9 hours ago
Severe weather warning for southern NSW and strong winds for Sydney coast
Petra Stock
Heavier falls were focused on southern New South Wales on Friday afternoon but the weather system was moving southwards and expected to clear the state by late in the evening, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
At 2pm a severe weather warning was current for the NSW coastline across an area stretching from south of Wollongong to the Victorian border, including the south coast and parts of Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains districts.
BoM senior meteorologist Angus Hines said:
Throughout this warning area, we could see a further 60 to 120 millimetres of rain today.
The rain would gradually ease in the afternoon and evening but the risk of flooding remained as rivers had not yet subsided, Hines said. The State Emergency Service reminded people not to drive, ride or walk through flood water and stay clear of creeks and storm drains.
Strong wind warnings were in place for Sydney enclosed waters, Hunter coast, Sydney coast, Illawarra coast, Batemans coast and Eden coast.
Hazardous surf warnings were in place across Coffs coast, Macquarie coast, Hunter coast, Sydney Coast, Illawarra coast, Batemans coast and Eden coast.
Surf and swell conditions are expected to be hazardous for coastal activities such as rock fishing, boating and swimming. People were advised to stay out of the water and avoid walking near surf-exposed areas.
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More on Creative Australia chair Robert Morgan stepping down.
Current deputy chair Wesley Enoch will step up and take the role of acting chair, arts minister Tony Burke said in a statement this afternoon.
Morgan had played “a pivotal role” in establishing Creative Australia and “modernising” the federal arts council and funding body, Burke said.
He continued:
Mr Morgan committed to leading the transition of the organisation and told me of his intention to retire once the legislation was in place and Creative Australia established. Music Australia, Creative Workplaces and the First Nations Board are now in place and Writing Australia will commence from 1 July this year. Now is the time to hand-over to a new Chair.
As Chair of the Australia Council since July 2021, Mr Morgan has made an invaluable contribution to the cultural sector in Australia and I thank him for his commitment, passion and professionalism.
Morgan said:
It has been a great honour to have served as the Chair of Creative Australia during the period of its establishment and supporting its ambitions for Australia’s artists, creators and cultural visionaries.
Creative Australia head steps down
The chair of Creative Australia, Robert Morgan, is retiring from his position on the board, arts minister Tony Burke has announced.
The retirement comes more than three months after Creative Australia dropped artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale, sparking outrage in the arts community.
Bradfield margin rises to three
I don’t want to give you all whiplash, but the Bradfield margin is back up to three votes, still in Nicolette Boele’s favour.
Court overturns William Tyrrell foster mother’s conviction over another child
The former foster mother of missing toddler William Tyrrell has had a conviction over the intimidation and assault of another child overturned, AAP reports.
The woman, who cannot be legally named, was convicted in March 2024 after magistrate Susan McIntyre found her threats to slap the child amounted to intimidation.
She earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of assault after striking the child with a wooden spoon and kicking them on the thigh.
Her conviction over these incidents was overturned on Friday at Sydney’s Downing Centre district court.
Judge Miiko Kumar found the offences proved but imposed a 12-month conditional release order without conviction.
Five counts of intimidation brought against the foster mother over alleged incidents related to the child were dismissed by McIntyre in March 2024.
William was three years old when he went missing while playing at his foster grandmother’s home in Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast on 12 September 2014.
No one has ever been charged over his disappearance.
Bradfield lead down to two votes
The margin in Bradfield has narrowed yet again. Independent Nicolette Boele now retains the lead over Liberal Gisele Kapterian by just two (2) votes.
Rafqa Touma
Thank you for joining me on the blog today. Handing over now to Stephanie Convery, who will keep you updated with the afternoon’s news.
Ben Doherty
Trump administration singles out Australia for criticism over screen content
The Trump White House says it wants to make American films great again (so no more Fast and Furious movies – make that an executive order).
In January, Trump appointed actors Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson as “special ambassadors to Hollywood” to “bring back the Golden Age of Hollywood”.
On Friday (Australia time), Donald Trump’s US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, took to X to argue foreign governments were engaging in what the US regarded as protectionist behaviour in cinema and television production.
Foreign governments undercut America’s audiovisual services providers, creators, and film-makers, offshoring Hollywood jobs, imposing burdensome fees, requiring opaque licensing, and limiting market access for US films.
Over 80 countries offer production tax incentives, resulting in many productions that could have been filmed in the United States locating elsewhere.
Recognizing America’s film industry decline, @POTUS took action and appointed Special Ambassadors to Hollywood, @jonvoight, @TheSlyStallone, and Mel Gibson, to bring back the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Foreign governments undercut America’s audiovisual services providers,… pic.twitter.com/WBrGDR8cLq
And Greer singled out Australia’s national cultural policy, which proposes imposing local content quotas on streaming services in Australia. He said:
Australia’s Cultural Policy, released in January 2023, recommends imposing Australian screen content requirements on streaming video services.
US platforms could be required to spend $220-440 million annually on Australian content, which would reduce expenditure on content production in the United States.
