern Tablelands and parts of South West Slopes and Lower Western Forecast Districts. ,
• Hazardous Surf Warning for New South Wales,
• Warning to Sheep Graziers for Northern Tablelands, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North West Slopes & Plains, Central West Slopes & Plains, South West Slopes, Riverina and Snowy Mountains forecast districts,
• Flood Watch for parts of Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Sydney, South Coast, South West, Central West and North West,
• Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Wilsons River,
• Minor to Moderate Flood Warning for the Bellinger River,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Macleay River,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Hastings River,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Manning and Gloucester Rivers,
• Major Flood Warning for Wollombi Brook and Minor flood warning for the Lower Hunter River,
• Moderate to Major Flood Warning for the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Colo Rivers,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Deua River,
• Minor Flood Warning for the Tuggerah Lake,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Orara River,
• Minor Flood Warning for the Paroo River (NSW),
• Final Flood Warning for the Marshalls Creek,
• Final Flood Warning for the Wallis Lake,
• Minor Flood Warning for the Paterson and Williams Rivers,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Nambucca River,
• Final Flood Warning for the Camden Haven River,
• Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Richmond River,
• Minor Flood Warning for the Myall River,
• Moderate Flood Warning for the Macquarie River to Bathurst,
• Road Weather Alert for Sydney for all suburbs,
• Minor Flood Warning for the Snowy River.

Go to https://www.livetraffic.com/ for updates on NSW road and bridge closures due to flooding, as well as roads with poor driving conditions.

And the Abbott-Turnbull- Morrison Government's NBN copper saga continues......

 

One of Telstra's old pits being used by the NBN
IMAGE: Coast Community News, March 2016

Now that so many old Telstra copper-laden access pits which connect households with NBN fibre-to-the-node broadband technology are currently under flood water up and down the coast of New South Wales, it might be time to consider how all this water is impacting the integrity of the copper components in these concrete pits and the effect that this might have on current and future access to the Internet and modem-connected landlines.

Because it seems copper is still king for NBN Chair Ziggy Switkowski and his seven fellow directors.

The New Daily, 21 March 2021:

The NBN Co’s decision to continue to purchase and roll out ‘obsolete’ copper cabling over ‘future proof’ fibre-optic cables is costing Australia, telco experts say.

New figures show NBN Co has purchased 55,911 kilometres worth of copper cabling for use in the national broadband network’s footprint – enough to wrap around Australia twice.

The government-owned business has replaced 6,300 degraded copper lead-ins on fibre-to-the-kerb (FTTC) with brand new copper, it was revealed this week.

RMIT associate professor of network engineering Mark Gregory slammed NBN Co’s continued use of copper as “wasteful”.

The admission by NBN Co that it had purchased 55,911 km to boost “obsolete” copper-based connections including fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) and FTTC “is shocking and should be met with outrage by taxpayers who will have to pay again, in the form of higher broadband plan costs, to have the obsolete copper based technologies replaced over the next decade,” Dr Gregory said.

“The Coalition’s NBN plan has become a national disgrace. The NBN rollout, which in reality has yet to be completed, is beset by cost and technology problems and the list of the government’s failed promises growing by the month.”

The copper figures were revealed in the Senate in response to Questions on Notice, and were 57 days overdue.

The Morrison government and NBN Co have faced criticism for being slow to answer Questions on Notice.

Last month, overdue responses to QoNs revealed that NBN Co had paid out more than $77 million in bonuses during the midst of the pandemic – nearly twice as much as the previous year…….

The NBN rollout was officially completed last year, but the Morrison government has already conceded that the many of the network’s copper-based connections already need to be upgraded.

In September, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher promised to pour more than $3 billion into upgrading millions of copper-based connections to fibre-to-the-premises by 2023.

This is on top of the cost of the rollout, which is estimated to have exceeded $57 billion…..

Labor’s shadow minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, accused Liberals of deceiving the public over the cost of fibre.

“We now know the Liberals knew back in 2013 that deploying fibre was dramatically cheaper than what they claimed in public,” Ms Rowland said.

“Malcolm Turnbull and Paul Fletcher kept this a secret and spent eight years knowingly misleading Australians to justify their copper mess.

“With waste and dishonesty as far as the eye can see – is it any wonder the cost of their copper NBN has gone from $29 billion, to $41 billion, to $49 billion and now $57 billion?”…..

