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NSW SES has responded to 430 incidents in past 24 hours as official warns of ‘significant’ rain to comeDebbie Platz, the deputy commissioner of NSW SES, just gave an update about the weather situation across the state. She told ABC News:
This system is very widespread and … already we’ve had significant rain right up and down the east coast of New South Wales, but also significant rain inland as well …
That’s going to bring with it flash flooding and renewed riverine rises. Previously to this event, we had a system go through probably 10 days ago, and that system is still causing flooding along the Namoi and Barwon rivers.
Platz said the state is in for “significant” rainfall, saying it’s possible that in the Sydney area and in the north more than 100mm of rain is forecast, with some areas possibly seeing up to 120mm.Over the last 24 hours NSW SES has responded to 430 incidents.A person carrying an umbrella walks across the harbour from Sydney Opera House on 21 August, 2025. Photograph: Hollie Adams/ReutersShareUpdated at 00.42 BSTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureLehrmann appeal resumesAdeshola OreBruce Lehrmann’s appeal against the federal court ruling that he was not defamed by Network 10 and Lisa Wilkinson has begun for the day.Sue Chrysanthou SC, for Wilkinson, is expected to finish her arguments this morning. Zali Burrows, for Lehrmann, will then start her response.ShareUpdated at 01.21 BSTLehrmann’s written submissions published by federal courtAmanda MeadeBruce Lehrmann’s written submissions have been published by the federal court ahead of the start of the second day of his appeal against his lost defamation case.In the documents his lawyer, Zali Burrows, argues that the original judge, Justice Michael Lee, “misconstrued the meaning of the word ‘rape’”.Bruce Lehrmann departs federal court on Wendesday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP“The problem is that [The Project] broadcast clearly suggests a violent rape, where the complainant was in tears and repeatedly refused consent, of which repeated refusal the perpetrator must have been aware,” the documents released by the court says. They add:
That is quite different from a non-violent rape involving inadvertent recklessness as to whether there was consent.
Lehrmann is asking the appeal court to accept that Lee’s judgment denied Lehrmann procedural fairness and natural justice because “facts were not put to Mr Lehrmann” about “a version of the rape that His Honour found”.We’ll bring you more from the appeal as the day goes on.ShareUpdated at 01.14 BSTPatrick ComminsWhat could be one of the biggest tax reform ‘prizes’?We mentioned earlier that Aruna Sathanapally, the chief executive of the Grattan Institute, was doing a presentation later this morning to the roundtable on “a better tax system”.We aren’t allowed in the cabinet room, but we have a fair idea what will be in that presentation. In Sathanapally’s submission to the talkfest, she outlined a number of reforms.First: “The biggest tax reform prize in Australia would be to replace state stamp duties with general property taxes.” Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPThen there are a range of suggestions: curbing super tax concessions; halving the capital gains tax discount and winding back negative gearing; broadening and/or raising the GST; and redesigning the petroleum resource rent tax.The submission also floats the idea of an inheritance tax and a corporate cashflow tax, reminiscent of what the Productivity Commission recently proposed.Sathanapally said a tax reform package “might be needed to share the costs more broadly and to raise enough revenue to be able to compensate those who can least afford it”.One such package could be a GST “grand bargain” between the commonwealth and the states, which would involve broadening and hiking the consumption tax to pay for boosted welfare and lower income tax.ShareUpdated at 00.52 BSTNSW SES has responded to 430 incidents in past 24 hours as official warns of ‘significant’ rain to comeDebbie Platz, the deputy commissioner of NSW SES, just gave an update about the weather situation across the state. She told ABC News:
This system is very widespread and … already we’ve had significant rain right up and down the east coast of New South Wales, but also significant rain inland as well …
That’s going to bring with it flash flooding and renewed riverine rises. Previously to this event, we had a system go through probably 10 days ago, and that system is still causing flooding along the Namoi and Barwon rivers.
