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A supermarket manager climbed aboard a dinghy to retrieve essential supplies for flood evacuees in north Queensland.
Heavy rain is set to continue in north Queensland until at least Tuesday after more than one metre of rain fell during 48 hours in some parts of the flood-stricken region.
Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann was picked up from her Ingham home by the SES and ferried in a dinghy to her store on Sunday. There she managed to fill shopping trolleys full of supplies for the local evacuation centre.
“Our teams are working hard to support each of our communities during the current weather event, and as part of that we worked collaboratively with the Premier’s office and SES yesterday to get our Coles Ingham duty manager Marcia Glindemann into the store on a boat,” a Coles spokesman said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie praised Glindemann at a press conference a short time ago.
“The staff couldn’t access the supermarket, but we had a call in from the mayor of that Hinchinbrook area where they needed supplies … for the evacuation centres. We immediately contacted Coles and Woolworths. They advised us where their manager and assistant manager lived. We got the SES to pick up the manager and assistant manager and deliver them from their homes across the water, to the supermarkets,” he said.
“This is their local community as well, their homes were potentially going to be flooded, their stores were going to be flooded, the streets are flooded, and yet they jumped in the dinghy, they went.”
Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has assured north Queensland residents the region has at least six weeks’ worth of food, and delivery drops are planned for isolated communities.
“Queenslanders will see through a lot of social media at the moment … many pictures of reduced stock in supermarkets,” Bleijie told reporters at a press conference a short time ago.
“But I can assure you – as we have been assured – there is six weeks of food in north Queensland.
“We’ll ensure that the supermarkets get stocked up again.
“It may be that some people particularly in isolated communities are completely isolated and shut-off, but we will get the food to those people.We have mechanisms in place, delivery options available, and again if people are stuck, and they have no food or drink at their home, they just need to sing out and we’ll ensure they get food and water, fresh water, to their homes.”
A supermarket manager climbed aboard a dinghy to retrieve essential supplies for flood evacuees in north Queensland.
Heavy rain is set to continue in north Queensland until at least Tuesday after more than one metre of rain fell during 48 hours in some parts of the flood-stricken region.
Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann was picked up from her Ingham home by the SES and ferried in a dinghy to her store on Sunday. There she managed to fill shopping trolleys full of supplies for the local evacuation centre.
“Our teams are working hard to support each of our communities during the current weather event, and as part of that we worked collaboratively with the Premier’s office and SES yesterday to get our Coles Ingham duty manager Marcia Glindemann into the store on a boat,” a Coles spokesman said.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie praised Glindemann at a press conference a short time ago.
“The staff couldn’t access the supermarket, but we had a call in from the mayor of that Hinchinbrook area where they needed supplies … for the evacuation centres. We immediately contacted Coles and Woolworths. They advised us where their manager and assistant manager lived. We got the SES to pick up the manager and assistant manager and deliver them from their homes across the water, to the supermarkets,” he said.
“This is their local community as well, their homes were potentially going to be flooded, their stores were going to be flooded, the streets are flooded, and yet they jumped in the dinghy, they went.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been briefed on the extreme weather events taking place around Australia, after one person died in floodwaters in north Queensland over the weekend.
The PM said national aerial assets and the Australian Defence Force had been deployed to assist with evacuation and rescue efforts.
Both state and federal emergency funding has been activated for residents, as regional centres including Townsville and Ingham continue to be threatened by floodwaters.
Albanese also acknowledged the ongoing heatwave stretching from Western Australia to Tasmania, including active bushfires still raging in Victoria, before thanking emergency service workers across the country for their efforts.
Young Australians can expect further cost of living policy announcements in the lead-up to the federal election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed.
In an interview with youth publication The Daily Aus, Albanese promised more help was on its way, but wouldn’t go into details.
“I’m not going to make announcements now. But I will say that one of the things that we’ve done is not just talk about what we have done this term, but we’ve already foreshadowed our action in the second term,” Albanese said.
“So we’ll cut student debt by a further 20 per cent because we want to address these issues. We think that it is unfair. And we’ll also change where it kicks in and the amount that has to be paid back as a measure as well.”
The PM said he believes intergenerational inequality is the biggest issue facing young people, citing buying a home and the influence of technology as reasons for the phenomenon.
Elaborating on the housing crisis, Albanese said there was no short-term fix, and that increases to supply were being held up by state and local government planning and delays in passing the Build to Rent legislation, which only got through the Parliament in December last year with support from the Greens.
Turning to soccer for a moment, and at last, the beleaguered Ange Postecoglou has been able to enjoy some blessed respite from Tottenham’s travails as he hailed what felt like one of their most important wins of the season.
The Spurs were desperate to end a winless run of seven Premier League matches and the 2-0 victory at Brentford on Sunday, which featured more grit than glamour from the Australian’s mercurial outfit, was just the ticket for Postecoglou at the start of a potentially critical week in his reign.
He recognised the huge relief among Spurs’ fans too and appreciated their show of support at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium as they cheered him after the win.
