Australia politics live: spending cut, infrastructure projects shelved as treasurer assembles budget | Australia news

That is continued:

Tasmania:

* Ten emergency warnings are current.
* A watch and act alert is in place for residents along the Liffey River, while advice alerts have been issued for those on the North Esk, Macquarie, Meander, South Esk, St Pauls and Lake rivers in the north.
* Concerns have eased despite up to 45mm of rain falling across the North Esk, South Esk and Macquarie river catchments.
* The Bureau of Meteorology says showers will clear about the northwest on Sunday but more rain is on the way.

Queensland:

* Six emergency alerts are active.
* A watch and act alert is current for Biggenden and Dallarnil in the Burnett Region, while residents in Brisbane, Redlands City, Noosa, on the Fraser Coast and at Gympie are subject to advice warnings.
* A major flood warning has also been issued for the Macintyre River, which is expected to peak at up to 9.9 metres at Goondiwindi early Monday.
* The state’s southeast corner was soaked overnight into Sunday, with falls of more than 150mm in places.
* An isolated fall of 156mm was recorded at Canning Creek, with more than 100mm at Maleny on the Sunshine Coast and over 80mm at Bellthorpe in the Moreton Bay area.
* Moderate flooding could also occur along the Mary River at Tiaro from Sunday after rainfalls of 170mm.

AAP has a wrap of the flood warnings:

Victoria:
* Sixty-six emergency warnings are in place.
* Evacuation orders remain for Echuca on the Murray River.
* Residents at northern Gunbower, Leitchville, Patho, Torrumbarry, Tocumwal and Wharparilla have been told to seek higher ground, as have those downstream of Rochester and at Seymour, north of Melbourne.
* Authorities say it is too late to leave at Barmah and Lower Moira on the Murray and not safe to return to homes in Kerang and Bunbartha.
* Flooding also continues on the Goulburn River downstream of Shepparton, on the Barwon downstream of Inverleigh, along the King River and Seven Creeks downstream of Euroa.
* Major inundation is occurring near Echuca after water reached levels not seen in almost 30 years on Saturday.
* An emergency warning for Loddon Weir also remains, along with a landslide warning for Alpine residents at Bogong and Falls Creek.

NSW
* There are 124 current emergency warnings.
* Evacuation orders are in place for Moree, Terry Hie Hie, Gunnedah and Carroll in the state’s north, the Riverina town of Narrandera and Mudgee in the central west.
* Residents have also been ordered to higher ground at Cummeragunja, Mathoura East, Murray Valley and Moama on the Murray River.
* The Murray is forecast to peak Sunday into Monday.
* Flooding continues in multiple locations across the state including on the Lachlan River at Forbes, the Macquarie River at Warren, the Northern Rivers in Nimbin, at central western Wellington and Cowra, and in Bourke, Brewarrina and Wilcannia in the west and northwest.
* Rain is falling across much of NSW, with severe storms possible in the east, with locally-heavy falls leading to flash flooding, gusty winds and possibly hail.
* Natural disaster declarations have been made in more than 40 local government areas.

Hume: push for internal diversity ‘coming from the Liberal party more broadly’

The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, was also on ABC radio RN where she was asked about the lack of women in the Liberal party.

Patricia Karvelas tells her the Liberals, particularly in the lower house, is a “sea of men” and whatever the opposition is doing to increase the number of women in the party is not working. (That’s because it’s a target, not a quota, and targets don’t work, but anyway … )

Hume:

That’s exactly right … which is why we want to make sure that each one of those programs that’s running in all the different states is coordinated, that we’re adopting best practice and that we make sure that there is a singular focus on improving the gender diversity and diversity more broadly of … our political ranks.

It is really important not just because you want to better reflect the community that you represent, but also because when you have diverse groups around the table, better decisions get made, better decisions make for better policy, better policy makes for better politics.

So we know that there is an imperative to do that. This is not something that’s coming from the women in the Liberal party. This is something that’s coming from the Liberal party more broadly and I think there is a collective view to focus on (that).

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, is on ABC Radio RN talking about the $22bn in “savings” following the budget spending audit.

Murph reported on that here:

Gallagher says it comes from the whole of government and includes infrastructure.

Some infrastructure spending will be “re-profiled”, Gallagher says. What is “re-profiling?” It’s a couple of things – moving some projects that aren’t ready yet, or reallocating some of the funding to other projects.

Good morning

Amy Remeikis