The Albanese government initially planned to introduce local content requirements for major streaming services in mid-2024, but negotiations over their implementation slowed over elections in both the US and Australia, as well as concerns over how they could impact the US-Australia free trade agreement. It was speculated the proposed rules would have required streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Paramount to spend a percentage of their revenue on producing local content.
A spokesperson for arts minister Tony Burke said the government remained committed to local content:
Through Revive, the Albanese Labor government committed to introducing Australian screen content requirements on streaming platforms to ensure continued access to local stories and content.
We have brilliant talent in Australia and want to make sure that no matter what platform people are watching, Australian stories form part of their experience.
Consultation is taking longer than we would like, but the government remains committed to finding an outcome.
Liberals lock in on s' policy demands
Tom McIlroy
The reconciliation between the Liberals and the s appears on track after opposition leader Sussan Ley held further party room talks on Friday.
A Liberal source said MPs agreed in principle to a series of demands from the junior Coalition partner, a deal that paves the way for the Coalition to sit together for the coming term of parliament.
Ley will now continue negotiations with s leader David Littleproud, including on the opposition’s policy for tough new big-stick break-up powers for the supermarkets and large-scale retailers. This demand was subject to debate among Liberal MPs, with some concerned about unnecessary intervention in the private sector.
Friday’s talks are the latest in a series of meetings since the s announced plans to walk away from the Coalition on Tuesday.
Moves on an opposition front bench line up can also proceed as a result of the agreement.
Severe weather warning for southern NSW and strong winds for Sydney coast
Petra Stock
Heavier falls were focused on southern New South Wales on Friday afternoon but the weather system was moving southwards and expected to clear the state by late in the evening, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
At 2pm a severe weather warning was current for the NSW coastline across an area stretching from south of Wollongong to the Victorian border, including the south coast and parts of Illawarra, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains districts.
BoM senior meteorologist Angus Hines said:
Throughout this warning area, we could see a further 60 to 120 millimetres of rain today.
The rain would gradually ease in the afternoon and evening but the risk of flooding remained as rivers had not yet subsided, Hines said. The State Emergency Service reminded people not to drive, ride or walk through flood water and stay clear of creeks and storm drains.
Strong wind warnings were in place for Sydney enclosed waters, Hunter coast, Sydney coast, Illawarra coast, Batemans coast and Eden coast.
Hazardous surf warnings were in place across Coffs coast, Macquarie coast, Hunter coast, Sydney Coast, Illawarra coast, Batemans coast and Eden coast.
Surf and swell conditions are expected to be hazardous for coastal activities such as rock fishing, boating and swimming. People were advised to stay out of the water and avoid walking near surf-exposed areas.
Australian shares on track to make the week a winner
The Australian share market is set to finish the week higher, after Wall Street settled on the back of better-than-expected US manufacturing data.
By lunchtime on Friday, the S&P/ASX200 rose 17.6 points, or 0.21%, to 8,366.2, as the broader All Ordinaries gained 19.9 points, or 0.23%, to 8,591.3.
The top 200 is about 2.1% from its record-high close on 14 February, while Wall Street’s S&P500 index is almost 5% short of its peak and down 1.8% for the week.
Closer to home, NAB economists say Australia’s economy is on track to stick its soft landing, despite emerging downside global economic risks, while downgrading their national GDP growth forecast for 2025.
“We have lowered our expectation for GDP growth this year to 1.8 per cent year-on-year (from two per cent) but left our inflation and labour market tracks unchanged,” economists Michelle Shi and Gareth Spence wrote.
The RBA will need to continue to lower rates in the near term to ensure that the labour market remains healthy.
Six of 11 local sectors were trading higher by lunchtime, with financials, IT stocks and real estate helping lift the bourse.
All big four banks were in the green after trending lower on Thursday, with NAB and ANZ in front with gains of more than 1.1%.
Energy stocks pushed 0.7% higher with oil slipping since Thursday’s close because of a stronger US dollar and expected output increases from Opec+ countries.
– Australian Associated Press
Boele retains Bradfield lead by four votes
Krishani Dhanji
The count in Bradfield is still going, and the margin is just four votes in favour of independent candidate Nicolette Boele.
It’s expected that the distribution count will be completed today, and then we will almost certainly go into a recount, which the AEC generally carries out whenever there is a margin of 100 votes or fewer.
Once that recount is done, if there’s still a less than 10-vote margin – and this is very rare – the AEC or one of the candidates can consider going to the court to “void” the seat, which would trigger a full byelection.
One of the reasons to trigger that would be the number of unexplained multiple votes that could push the result in one way or another – that’s like when someone votes in the election twice.
In 2019, on average there were about 15 unexplained multiple votes per electorate, but psephologist Kevin Bonham has told me that those unexplained votes have been trending down in recent decades as the AEC develops ways to better control the issue.
So to repeat – this is very rare, but the AEC or a candidate can petition the court of disputed returns to void a seat if it’s just too close after the recount.