Due to Morrison Government's failure to secure adequate COVID-19 vaccine stocks the current 1,000 GP practices in the national vaccine program are being rationed to between 50-100 doses a week

 

On 5 January 2020 the world became aware that a highly infectious novel coronavirus had been discovered and sometime that month a number of Australian scientists became part of global search for a COVID-19 vaccine.

By the morning of 19 August 2020 Prime Minister Scott Morrison was announcing that Australia had secured 25 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine. By the evening of 19 August drug company AstraZeneca was stating that this announcement was not true.

This should have been a warning that worse organizational blunders were likely on the horizon.

Over the next four months there were repeated government announcements bragging about how many AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Novavax vaccine doses Morrison & Co had secured for Australia – until the total reached over 134 million doses.

Come January 2021 and the Morrison Government was now only talking about est. 50 million vaccine doses and by 14 February was warning that supply problems at home and abroad meant that only 700,000 doses were in hand.

An amount which (provided a miracle occurs and there is zero wastage from use of multi-dose vials) means that only 350,000 people can be fully vaccinated.

Is it any wonder that the national COVID-19 vaccination program rollout is a shambles and a rationing of vaccine doses is underway until more vaccine is available.

ABC News, 19 March 2021:

Health Minister Greg Hunt this week announced what would have been music to the ears of more than 6 million Australians — it's now your turn to get the coronavirus vaccine.

But for general practices across the country, the news sounded like thousands of phones that would not stop ringing.

The Australian government released a list of GP clinics that would be able to start vaccinations from March 22 and an online eligibility checker that gives a contact number for vaccine providers in your area.

Kathy Turner, a GP based near Geelong in Victoria, said the government told people to contact their GPs without giving prior warning to clinics, some of which had not yet received doses.

"You should have heard the phone — I couldn't believe it," Dr Turner said.

"It was a premature announcement on the government's part and it was done without consultation with general practice.

"My manager was on the ball and took control pretty quickly and put a recorded message to say 'please don't phone about getting the COVID vaccination, they haven't arrived yet and we'll be getting a limited number only to start off with'."

Junction Street Family Practice in Nowra on New South Wales' south coast is preparing to administer 100 COVID vaccinations a week.

But when the government released the list of GPs taking part in the Phase 1B rollout, practice manager Gail Lloyd was shocked to find her clinic was not on the list.

"We're not coming up as a vaccination centre because we're on the week two rollout but nobody's really specified that and now if our patients go looking at any of the websites they don't find us," Ms Lloyd said.

"I thought that was badly managed, they could have said there are other practices coming on board, ring your own practice first."

Mr Hunt has said the plan was always to make the announcement on Wednesday.

Low number of COVID doses assigned to GPs

Like many GPs across the country, Dr Turner's clinic has been given a small supply of the vaccine, just 80 doses per week.

It's a meager amount compared to up to the 140 flu vaccinations a day they gave to patients in April last year.

"If they're not giving them to us, how can we be blamed for not giving them?" she said.

John Hilton, a GP at the Grange Medical Centre in Cooloongup, south of Perth, said his clinic had only been assigned 50 COVID vaccines a week.

"It's not a case of our capacity, it's a case of what supplies will be given as to how many we vaccinate," Dr Hilton said.

"Last year we would have done 1,000 flu vaccines in a two-to-three-week period, without effecting the running of the practice.

"We can run these things — it's one of our core businesses, providing vaccinations — we've got the know-how and the resources to do it."

"This is a massive logistical effort on the part of GP clinics across Australia and we need all the support we can get from the government," Dr Price said.

"GP clinics on the front line are under an extraordinary amount of pressure and we need the government to communicate clearly with us.

"GPs need assurances on the supply chain of doses and predictable supply well ahead of time in order to match the demand with supply, staffing and practice logistics."

Thousands of clinics to deliver vaccine by April

Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy has said Australia is not in a hurry with the rollout and people should not badger their GPs.

"While some GP clinics are coming online next week, they won't be releasing appointments until they're sure of their vaccine deliveries, which are coming in the next day or two," he said.

Dr Hilton said the government may have been overconfident in its vaccine supply.

"Maybe they had a high expectation of being higher on the worldwide list," he said.

"But we've been doing the footwork to make sure our end will run seamlessly when it does."

Ms Lloyd said it was exciting to be part of the COVID vaccination roll-out but the process had become more complex than it needed to be.

