Cyclone Alfred forces PM to abandon plans to call election this weekend
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The federal government will hand down a budget on 25 March as planned after Tropical Cyclone Alfred forced Anthony Albanese to abandon plans to call an election early.
The prime minister was widely expected to call the election this weekend for 12 April, meaning the budget would be cancelled.
But as Cyclone Alfred edges closer to Queensland, Albanese has ruled out calling an early election.
Sources have told Guardian Australia that the budget will now go ahead as planned on 25 March.
Key events
Flood warning for Currumbin in Gold Coast
The city of Gold Coast has advised people in the Currumbin catchment that there is dangerous, wide-spread, fast-moving and unpredictable flooding occurring near Currumbin Creek.
It says residents should stay in place, and “it is TOO DANGEROUS TO LEAVE”.
There is a fresh advisory from the bureau in the last few minutes.
It says the storm is now 80km east of Brisbane and 65 km north-east of Gold Coast. It’s moving at 7kmh, which is slightly faster than the 6kmh it reported an hour ago.
However, on the latest tracker map the centre of the storm appears to have moved east from North Stradbroke Island having edged over it westwards earlier.
This latest map also pushes back the estimated time of landfall to 10am north of Brisbane.
It still predicts sustained winds near the centre of 95kmh with wind gusts to 130kmh.
The BoM has now issued a new tracker map which shows the eye of the storm has now edged over North Stradbroke Island in Moreton Bay.
The other significant change is that the map forecasts the eye will make landfall just north of Brisbane at around 9am – an hour later than the previuous advice suggested.
Bureau of Meteorology publishes latest update
The BoM has just issued an updated advice notice about Tropical Cyclone Alfred and it repeats the forecast that it is expected to cross the Moreton Bay Islands on Saturday morning before making landfall on the mainland coast between Maroochydore and Brisbane later in the day.
The last tracker map issued at 7.55pm AEST appeared to predict landfall at 8am around Godwin Beach.
The advice said the cyclone was now estimated to be 80km east of Brisbane and 70km north-east of Gold Coast. It is moving at 6kmh.
It remains a category two storm with sustained winds near the centre of 95kmh with wind gusts to 130kmh.
Rainfall, wind and ocean impacts are likely for southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales tonight and over the weekend.
Bureau of Meteorology publishes latest update to cyclone map
The Bureau of Meteorology has updated its tropical cyclone forecast track map again.
The cyclone remains a category two system, with sustained winds near the centre of 95 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 130 kilometres per hour.
As of 7.55pm AEST, the centre of the cyclone remained near North Stradbroke Island.
The bureau said the cyclone was still moving slowly towards the southeast Queensland coast. Rainfall, wind and ocean impacts are likely to persist tonight and over the weekend.
Cyclone reaches edge of North Stradbroke Island
The cyclone is hitting North Stradbroke Island off the coast of Brisbane, according to the latest available update from the Bureau of Meteorology.
At 7.03pm AEST, the bureau uploaded its latest tropical cyclone forecast track map, which shows the centre of the cyclone hitting the island in Moreton Bay.
The bureau said the cyclone was continuing moving slowly towards the south-east Queensland coast, with rainfall, wind and ocean impacts likely to persist tonight and over the weekend.
The areas in the warning zone for the biggest weather effects were: Double Island Point in Queensland to Yamba in New South Wales, including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Byron Bay and Ballina but not including Gympie.
The bureau said Alfred was most likely to cross over the Moreton Bay Islands Saturday morning before crossing the mainland coast, most likely between Noosa and Beenleigh later during the day.
Optus, Telstra networks affected by severe weather
Tropical Cyclone Alfred is having a widespread impact on the mobile phone and NBN networks run by Australia’s largest telco providers.
Optus said as of 5pm AEST, 52 mobile sites had lost connection due to power failures in affected regions.
The Optus local general manager, Nick Channell, said the telco was deploying fixed and mobile generators and had called in additional staff from interstate.
Channell said:
At this stage, we don’t know how long it will take to resolve services, but we are prioritising our resources to address impacted areas.
The safety and wellbeing of our customers and employees are of the utmost importance as we work as quickly as possible to restore services.
Channell said emergency calls to triple zero on mobile networks during power outages should still work if another carrier is available.
Telstra said power outages were also affecting some of its mobile phone and landline services, mainly in parts of the southern Gold Coast and northern New South Wales.
Forty-six mobile phone sites, 2,769 landline services and 1,083 ADSL services had been disrupted as of Friday evening.
The telco said it had backup systems that were keeping many services running for as long as possible, but customers should be prepared for disruptions if the power was out for a long time in their area, or if access is cut to a site.
Telstra said it had activated its assistance package for affected customers, which includes extra mobile data and free call diversions.
A spokesperson said:
We know this is a tough time and we urge everyone to stay safe and thank them for their patience.
Catie McLeod
Hi, I’ll be with you on the blog until later tonight. I hope you’re all staying safe out there.
Rafqa Touma
I’ll be handing over the live blog coverage of Tropical Cyclone Alfred to Catie McLeod, who will keep it rolling into the evening. Thank you for following along – wishing safety to readers in affected areas.
Albanese says federal budget being prepared for 25 March
When asked whether the cyclone has caused him to rule out calling an early election, the prime minister said:
I have very clearly said for a long period of time, that we announced last year, we would produce a budget on 25 March. That certainly is my clear intention. It has been. That’s the work we’ve done, preparing, leading up to this week’s events, certainly that work had all been done. I can clearly say that my focus is … on Australians at this difficult time. I won’t be doing anything to distract from that.
What we need to do is to look after each other at this difficult time. This is not a time for looking at politics.
Albanese says individual hardship payments to be made available
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says individual support for hardship and other payments will be mobilised in response to Tropical Cyclone Alfred. He is speaking live on ABC.
When you speak of a tropical cyclone crossing over and hitting land where over 4 million Australians live, then that is pretty serious and that’s why we’re doing everything possible and mobilising every level of support we can, both civil and military.
We have already mobilised local government support but I was at Services Australia headquarters this morning and we will mobilise individual support that will be required for hardship payments and other payments that go when there is a natural disaster having an impact on people’s capacity to get by, and that will be triggered at an appropriate time.
Queensland premier says 1,200 Energex workers standing by
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, says “there will never be enough generators to plug the holes” as 60,000 homes are reportedly without power. He is speaking live on the ABC’s 7.30.
“That number we expect to rise,” he says.
We have pre-positioned generators in some of the key areas. The moment it is safe, they will be turned on to some of those key infrastructure. The real work is reconnecting so you can get permanent power supply.
He said 1,200 workers from Queensland’s state-owned Energex are in position.
The moment it is safe, the moment that system goes through, they will be on the ground. There will be teams clearing vegetation while they are hooking up that power.
