Coalition breakup could be resolved within days
Tom McIlroy
A possible resolution to the Coalition’s spectacular breakup could happen within days, as Liberal MPs prepare to hold two crucial meetings to discuss the next steps forward.
Having watched the drama from the National party on Thursday afternoon, Liberals will attend a virtual partyroom meeting at 5pm today.
A second meeting is planned for early next week, to discuss policy demands from the junior Coalition partner.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud have agreed to pause announcing their frontbench line-ups as they attempt to bring the two parties back together.
Less than 48 hours after splitting with the Liberals, Littleproud insisted any reconciliation was still contingent on the four key demands being met.
They include the introduction of nuclear power, break-up powers for the supermarkets, a $20bn regional fund and improved regional telecommunications guarantees.
Key events
Second body recovered from NSW floodwaters
A body has been recovered from floodwaters on the mid-north coast, believed to be that of a missing man.
Emergency services were called to the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Huntington Road near Rosewood about 8:50pm last night after reports a man was stuck in floodwater while driving, NSW police said in a statement. Police, SES, NSWFR and RFS officers searched the area but could not find the man or vehicle.
Their search resumed this morning, when the body of a man was found near Rosewood about 8am.
The body is believed to be that of a missing man in his 30s, though it is yet to be formally identified.
Investigations into the man’s death have commenced, and a report is being prepared for the Coroner.
This is the second body recovered from the region amid flooding.
Lisa Cox
Deputy mayor of Port Macquarie shares community reactions as coastal city inundated
Lauren Edwards, deputy mayor of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, said Short Street, in the heart of town, had also been inundated:
The last images I saw of Short Street, which is a vulnerable area, the water was more than halfway up inside the buildings there.
Edwards said the communities in her council area had endured flooding in 2021 and had only narrowly missed the effects of cyclone Alfred earlier this year.
At the moment what I’m hearing and noticing is people are very focused on what they can do to help each other.
A lot of what I’m seeing is information sharing, people noticing animals that aren’t doing well. Everyone is on pause, whether you work outdoors or indoors, we are all on hold and trying to minimise movement around the local government area.
Everyone is on pause, watch and wait, and trying to help each other because it’s still unfolding and we don’t quite know what the peak will be.
Lisa Cox
Parts of Port Macquarie have been cut off by flooding
Lauren Edwards is the deputy mayor of the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.
She told Guardian Australia there had been further warnings for people to evacuate from some low-lying areas of Port Macquarie today and some parts of the coastal city had been cut off:
It’s still unfolding here but unfortunately we have started to see the levels [of the Hastings River] come up to major flooding.
There’s definitely a lot of evacuation orders now. SES has issued them for a range of locations now, more streets will close, the main northern street into Port Macquarie, the Hastings River Drive is cut off.
And of course our local government area is on both sides of the Hastings River so clearly we have communities quite affected now.”
Edwards said an evacuation warning had been issued for the low-lying Port Macquarie suburb of Settlement Point earlier today.
Adeshola Ore
Council officer involved in grocery search for toxic mushrooms testifies in Erin Patterson trial
More from Erin Patterson’s trial.
The jury has heard from a council officer tasked with visiting Asian grocers as part of the investigation into the lethal beef wellington served by Patterson in July 2023.
Troy Schonknecht, who worked as an environmental health officer at the City of Monash council in 2023, has begun giving evidence.
He says he was contacted by the Department of Health in the days after the lunch. They were requesting help searching for suspected toxic mushrooms that may have been bought at an Asian grocer in Oakleigh, Clayton or Mount Waverley.
Schonknecht was then tasked with visiting Asian grocery stores in these suburbs, the court hears.
He says the scope provided by the department was narrowed to shiitake or porcini mushrooms. The scope also involved mushrooms in clear bags that did not have commercial packaging or branding.
The jury is shown a document titled “Mushroom Investigation – Monash City Council”. It shows the stores Schonknecht visited and includes details and photographs of mushroom products.
The jury heard previously that Patterson told a toxicology registrar at Monash Health that the mushrooms used in the beef wellington were bought at an Asian grocer and may have been dried shiitake or porcini.
Schonknecht’s evidence will continue when the trial resumes at 2.15pm.
Adeshola Ore
Nurse gives evidence in Erin Patterson’s murder trial
A nurse has given evidence at Erin Patterson’s triple murder trial about her hospital presentation two days after the deadly lunch.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in Leongatha, in regional Victoria, on 29 July 2023. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges
The prosecution called Mairim Cespon, a registered nurse, who was working at Leongatha hospital on 31 July – two days after the lunch. She says Patterson presented at the hospital complaining of diarrhoea and nausea since the evening of the lunch. While Patterson was at the hospital on 31 July, Cespon collected a bowel motion sample from her, the court hears.
The jury is shown a bowel chart for Patterson completed by Cespon on that day.
It shows five bowel movements by Patterson between 10am and 11.50am. The consistency of each is described as “liquid”. Three “medium” amounts and two “small” amounts were collected.
Cespon says after the first movement, Patterson told her “it does look like a wee but it’s a bowel motion”. Cespon reads her notes to the jury which state the liquid “looks like urine”.
Asked about her appearance, Cespon says Patterson was “distressed and emotional”. She says:
She was just saying she feels unwell.
Under cross-examination, Cespon agrees she observed liquid with small brown bits. She says she has seen other patients with diarrhoea with similar bowel movements.
Caitlin Cassidy
Old Bar resident: ‘a national disaster should have been declared’
Earlier we brought you news of Miranda Saunders, the station manager of 2tlp 103.3 Ngarralinyi, who broadcast live to the flooded Old Bar community for 15 hours on Tuesday from her kitchen, to bring comfort to people who’d lost power.
