Train services cancelled and delays predicted to worsen – as it happened​on February 14, 2025 at 6:35 am

ADF heavy-lift aircraft to support WA emergency services amid tropical cyclone

The emergency management minister, Jenny McAllister, says she has spoken with defence minister Richard Marles and that ADF heavy-lift aircraft will be available to support state emergency services in Western Australia.

In a post to X, she wrote:

The ADF heavy-lift aircraft will support the supply of equipment, machinery, materials and other essential goods. This will supplement the national heavy-lift helicopter that is already being deployed to Western Australia to assist.

WA communities in path of Tropical Cyclone Zeila warned to prepare to shelter

A watch and act alert, urging people to prepare to take shelter, has been enacted for some communities in the path of Tropical Cyclone Zelia in Western Australia.

The warning area is from west of Roebourne to Paraburdoo, Karijini National Park to Marble Bay to Eighty Mile Beach, and east of Pardoo Roadhouse. The alert reads:

There is a possible threat to lives and homes as a cyclone is approaching the area. You need to take action and get ready to shelter from a cyclone.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Meteorology has enacted a flood watch for the following catchments:

• Fortescue River

• Onslow Coast

• Ashburton River

• Gascoyne River

Heavy to locally intense rainfall associated with the tropical cyclone is expected to cause rapid river level rises and widespread areas of flooding from this afternoon, it warned.

Continuing from our last post, via AAP: GFG Alliance has also been under intense pressure from the South Australian government to pay tens of millions of dollars owed to creditors of the Whyalla steelworks and the government, including $15m to SA Water.

GFG chairman Sanjeev Gupta said today’s agreement with the Greensill creditors is “a great relief for GFG and … gives us a financial platform for recovery and growth.”

The $150m in financing Gupta was seeking had been expected to be finalised before the end of 2024.

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, who visited Whyalla on Tuesday to “gather intelligence” from GFG’s creditors, said he welcomed the news. He told FIVEAA in Adelaide:

It is on the face of it good news, but I approach it with great caution. And the reason why I say that is because I’ve seen a number of statements by GFG over the months and years – some as promising as this one – and they haven’t fully materialised.

A UK billionaire will try to sell a coalmine to prop up the Whyalla steelworks, AAP reports, as he announced a deal to settle billions of dollars of debt linked to a financier’s collapse.

GFG Alliance chairman Sanjeev Gupta says a debt settlement deal had been reached with creditors of global financier Greensill Capital, which had advanced billions of dollars in credit to GFG before it collapsed in 2021.

But the deal, which GFG said would be the “final chapter” in clearing worldwide debts of up to $US4bn ($A6.3bn), is subject to final legal agreement and will return to court in the UK in six weeks.

GFG had launched an “expedited process” to sell its equity in the Tahmoor Coking Coal mine in NSW and some of the proceeds from the sale would be available for reinvestment in Whyalla, allowing the firm “to catch up with supplier payments and boost liquidity, subject to board approval”, the company said.

The Tahmoor sale could reportedly be worth up to $800m. Production at the mine halted in January and workers were sent home on full pay, after suppliers stopped deliveries over unpaid bills.

Former NDIS minister Bill Shorten has been conferred as the seventh vice chancellor of the University of Canberra (UC) in a ceremony at its Bruce campus.

Addressing attendees, among them chief minister Andrew Barr and former parliamentary colleague Katy Gallagher, Shorten acknowledged recent times had “not been easy” for UC, nor throughout higher education, which he described as the “great liberator of personal freedom”.

We have to accept the challenges of the current environment. The entire university sector, not just UC, is in a state of change – mirroring the state of our world. Our success will lie in what we do now, how we collaborate, how we look after ourselves and how we contribute to the wellbeing of others.

I am ready to grasp the opportunity that always accompanies change. I bring to this role an energy and vision and – for anyone who has followed my career – a persistence that rivals that of my bulldog, Walter, when he wants his dinner.

Shorten noted “divisions and bigotries” were on the rise globally, ones that “we had hoped had been consigned, forever, to the chronicles of history”.