"I think it is a shame that everybody couldn't just be vaccinating their own patients because it's always better for people to be going to their own practice where their medical record and history is," she said.

The government expects that 4,000 GP clinics will be able to administer the vaccines by the end of April.

Cartoon of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

A perspective on Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's inability to comprehend that all women have a right to equality and respect

 

ABC News, 16 March 2021:

The early signs of an earthquake can often be easy to miss.

Above the ground, the initial tremors can seem innocuous. But deep below, the tectonic shifting of plates can set in motion a series of events that rip apart the earth and bring down all that stands above it.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison could be forgiven for missing the early signs of the quake that would destabilise his government and upend the nation's political landscape.

When those early tremors started, Morrison was riding high. The nation was bouncing back from an economic recession and the man who'd won an unlikely victory years earlier appeared on track for re-election.

His focus was solely on a successful vaccine rollout, which he hoped would bolster the public's confidence in his government.

Weeks later, he'd find himself inside the House of Representatives, all but praising the nation for not shooting the protesters that had gathered outside.

"This is a vibrant liberal democracy," he offered.

"Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country."

Scott Morrison is a man under pressure.

He has two Cabinet ministers, representing a quarter of the government's national security committee, on medical leave.

His government is facing allegations of a toxic culture towards women, particularly young female staffers.

Morrison played an unlikely role in the catalyst that would shake the foundations of the nation's Parliament.

He beamed as he stood alongside Grace Tame as she held her Australian of the Year trophy — an all-but-typical sight for a Prime Minister each January.

It was this sight that gave former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins the confidence to come forward only weeks later, and make public an allegation that she had been raped in a ministerial office, mere metres from the Prime Minister's office within Parliament House.

As she stepped forward into the light, so too came other women across the nation, each unearthing a growing list of allegations that ranged from bullying to sexual assault.

It derailed the government's planned focus on vaccines and forced the Coalition onto the back foot. The days of solely focussing on the pandemic are ending and with that comes greater scrutiny of the government on multiple fronts.

The Prime Minister knows all too well the power of marketing and imagery.

He projects the image of a daggy dad, the Sharks-loving, cap-wearing suburban everyman who builds chicken coops for his daughters.

So you only had to see the shirt he was wearing — the national netball team's — when he got his first COVID-19 vaccine to realise how aware he was about the reputational damage being inflicted on his government because of its culture towards women.

That culture has been a scourge on Parliament House long before Scott Morrison became Prime Minister.

But as the leader of the government it's his task to handle.

He's faced blowback for saying he had to talk to his wife to realise he had to respond to Brittany Higgins's allegations as if they were coming from his own daughters.

He's also faced criticism for referring to Ms Higgins as "Brittany", rather than Ms Higgins.

The same way he referred to Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Alison McMillan, a professor, as "chief nurse Alison", while Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly gets a "Professor Kelly".

Though each are small, the Prime Minister is facing questions about if they add up to something bigger.

"Not so much a tin ear as a wall of concrete," Labor leader Anthony Albanese offered in Parliament yesterday……

Former chief medical officer Brendan Murphy or the former NSW fire chief Shane Fitzsimmons were heavy favourites to be named Australian of the Year.

If either man had been awarded the honour, they'd have easily joined the ranks of the distinguished Australians to hold the position.

And if Murphy or Fitzimmons had been named Australian of the Year, it's unlikely the nation would still be talking about them more than a month later.

It's very possible it would've meant the Prime Minister would still be riding high, talking about the vaccine and an economy in recovery.

Grace Tame changed all that.

She has advanced a reckoning that has long hung over the nation's Parliament and its treatment of women.

It's grown into a story beyond Parliament House and forced the nation to confront how women in all walks of life are treated in Australia.

There is no quick fix that Morrison could announce to solve this problem.

To change a culture takes time.

But for the tens of thousands who rallied around the nation, they were looking for signs the nation's leaders were listening.

What they heard was a Prime Minister who said they should be thankful they weren't shot.

All those wonderful women who marched and those who support them in Australia 2021

 

On 15 March 2015 women and girls marched in villages, towns and citiesspread across Australia from coast to coast.

They marched demanding that gender-based violence against women and children stop.

A demand which insists that the federal government listen, act and lead a long overdue change in institutional attitudes which either turn a blind eye to or openly condone sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, the double burden for many women of gender based discrimination coupled with racial discrimination and, a shameful murder rate which sees women murdered by their current partners or former partners at the rate of one woman every nine days [House of Representatives, Hansard, p.62].