Platz said the state is in for “significant” rainfall, saying it’s possible that in the Sydney area and in the north more than 100mm of rain is forecast, with some areas possibly seeing up to 120mm.Over the last 24 hours NSW SES has responded to 430 incidents.A person carrying an umbrella walks across the harbour from Sydney Opera House on 21 August, 2025. Photograph: Hollie Adams/ReutersShareUpdated at 00.42 BSTPatrick ComminsIt’s day three of the roundtable. On deck: tax and budget sustainabilityIt’s day three of the government’s economic reform roundtable, and the two dozen or so attendees in the cabinet room will be discussing tax and budget sustainability.Before booting out the media, Jim Chalmers in his opening remarks highlighted the “seven big intensifying pressures on our budget”.While the treasurer didn’t list them all, the budget papers show the fastest growing major payments are (starting with the fastest growing): interest on the debt, the NDIS, defence, hospitals, medical benefits, aged care, and the child care subsidy.“Five out of those seven are in the care economy,” Chalmers noted, adding:
The challenge on us is to convert the progress we’ve made in the near term in the budget, into longer term structural progress in the budget.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPThe treasury secretary, Jenny Wilkinson, is presenting first up, followed by a session on efficiency in government services (including care).The CEO of the Grattan Institute, Aruna Sathanapally, will give a presentation on “a better tax system” later this morning, which will be the topic of conversation for the rest of the afternoon.At 4.20pm the treasurer is scheduled to deliver a “close and way forward”, which might include some “announceables”.Don’t hold your breath for a major tax announcement, though: Anthony Albanese has already ruled out any new tax changes in this term of government.ShareUpdated at 00.27 BSTWoman assisting police after baby found dead in drain in WAA woman in her 30s is assisting police regarding the death of an infant who was found dead in a storm drain in Alexander Heights on Monday.The woman is receiving appropriate care and support, WA police said last night, but “given the sensitivities” the police would not make any further comment.Read our story on the discovery of the baby here:ShareNational road toll highest in 15 years, with number of pedestrians killed up more than 27%Australian road accidents have claimed their highest number of victims in 15 years, with the national road toll fuelled by a rising number of pedestrian deaths, AAP report.Recent figures show the national road toll had grown to 1,340 deaths during the year to 31 July – an increase of 2.9%. But the number of pedestrians killed in road accidents during the year jumped by 27.3%, an additional 44 people. Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty ImagesRoad toll figures showed an additional 38 people were killed on Australian roads during the last 12 months, with significant increases in Tasmania (up 41%), the ACT (14%), and Western Australia (12%).The figures represented the worst road toll recorded since 2010 when 1,395 people died in road accidents, and showed Australia was failing to meet its goal to halve the road toll by 2030, Australian Automobile Association managing director Michael Bradley said.ShareUpdated at 00.20 BSTPrue Car says she is ‘doing OK’ amid treatment for breast cancerNSW deputy premier Prue Car said she is “as well as you can be in the middle of chemo” after saying she would take time away to get treatment for breast cancer in June.Car told 2GB this morning:
It’s a long and, at times, pretty brutal process, but I’m doing OK.
Prue Car, NSW deputy premier. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPCar praised advancements in cancer research, pointing to the Cancer Council’s Daffodil Day today. But she noted every time she went in for treatment there was were hundreds of others there too, “having the same process for different types of cancers”.
We need to do better. We need to keep making the treatment less brutal. We need to ultimately find a cure, and we need to make sure that all those hundreds of people every day, of people having chemo right now for different types of cancer or going through surgery or radiation, that they can have a better chance of survival and thriving in their life once they’ve finished their treatment.
ShareUpdated at 23.37 BSTDozens of flood advisories across NSW as heavy rain continuesThere are dozens of flood advisories across NSW this morning after a night of heavy rain.NSW SES is advising residents to stay informed from an area stretching from south of Sydney up to the Central Coast, the north coast, the New England region and the state’s north-west.The agency wrote on social media:
With the morning commute in full swing, it’s important to take extra care and drive to the conditions.
Heavy rainfall is expected to continue today & renewed flooding is forecast for the coastal and north west areas of the state.
Stay safe on the roads during wet weather 🚗With the morning commute in full swing, it’s important to take extra care and drive to the conditions.Heavy rainfall is expected to continue today & renewed flooding is forecast for the coastal and north west areas of the state. pic.twitter.com/yrkFyFfXmU— NSW SES (@NSWSES) August 20, 2025ShareUpdated at 23.48 BSTButler says Thriving Kids plan will help bolster NDIS long-termHealth minister Mark Butler has said planned changes to the NDIS that will see children with mild to moderate developmental delays or autism diverted into a new program would both help kids and support the funding model behind the disability support service.Butler spoke to RN Breakfast this morning after announcing the Thriving Kids program, which will begin in mid-2027.The minister said this morning the change was about “making sure we can get cost growth down … but also build a system to support kids to thrive rather than expecting parents and children with relatively mild to moderate levels of developmental delay or autism to go on to a scheme built for permanent, significant disability”:
Change will take some time, obviously, particularly to build a system for thriving kids that parents have confidence in, that has the right emphasis points. But I think what the community is saying is they want a sense from their government that we get the need to make change.
