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Albanese meets with Chinese premier at East Asia Summit
Katharine Murphy
Good morning from Cambodia. I’ll keep you up to date with developments at the East Asia Summit today.
The most significant news overnight is the prime minister Anthony Albanese has spoken to the Chinese premier Li Keqiang through a translator for about four minutes at last night’s gala dinner.
That’s a significant development given we’ve been playing a will they or won’t they game for the best part of a week. As they say in our business, more to come
Key events
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The Victorian Coalition is holding its election campaign rally in Melbourne, ahead of the state heading to the polls this month.
Party faithfuls, MPs and candidates have gathered at the event in Port Melbourne. Opposition leader Matthew Guy will address the crowd later this morning.
The opposition has handed gatherers “frequent liar” cards feature an image of the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews.
The event has also been targeted by protesters dressed as lobsters- a nod to opposition leader Guy dining with the alleged head of Melbourne’s mafia prior to the 2018 Victorian election.
Early voting for the election begins on Monday and more than half of voters are expected to cast their ballot paper before polling day on 26 November.
Government to deliver on the Murray Darling Basin plan
Plibersek has hit back at criticism by the National party over concerns about plans for water buy-backs along the Murray Darling Basin.
I always think it’s extraordinary that the National party think it’s fine for farmers to sell their water to big state owned enterprises from overseas to the Canadian teachers, pension farmer to you know, anybody overseas but their own. Farmers aren’t allowed to sell their water back to the Australian government to be used for the environment to benefit all Australians.
Plibersek said previous environmental water flows “literally saved towns”.
There were towns that saw dry river beds for two years and then there’d be a flush of water flowing through that town. I can’t tell you what a difference it makes to the mood of the town. The economy of the town, people’s ability to cope during the worst of the droughts. If we are going to be able to do that in the future.
She also said the government would “keep all options on the table” in order to fulfil the aims of the Murray Darling Basin plan saying: “I will deliver on the Murray Darling Basin plan because we have to.”
Australia to discuss loss and damage fund
Plibersek says Australia wants to have “the discussion” about the creation of a loss and damage fund for developing world countries who suffer as climate change advances but says Australia is not ready to put up money.
nAustralia supports having a discussion about how we help countries that have been really badly impacted by climate change, cope with those impacts. Nobody’s talking about committing money at this meeting, that might be a discussion for future meetings.
Plibersek also said Australia had increased its foreign aid budget to show its commitment to its partners in the Pacific.
A lot of that money will be to do exactly this to help our been so badly affected by climate change, to cope with those impacts.
You know, I’ve traveled to Pacific nations where you see villages that were once upon a time a while back from the shore of an island actually had been literally washed into the sea. You see countries where the salinity in the freshwater table that they were relying on for drinking water and for farming purposes that salinities crept into that freshwater, affecting drinking and crops and other freshwater uses.
And you cannot understand what an existential threat this is to many Pacific nations until you’ve seen it firsthand.
Plibersek said Australia has announced it would sign up to the International Mangrove Alliance for Climate to increase global coverage of mangroves by 20% by the year 2030.
Proposals for an international loss and damage fund were first put forward by developing world countries in the early nineties but have largely been ignored by the developed world.
Australia well represented at Cop27 even without PM: Plibersek
Plibersek defended prime minister Anthony Albanese’s absence at climate talks in Cairo by saying he was still engaged with international leaders in our own region.
Plibersek said Albanese had gone “straight from parliament to the G20, Asean and the East Asia Summit”.
He’s engaging with international leaders at the highest levels on issues including climate change, but with a particular focus on our region.
It is important for Australia to have a good close relationship with the Asean nations. This is an opportunity for the prime minister to speak directly with a number of Asean leaders.
Plibersek said Albanese will meet with US president Joe Biden and that Australia was “well represented in Egypt” by Chris Bowen, Pat Conroy and Jenny McAllister.
Asked about what Australia’s performance at Cop will mean for its Pacific neighbours, Plibersek said the government had been working to address the “strategic vacuum” that had been created by the previous government.
We’ve been scrambling since then to reassure our Pacific neighbours that they can rely on Australia as a good partner.
One of the reasons that we want to co-host Cop31 with the Pacific community is to show that we can cooperate on issues around climate change. But we have other really fantastic opportunities for cooperation as well. Australia has always been a good defence partner in the Pacific.
We’ve worked with Pacific nations, for example, to help them protect and manage their fisheries. Such an important source of income for Pacific nations. But there is a real opportunity for us to to rebuild the relationships that have been allowed, I think, to languish a little under the previous government when it comes to the Pacific.
China key to action on climate change: Plibersek
Minister for Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek has told Sky News this morning that a planned meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be “good for everybody” if “constructive” talks were possible on climate change.