Here are just some of the images from that 14 to 15 March which were 

tweeted by marchers as they happened.....

#march4justice thread in Melbourne.

This is a list of names of all the women in Australia killed from gendered violence since 2008. 👇 pic.twitter.com/CgcJcqsB8t

— Antoun Issa (@antissa) March 15, 2021

Some of the supporters showing solidarity.....

Thousands of #March4Justice protesters can be heard cheering as Labor MPs led by @AlboMP walk out of Parliament House to join the rally @TheNewDailyAu pic.twitter.com/5FV1FcCHbw

— Samantha Dick (@samanthadick00) March 15, 2021

This moment requires leadership. We’re not getting it from this Prime Minister.

My response to the PM in Parliament. #March4Justice pic.twitter.com/4NG9aC4W3o

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 15, 2021

Thank you Andrew Wilkie @WilkieMP who stood yesterday in Parliament in Solidarity with #WomensMarch4Justice @womensmarchaus @womensmarch pic.twitter.com/aqWMmmodOV

— 🎗Bel🎗 (@gypsybels) March 16, 2021

Shout out to @TonyHWindsor for attending the #March4Justice Armidale today! pic.twitter.com/bQ1mkY79FE

— Kate Mackley (@TheMackley) March 15, 2021

Look who turned up at #March4Justice in Sydney @TwoPaddocks pic.twitter.com/KdANXraWdF

— Saffron Howden (@saffronhowden) March 15, 2021

Having a super normal one back on the old work commute. But the women are coming because enough is enough and tomorrow we #March4Justice! pic.twitter.com/ouFE4tGcjQ

— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) March 14, 2021

BACKGROUND

Just one of the reports that Scott Morrison and his government have not acted on since he became prime minister in August 2018.

Australian Human Rights Commission, Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020), 5 March 2020:

1 Introduction

1.1 Executive Summary

(a) The National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces

Workplace sexual harassment is prevalent and pervasive: it occurs in every industry, in every location and at every level, in Australian workplaces. Australians, across the country, are suffering the financial, social, emotional, physical and psychological harm associated with sexual harassment. This is particularly so for women.

This behaviour also represents a very real financial impost to the economy through lost productivity, staff turnover and other associated impacts.

In June 2018, against the backdrop of the momentum of the #MeToo movement and recognition of the prevalence of, and immense harm caused by sexual harassment in Australian, and global, workplaces, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins, and the then Minister for Women, the Hon Kelly O’Dwyer, announced the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces (Inquiry).

As Australia’s national human rights institution, the Australian Human Rights Commission (the Commission) was tasked with undertaking this Inquiry. The Commission has an established record of undertaking initiatives aimed at addressing sexual harassment and promoting gender equality.

In the Terms of Reference, the Commission’s task was to review and report on workplace sexual harassment and make recommendations in relation to:

    • its prevalence, nature and reporting in Australian workplaces

    • the role of technology

    • its drivers, including risk factors for particular population groups or in  different workplace settings

    • the current legal framework

    • existing measures to address it and examples of good practice

    • its impacts on individuals and businesses, including its economic impact.

This report outlines the Commission’s findings and recommendations. The full list of recommendations is set out at the end of this Executive Summary.

The purpose of this Inquiry is to improve how Australian workplaces prevent and respond to sexual harassment, including through an examination of the systemic issues set out in its Terms of Reference.

The Commission established a Reference Group to provide advice and guidance for the Inquiry. It included members from across government, business groups, unions, academia and the legal and community sector (see Section 1.4(b) for a list of members). The Commission acknowledges and thanks Reference Group members for their valuable assistance with engaging stakeholders and providing frank and robust advice and guidance on the Inquiry.

The Commission received 460 submissions from government agencies, business groups, community bodies and, above all, victims. From September 2018 to February 2019, the Commission conducted 60 consultations as part of the Inquiry, with more than 600 individuals participating in all capital cities and some regional locations across Australia. It also held three roundtables and numerous meetings with key stakeholders.

This report is a reflection of the contributions of many individuals and organisations and the Commission is grateful to those who took the time to attend a consultation, write a submission or assist the Inquiry.

There is an urgency and demand for change across all corners of society.

Australia is also being closely watched internationally. This is Australia’s moment to be a global leader on this important and topical issue.

Report recommendations begin on Page 40 at https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/ahrc_wsh_report_2020.pdf