They overwhelmingly think that this [the NDIS] is a scheme they should be proud of, that has transformed the lives of people with disabilities. But they’re concerned it’s costing too much and has too many inefficiencies and too many dodgy providers.
Health minister Mark Butler. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAPShareUpdated at 23.03 BSTABC unveils new public comment guidelines for staffABC managing director Hugh Marks said new public comment guidelines sent to staff yesterday were not directly linked to the Antoinette Latouff unlawful termination case, but reflected a need to update how staff can communicate online so their remarks don’t reflect badly on the national broadcaster.Hugh Marks, ABC managing director. Photograph: ABCMarks spoke to RN Breakfast this morning, where he was asked about the origin of the new guidelines and if they were a direct response to the Latouff episode:
I think it’s not directly related to that particular case. I think when I started, there had already been some discussion around whether social media guidelines were going to continue to be appropriate or whether, I guess, a recognition that it’s not just social media where comments by some of our people can potentially reflect in an adverse way upon the reputation of the ABC and that we needed something that captured that much broader environment.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the guidelines place limits on what staff can and can’t say publicly, noting even private WhatsApp groups can be considered “public” in some settings. Marks told RN this morning:
If you’re in a public WhatsApp group, maybe discussing whether it’s a community group or whether it’s a group with 500 work colleagues, I think the broader the group, the more likely that is to be considered, you know, being at risk of being public comment. …
I think, again, if you were doing a conversation with a journalist, that’s a one-on-one WhatsApp message, then it would be reasonable to assume that that would also become public.
ShareUpdated at 00.04 BSTTwo men missing after car crashes into river north of SydneyEmergency officials are searching for two people missing after a car crashed into a river north of Sydney late last night.NSW police said emergency services were called to the Macdonald River, about 20km north of Wisemans Ferry, just before midnight amid reports a car had entered the water. Officers found a vehicle in the river when they arrived. One passenger of the car, a man in his 20s, managed to escape but said his two companions had gone missing.Officials this morning said the two other men have not been accounted for. The NSW SES and NSW rural fire service are searching the area for the missing pair.ShareUpdated at 22.45 BSTLarge-scale energy generation demand to grow 21% over next decade but investment pipeline ‘healthy’Adam MortonThe Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) has released its annual report on the investments needed to ensure the national electricity grid remains reliable for the next decade.It found the outlook had improved from a year ago – assuming all expected investments in new generation, storage and transmission connections that have been promised are delivered on time and in full.Aemo’s chief executive, Daniel Westerman, said the report showed “the 10-year investment pipeline to manage energy reliability is healthy”. But he said the large number of electricity stations due to retire over the next decade – 11GW worth of them, nearly all of it coal power – meant the “timely delivery” of new infrastructure was critical. Photograph: David Gray/ReutersThe operator is forecasting demand for large-scale electricity generation will increase by 21% over the next decade, mainly due to “the rapid expansion of data centres, accelerating business electrification and the broader inclusion of prospective industrial energy users”.It said a “small reliability gap” of 80MW was forecast in Queensland this summer due to “reduced generator availability, higher forecasts of maximum demand and delayed project commissioning”, and warned capacity would be needed to cover this.A larger reliability gap of 390MW is forecast in South Australia next financial year if the Torrens Island B gas plant retires as previously planned – but the modelling did not consider a recent in-principle agreement to extend the generator’s life for two years.ShareUpdated at 22.51 BSTGood morning, and welcome to Thursday morning. Nick Visser here to take over for Martin Farrer. Let’s get to it.Share‘No gap’ for children in transition from NDIS to Thriving Kids, minister saysJosh TaylorThe health minister, Mark Butler, said there would be no gap in support for parents of children with mild to moderate developmental delays or autism under the $2bn plan to shift those children from NDIS coverage to the Thriving Kids program.Butler told ABC’s 7.30 program that there is a two-year run-up time before Thriving Kids comes into effect, with services to roll out from next year to give parents confidence they will get the support they need.The children currently on the NDIS will be entitled to remain on the NDIS, he said, but he reiterated his belief that he doesn’t think, in the long term, the NDIS is “the right scheme for kids with mild to moderate developmental delay or autism.
We’ve only really given parents one option for the last several years – the one port in the storm has been the NDIS. I think that there should be another option. But I’m going to make sure that that option is fully up and running before we start diversion from the NDIS, that’s the only right thing to do.