Plibersek said China emits “about a third of the world’s greenhouse gases” and that it was necessary to bring “these very large emitters into the tent.”
In the past, even when there has been, you know, various times different issues where the US and China have disagreed they have managed to keep a conversation going about climate change, and if we can get that back on track, that’s great.
Plibersek also flagged a break fro the previous government’s approach to relations with China saying Australia would continue to assert its national interests but considered China an important member of the international community.
We will always raise issues with China that are in Australia’s national interests, but it is – wherever we can – it is in our interests for China to be part of the international community. Pn issues like the Pacific and climate change, if we can work cooperatively, of course that’s in everybody’s interests.
Katharine Murphy
Last night’s conversation between Albanese and the Chinese premier is the first leader level conversation since 2019.
Li saw Albanese as they entered the gala dinner and sought him out as they entered the room.
Albanese meets with Chinese premier at East Asia Summit
Katharine Murphy
Good morning from Cambodia. I’ll keep you up to date with developments at the East Asia Summit today.
The most significant news overnight is the prime minister Anthony Albanese has spoken to the Chinese premier Li Keqiang through a translator for about four minutes at last night’s gala dinner.
That’s a significant development given we’ve been playing a will they or won’t they game for the best part of a week. As they say in our business, more to come
Storms to dump up to 150mm of rain bringing new floods to NSW
Berlusconi:
In summary, what all this means is that today’s risk is really around severe thunderstorms. And flash flooding that comes with significant winds they can come from thunderstorm activity.
It’s combining with a widespread rain band and it is likely to result in renewed river levels for all those catchments.
Monday is likely to see this particular system move further east and it will move away and affect mostly the south and the east during the latter part of Monday we should see sunny conditions again and a spell of cooler, dry weather from Tuesday to Friday before we start to look at another weather system potentially from next weekend.
More rain incoming increasing flash flooding risk
Berlusconi is listing notable mentions of rainfall, including a small town – I missed the name – where the local school recorded 41mm of rain within a 30-minute window.
There is a heap going on around around state, national and even international politics so I’m not able to keep up with this information, but the key takeaway message is: there has been a lot of water, there is more water incoming and flash flooding is a real risk – so don’t take chances and stay safe.
Rain to intensify over Sunday as tropical weather system moves across NSW
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Steve Berlusconi is speaking now given an update now on the weather system sweeping across the country. He says conditions will intensify over Sunday and into Monday, extended all the way to the coastline and the Sydney metropolitan area.
Berlusconi says a tropical weather system is moving into New South Wales from the tropics, creating unstable conditions in the atmosphere which is leading to “wide bands of rain”. This is creating thunderstorms with rain in some places of around 60mm in one day.
We do expect widespread rainfall to occur around about 38 and 40mm across much of the 11 parts of the state, and a very high chance of severe thunderstorms, with intense rain, damaging winds, and the potential to hail.
The greatest risk for today around that and early into Monday is around flash flooding, and that is rain falling in intense bursts at short periods of time, which affects creeks and streams and local areas.
NSW SES urges people to act on evacuation warnings
New South Wales SES commissioner Carlene York is giving an operations update. She repeats a reminder for people not to drive through flood waters.
She says the next 25 to 36 hours will be of concern and that authorities remained concerned about the prospect of flash flooding.
An effort is underway to supply towns that have been isolated or cut off due to flooding.
Not only are we preparing for the next 24-36 hours, as the minister said, we are also resupplying many communities across the state that are still isolated and will remain isolated for weeks if not months. We have 23 helicopters supplying those communities. In the response phase, we have rescue helicopters available across the areas as we are expecting extreme weather events to come.
York asks members of the public to act on evacuation warnings as early as possible otherwise there is a real risk people may be cut off and unable to receive assistance from emergency services.
NSW weather update
New South Wales emergency services minister Steph Cook is speaking to reporters with the SES and Bureau of Meteorology about the situation in NSW.
Once again it is the communities in New South Wales that will be in the firing line for these thunderstorms and heavy rain. Particular areas of focus on the south-west slopes, the central and southern tablelands, and the riverina and ACT.
Cook says the New South Wales landscape is already saturated and flooding is likely as more rain is expected.
She says a flood rescue area of operation has been established around the Goulburn area. Areas of concern included Aubrey, Wagga, Yass, Young and all towns along the Murray River system.
I know that you are flood weary. Our volunteers are also fatigued and weary at this time. I am asking everybody to continue working together. We have developed incredibly close relationships with communities right across New South Wales this year. It has been a very difficult year and we are not through it yet. As long as we continue to work together we will do everything that is possible to make sure our communities are safe and that people’s lives are protected.
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