It moved Spurs up one place to 14th in the Premier League and gave them a real boost as they prepare for Thursday’s second leg of the League Cup semi-final at Anfield, where they’ll be protecting a 1-0 lead against soaraway leaders Liverpool.
A place in a Wembley final from the man who’s perhaps made himself hostage to fortune by having declared that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club could be a job-saver – well, at least a temporary job protector – for Postecoglou.
The world can change a lot in seven years, says one of the men vying to be the next president of the International Olympic Committee.
Sebastian Coe, a gold-medal-winning Olympic runner and former British MP who now heads World Athletics, says the organisers of Brisbane’s 2032 Games should be mindful of this.
In an interview with sports commentator Bruce McAvaney for the ABC at the weekend, Coe commented on the struggle to build momentum for the Brisbane Games amid the debate about stadiums.
“This is not a criticism of Brisbane,” Coe said.
“I’m effectively an honorary Australian, but I think we have to be really clear. The world changes every 10 minutes. You and I know that, the world knows that. I think it’s possibly not the best way to deliver or to choose a venue 12, 13 years out because you don’t know strategically where the world is going to shift.
“You don’t know what burgeoning markets are going to be open to you. I think you need a little bit more flexibility in that.”
If he succeeds outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach, and serves a full term, Coe will oversee the Brisbane event, Australia’s third Olympic Games.
“I’m far too long in the tooth to get involved in the local complexities,” he said.
“It is for local communities, it’s for organising committees, for the International Olympic Committee to decide what works best and what is going to leave the best-possible legacy, because legacy is important here.
“You don’t want a Games just to be three weeks of outstanding sport and then in a couple of years’ time people forgetting the impact or not being able to observe the impact that that has had.”
On Donald Trump, Coe said he would be surprised if the US president did not support the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, despite the recent fires.
“As we all know, there have been some terrible, devastating fires in that Los Angeles area, but the venues that will be used in 2028 haven’t been damaged,” he said.
“I sat through a press conference the other day where the president did actually say that he was 100 per cent behind the Games, 100 per cent behind California. And that can only bode well.”
Coe – the only man to have won 1500-metre Olympic gold twice – is among seven candidates vying for the IOC presidency. IOC members will cast their votes in Greece on March 20.
Senior minister Murray Watt says if US President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on Australia, it would damage the economy, and Trade Minister Don Farrell is seeking talks with his US counterpart as soon as possible.
Trump’s executive order applying tariffs of 25 per cent on all imports from Canada and Mexico has triggered the countries to introduce counter-tariffs, as Watt tells ABC Radio National that Australia has a strong trade relationship with the US.
“We’ve had ministers like Penny Wong and Don Farrell engage with their counterparts in the Trump administration to press the case for ongoing trade between our two countries. And one of the key points that we’ve made is that not only do we have a free trade agreement between our two countries, but the US has had an unbroken trade surplus with Australia back to the 1950s,” he said.
Asked if tariffs would pose a threat to the Australian economy, Watt agreed it would be difficult if it came to that situation.
“I think it would be reasonable to assume that if the US were to impose tariffs on Australia, that would have a damaging impact on our economy, and again, that’s why we’ve already seen Australian ministers engage with their US counterparts,” Watt said.
As the 2025 federal election campaign looms, Labor has revealed its intention to centre Peter Dutton with a new attack ad focused on the opposition leader.
The slogan “You’ll be worse off under Dutton” accompanies a TV advertisement that lists cost of living measures the Coalition voted against. It began airing on Sunday night, and was shared online by a long list of Labor MPs.
Asked about the campaign on Nine’s Today this morning, shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said Australians were “sick and tired” of the government.
“After 2½ years in government, literally destroying the lives of the Australian people with their cost-of-living crisis, the best that Albanese can come up with is they don’t like Peter Dutton,” she said.
“Albanese needs to stop focusing on the negative and, for once, start focusing on delivering cost of living relief to the Australian people. Australians have had enough.”
An extreme weather system fuelled by two tropical lows has turned deadly after a woman was killed in floodwater amid emergency warnings and evacuations, with more record rainfalls forecast.
Heavy rain is impacting vast regions of north Queensland extending from Mackay to the south of Cairns.
Emergency warnings are in place for six Townsville suburbs in the locally named “black zone”, where residents have been told to leave.
Premier David Crisafulli warned residents not to be complacent after a 63-year-old woman died when a swift water rescue boat hit a tree yesterday.
“There is more rain to come, and there is the prospect of record rainfalls … I’m just asking people just take the precautions, prepare for the worst, listen to the advice,” he told reporters.
Police said the woman was one of six people in a State Emergency Service boat assisting members of the public through floodwaters when it struck a tree and flipped.
After a days-long deluge, the Bureau of Meteorology said more significant rainfall was expected today and tomorrow due to a slow-moving, low-pressure system and a monsoonal trough.
“Unfortunately as we get into Monday morning and into Tuesday … there’s a feed of moisture and convergence around the Cardwell-Ayr area,” the bureau’s Dean Narramore said.
“We’re likely to see major to record flooding occur on some of our rivers.”
Roads are cut, Townsville’s airport has been closed and dozens of schools have shut.
AAP
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