She made the decision to head to the radio station and collect outside broadcast equipment on Monday, just in case of road closures.
From 7am to 9pm, I was on air … bringing comfort, connection, and critical updates to our community during one of the toughest days we’ve faced.
Saunders says the feeling across the community is “absolute devastation”. She hasn’t been personally affected by the flooding, but her sister-in-law, along with her husband and four children, had to evacuate their home by boat late yesterday as flood waters entered their home.
I know so many people that had to leave or are staying to try save their homes. In 2019, we had the fires. In 2021, the record floods. And now this. In Taree … streets are waist deep. Wingham is completely underwater.
Here in Old Bar, lots of stuff is washing ashore as Farquhar Inlet is one of the entrances for the Manning River, so we have church chairs, lounges, mattresses, even live cows, council barriers and people’s shoes. A national disaster should have been declared on Tuesday afternoon … our first responders do an incredible job, but they are overwhelmed.
Searches under way for two missing people on mid-north coast amid flooding
Searches are under way for a woman and man missing in separate flood-related incidents on the mid-north coast.
A woman was travelling between Armidale and Coffs Harbour last night when her 4WD reportedly became trapped in flood waters at 7:45pm on Morora Rd, Brooklana, NSW Police said in a statement.
Police and SES officers searched the area but were unable to find the woman or her vehicle. Their search resumed this morning, when the woman’s vehicle was found at Brooklana. Officers are working to access the vehicle and inquiries continue.
In a seperate incident, police received a report about 9:20pm last night that a man failed to return home after walking near a flooded roadway at Nymboida. Police, SES, RFS and FRNSW officers searched the area but could not find the man. Their search resumed this morning.
Police urge anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
Dead livestock found as major flooding across NSW continues
Locals are reporting dead cows washing up on beaches amid destructive rains and flooding in the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast regions.
One Facebook user posted a photo of a tagged cow washed up on One Mile Beach, Forster. Another replied with a photo of a different tagged cow washed up on Back Beach, Black Head, which falls in HazardWatch’s alert to monitor severe weather conditions.
Sussan Ley confirms Liberals will discuss Nationals policy demands after Littleproud yields on shadow cabinet solidarity
Josh Butler
Liberal leader Sussan Ley has confirmed further negotiations will occur over the coalition agreement and that the Liberals will further discuss the Nationals’ policy demands.
She has also confirmed she will pause her announcement of a shadow ministry, which was expected today, to allow more time for discussions with David Littleproud and her Liberal colleagues.
“It has always been the Liberal party’s objective to form a Coalition and we welcome the Nationals’ decision to re-enter negotiations,” Ley said.
This morning, David Littleproud has made a public statement that the Nationals are willing to accept shadow cabinet solidarity as part of a Coalition Agreement.
This is the first time this commitment has been made and I welcome it as a foundation to resolve other matters. Earlier today I wrote to, and met with, David inviting him to re-enter good-faith negotiations. I am pleased he has accepted.
In relation to the policy positions proposed by the National party room, consistent with my consultation commitment, the Liberal party will consider these, utilising our party room processes.
Littleproud says it is ‘the intent of everybody’ that Coalition and Nationals reunite before parliament sits
There have been a few questions in this Nationals press conference about the timeline – of policy reviews, of party room meetings, of decisions. The Liberals will need to appoint a shadow cabinet before parliament sits at the end of July, Littleproud says, so “there’s some clear timelines without having to define them”.
He says it’s a “reasonable assumption” that the resolution of the split, whatever that is, would have to happen before then. He continues:
And I think that that would be the intent of everybody. Because it would be great to walk in as a shadow cabinet together, and that’s the process that will now happen.
But I don’t want to put specific days or weeks on it, and I don’t think that that is constructive. I think that this is a positive development. One that does show good faith and that’s why I wanted to reciprocate today by this.
McKenzie says leaking of pre-split letter from Nationals to Liberals is breach of trust
Josh Butler
Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has accused the Liberals of breaching trust inside the Coalition, in a spectacular swipe after a letter to Michaelia Cash was leaked to media.
First published by news.com.au, the letter from McKenzie to Cash, sent before the split, warned the Nationals would have to consider whether it continued to sit with the Liberals in the Senate after Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection to the Liberals.
Asked about the letter in the press conference with David Littleproud, McKenzie said the correspondence was seeking “a resolution” with the Liberals about the Nationals’ party status. McKenzie was critical that there was “a lot of leaking going on, it would seem, of texts, of letters, of conversations” in the Nationals split.
She said:
I don’t think it’s in anyone’s interests for those matters to leak, because it actually breaches and breaks trust.
Tom McIlroy
Nationals and Liberals agree to delay naming shadow ministry as negotiations to reunite reportedly under way
Sussan Ley and David Littleproud have agreed to delay naming frontbench positions for the Liberal and National parties, in a sign the fractured Coalition could reform before Parliament returns in July.
After two leaders held direct talks on Thursday morning, Littleproud said he had sent home Nationals MPs from Canberra and wanted a resolution to the historic breakdown announced on Tuesday.
Littleproud said the Nationals would maintain their four key policy demands but were prepared to give the Liberals time to consider policy changes stemming from the 3 May election loss.
The Nationals are demanding the opposition maintain policies for the introduction of nuclear power, forced break-up powers for the big supermarkets, a $20bn regional infrastructure fund and telecommunication service guarantees in the bush.
Asked if he could trust Ley, Littleproud said yes and that he was prepared to delay naming his senior appointments:
We will allow this process to take place. I think this is a far more important development.
In a major sign reconciliation could be possible, Littleproud confirmed the Nationals would be prepared to accept a lifting of the Howard-era moratorium on nuclear policy in Australia, rather than for a government-owned and operated network of nuclear power stations.