On fraud in the NDIS, Butler said more work needed to be done, and there needed to be a more robust system of provider registration, noting only 16,000 of the 260,000 service providers are currently registered.ShareUpdated at 23.48 BSTJosh TaylorBusiness Council of Australia says ‘broad agreement’ on pausing national construction codeBran Black, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, said following the wrap-up of yesterday’s meetings of the economic reform roundtable there was “pretty broad agreement” to take a pause on the national construction code.He told ABC’s 7.30 program last night there was also scope for agreement on reform around the federal approvals system and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The devil is in the detail and there are lots of issues that are still to be finalised, but if you can agree upon the structure, which is broadly in line with the recommendations of Graham Samuel, that’s an excellent spot.
On AI, there remains disagreement with the union movement over workers vetoing the introduction of AI into workplaces. He said AI is just “affecting roles” and not “replacing roles” for the most part, and existing laws can address the issues that are emerging.He said regulation should not be introduced unless it is needed, and provisions in the Fair Work Act already cover consultation for workers where there are significant changes contemplated for workforces.
What we are concerned about is that if we rush to regulate now, if we rush to regulate too early, then we will miss the opportunity associated with the technology. And if we do that, perversely, we may see the type of outcome that we’re trying to prevent, and opportunities moving overseas and jobs being lost. We don’t want to be in that situation.
ShareUpdated at 22.09 BSTBruce Lehrmann returns to court for second day of appeal hearingAmanda MeadeBruce Lehrmann will return to the federal court in Sydney at 10.15am today for day two of his appeal against Justice Michael Lee’s April 2024 defamation judgment.The federal court found the former Liberal staffer was not defamed by Lisa Wilkinson and Network 10 when The Project broadcast an interview with Brittany Higgins in 2021 in which she alleged she was raped in Parliament House.Yesterday, Lehrmann’s lawyer, Zali Burrows, apologised to the full bench of the federal court, justices Michael Wigney, Craig Colvin and Wendy Abraham, for her client’s failure to appoint an experienced barrister. Burrows said Lehrmann could not afford to pay for the services of a silk.It set the stage for a rocky morning for the appellant as Burrows put her case on four grounds, fielding multiple questions from the bench and choosing to delay much of the detail of her case until after Ten and Wilkinson present their submissions.Sue Chrysanthou SC, for Ten, will be first up today, and she told the court she expected to finish her reply in about one hour.The court will then hear from Burrows, who will respond to submissions from Chrysanthou and Ten’s silk Matt Collins KC.The case has been set down for three days.ShareAntarctica at risk of ‘abrupt changes’ that could have catastrophic consequencesAdam MortonAntarctica could undergo abrupt and potentially irreversible changes that have catastrophic consequences unless urgent action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, according to a review by 21 Australian and international scientists.Published in the journal Nature, the review of published Antarctic science found changes facing the southern continent were interlinked and putting pressure on the global climate, sea level and ecosystems.It highlights several risks, including:
The “severe risk” that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse. If that happened, it could raise sea levels by more than three metres and threaten coastal cities and communities across the world.
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The accelerating disappearance of sea ice floating in the ocean around Antarctica. This has a range of knock-on effects, including worsening warming by increasing the amount of solar heat retained in the ocean and increasing the risk that species that rely on the ice, such as emperor penguins, could go extinct.
The potential rapid slowdown of the Southern Ocean overturning circulation, which could alter the world’s climate for centuries. Among other changes, it would mean vital nutrients stay at the seafloor instead of being recirculated back to the surface, where biological systems depend on them.
Dr Nerilie Abram, the chief scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division and the study’s lead author, said:
The only way to avoid further abrupt changes and their far-reaching impacts is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fast enough to limit global warming to as close to 1.5C as possible.
Governments, businesses and communities will need to factor in these abrupt Antarctic changes that are being observed now into future planning for climate change impacts, including in Australia.
ShareUpdated at 22.15 BSTWelcomeGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer, bringing you the best overnight stories and then I’ll be handing over to Nick Visser.A study by 21 Australian and international scientists reports today that Antarctica could undergo abrupt and potentially catastrophic changes unless urgent action is taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions. More shortly.It’s the final day of the government’s economic roundtable today. Yesterday there seemed to be consensus over a pause to changes to the nation’s construction code, to give builders more certainty and hopefully speed up new housing.Plus, today Bruce Lehrmann’s appeal hearing continues in the federal court, as he tries to reverse his loss in a defamation case against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. We’ll bring you all the developments from that hearing as they come today.Share
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