But this is not inevitable. We can make a difference. We start by ensuring our campus is safe. It must be safe for everybody. There are natural freedoms, but there must be respect. You can debate and have any idea you like, but there is no place for antisemitism, racism, homophobia, misogyny. We have to nourish our democracy and safeguard our pluralist society.

And the critical thinking and embrace of diversity, the exposure to different cultural perspectives our students experience here, is a key factor in this goal.

Katter and Haines wrap up NPC appearance with questions from the Betoota Advocate

Wrapping up their appearance at the National Press Club, a reporter asked Bob Katter and Helen Haines a question each on behalf of satirical news site the Betoota Advocate. Katter was asked:

Dear Bob, I’m sorry to betray your trust by revealing the private conversation we had at Mount Isa’s Barkly Hotel in 2017 over a few drinks. I believe you’re the only man who knows the true story behind Waltzing Matilda … On behalf of Australia, I’m asking – what else do you know about the joggy swagman’s death? The people of Australia deserve answers.

With much laughter from the crowd, Katter responded:

I’ve always been very involved with trade unions and my brothers know he was a scab.

And for Haines, Betoota asked if “Wodonga [is] the Springfield of the Upper Murray, and Albury the Shelbyville? Or is it the other way around?”

She replied that “I think actually Wodonga is the Paris of the north of Victoria” – to which Katter laughed, “Please, Helen, please.”

Helen Haines: ‘rural and regional Australians feel left behind in the transition to renewables’

At the National Press Club, a reporter asked whether renewable energy provides an economic opportunity for the regions – and Helen Haines said it does, “if we do it right”.

She said the regions are struggling with “a decade of denial around our need to de-carbonise” and a decade of no planning.

And critically, we did no education piece. We did no genuine consultation with rural and regional Australians about how this was all going to work and who would benefit.

Haines said a focus of her term in parliament has been working with the energy minister to draw his attention to this – that “rural and regional Australians feel left behind in the transition to renewables”.

They’re seeing massive landscape change, a change to their visual amenity – which really means something to us in the bush – genuine concerns about what grid-scale solar means in terms of bushfire safety. What does grid-scale energy look like in terms of biosecurity risks, insurance, land values for adjoining properties? These are real and genuine concerns from real and genuine rural and regional Australians.

She said the government needs to get the community benefit angle of the transition right and “get rid of the cowboys who stir up fear in communities”.

We need our rural councils, our leaders in rural communities, getting in there on the front foot and saying, ‘OK, we’re in a renewable energy zone. This is what it means to us. This is what we want out of it.’ … This is a massive opportunity and I’m absolutely determined to hold whoever holds power really accountable for getting this right for us in the bush.

A reporter asked Bob Katter and Helen Haines if they had been confused as being teal independents – which Katter laughed off.

Haines described the “teal” label as an “invention of the media to try to describe what happened in 2022”.

[This was] when so many women mainly from [Sydney, Melbourne and Perth] were elected to the crossbench. So it’s shorthand for that group of women – fantastic representatives of their communities. They hold … a lot of views and have a whole lot of views in common.

Haines said she doesn’t believe it is “confusion” when people call her a teal, but it is more deliberate:

I think it’s very deliberate because there’s been, from the major parties, a weaponisation of that term. And any women in the audience today who find themselves being successful in their career and exercising the power that comes with office will be familiar with the many ways that the system attempts to undermine their authority. And I think ‘teal’ is part of that.

Haines says independents come together every week when parliament sits

Asked if there is a regular caucusing of independents, with toing and froing between offices on various legislation, Helen Haines said communication expanded after the crossbench grew in 2022:

What we do, and what we agreed to do – not a formal agreement – but what we talked about when the crossbench expanded so dramatically in the 2022 election, was [that] it would be useful to all of us if we knew what each other was doing in terms of amending legislation, for example … It’d be kinda crazy if every independent was trying to get the same amendment [on a particular piece of legislation]. We come together once a week when parliament sits. We talk about – what’s the forthcoming legislation? Has anyone got any amendments? Has anyone got any events coming up that they’re sponsoring?

Bob Katter and Helen Haines speaking at National Press Club

Katter’s Australian party MP Bob Katter and Independent MP Helen Haines have been speaking at the National Press Club today, moderated by Guardian Australia columnist Gabrielle Chan.

They have been discussing the role of regional independents, and whether they are there to “keep the bastards honest” or to change the system. Katter said that for him, it’s very much the latter.

Haines said that Australia has “produced a community independent movement which is completely different to what we’ve seen anywhere else in the world”. As to the question, she said she wants to be both.

Haines said the impact of the independents in bringing about the National Anti-Corruption Commission “cannot be denied.”

And I think it was one of the significant features that brought about the downfall of the Morrison government, quite frankly, as he was intransigent to doing anything about that … The National Anti-Corruption Commission is one piece, but there’s a whole lot of reform in the integrity space that we need to do.

Haines also highlighted the “disrupting force of particularly a large group of women coming onto the crossbench” to combat “the misogyny, the awful behaviour that was detailed breathtakingly in the Jenkins review.”

So if that’s disruption, if that’s a protest vote, it’s a different kind of protest vote to what we’re seeing in the United States.

The latest on Tropical Cyclone Zelia

The Bureau of Meteorology says Tropical Cyclone Zelia is expected to make landfall this afternoon near Port Hedland. It is currently a category five system.

The tropical cyclone has sustained winds near the centre of 205km/h, with wind gusts up to 285km/h.

It is currently 85km north of Port Hedland and 210km north north-west of Marble Bar, moving south south-east.

It is expected to make landfall this afternoon near or to the east of Port Hedland, with intense rainfall as it crosses the coast. At this time, destructive wind gusts up to 290km/h are likely close to the centre of the cyclone.

Failed triple zero calls ‘not related’ to 3G shutdown, Telstra says

Several failed triple-zero calls during a fatal farm fire were not caused by the closure of the 3G mobile network, according to a Telstra investigation.

AAP reports that the telco investigated reports that emergency calls failed or dropped out during a fire in a paddock at Goohli, in north-west NSW, on 14 December 2024.

A 39-year-old man who had been operating machinery on the property was flown to Royal North Shore hospital with burns, but died the next day. The incident had been raised at Senate hearings investigating the effect of the 3G mobile network closure.

Shanyn Sparreboom, a senior public servant from the federal communications department on Wednesday told the inquiry Telstra advised the government of the incident and prepared a report. It found eight calls were made to triple zero on that day, three of which did not connect due to poor signal strength, Sparreboom said.

A Telstra statement said its investigation found the failed calls – including some from other mobile providers – either cut out or did not connect.

These calls were made in areas with traditionally poor to no coverage and not related to the closure of 3G.

Its investigation found its 4G upgrades in the region allowed the other calls to connect.

There was previously little to no coverage there. We offer our condolences to the family of the man who tragically lost his life … and we have thoroughly investigated this incident.

A nurse at the centre of a video chat showing two NSW hospital workers making anti-Israeli comments was hospitalised last night over welfare concerns, after the recording published on Instagram by an Israeli content creator attracted widespread political condemnation.

Emergency services were called to a home in Bankstown around 8:55pm following reports of a concern for welfare, NSW Police said in a statement. A 27-year-old man was taken to hospital for assessment.

NSW Police said yesterday that have spoken to an Israeli influencer who they say has agreed to provide investigators with an unedited version of a video chat.

Max Veifer, the influencer who posted the video, appears to have released the full recording of their video chat on Instagram today.

Tasmanian State Fire commander Jeremy Smith has said multiple warnings were downgraded from emergency warnings to watch and act in the state’s north-west last night. However, members of the public are asked to remain vigilant.

Encouragingly, bushfire conditions have moderated overnight, however we advise residents and members of the public to remain alert and keep up to date with the latest emergency information through TasALERT.

We have been dealing with very dynamic conditions on the fire ground due to strong winds and high fire dangers and we encourage all members of the public, especially those in the affected areas, to keep up to date with the latest emergency information.

Our main fires of concern are at Yellowband Plain, Pieman River, Mt Donaldson and Canning Peak fires.

An emergency warning remains in place for Corrina and surrounds and a watch and act remains in place for Zeehan and surrounds. The evacuation centre at Queenstown Sports Stadium remains open.