Wong says dependents of Australian officials told to leave UAE
Imogen Dewey
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said in a post late last night that families of Australian officials have been told to leave the United Arab Emirates as war in the Middle East spreads.
“The Australian Government has directed the departure of dependants of Australian officials posted to the UAE, due to the deteriorating security situation,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday night:
Our travel advice has been updated to reflect that direction. We continue to advise Australians not to travel to the UAE.
She said that more than 1,700 Australians have so far returned on direct flights from the UAE and that the government was “contacting registered Australians directly when we know seats are available”.
If you can secure a seat, please consider taking it.
Key events
Good morning! Nick Visser here to take the reins. Let’s get to it.
Nationals select candidate to run in Sussan Ley’s NSW seat
Krishani Dhanji
The Nationals have selected a former army colonel, Brad Robertson, to challenge former Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer at the upcoming byelection on 9 May.
Both the Nationals and the Liberals will be contesting the seat, which was held by Ley for 25 years, but represented by former Nationals leader Tim Fischer before her.
The Coalition candidates will face challenges from One Nation, who selected agriculture businessman David Farley, and from community independent Michelle Milthorpe.
In a statement, the Nationals said the seat has a “proud Nationals history”, and that the byelection “presents an opportunity for The Nationals to give Farrer strong regional representation in Canberra”.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, called Robertson a “local champion”.
The Nationals are all about local champions. Brad Robertson has dedicated his life to serving Australia. First in uniform and now in his community.
Floods could persist across the Territory for a week
Flooding in Katherine could last for a week as the Northern Territory town has been topped by floodwaters, AAP reports, with both the Katherine and Daly rivers threatening to reach record-breaking levels following a recent deluge.
The Katherine river was receding late on Sunday after reaching 19.2m on Saturday but plenty more rain is forecast in coming days.
Bureau of Meteorology senior officer Jude Scott said the Daly river, which was at 14.4m late on Sunday, would also continue to rise.
Hundreds of people in the Daly river community have been evacuated by helicopter to Darwin, where they are sheltering at the showgrounds.
Katherine mayor Joanna Holden said the next couple of days would be critical, with more rain forecast.
She said about 1,000 people had been moved to evacuation centres in Darwin, Katherine and Mataranka. Another 80 people were evacuated from Daly River by helicopter on Sunday after conditions prevented them from leaving on Saturday.
Some schools will remain shut today while they are used as emergency shelters.
Flood warnings and flood watches are also in place for much of Queensland. Moderate to heavy rainfall is forecast across parts of northern, central, and southeast Queensland for the next couple of days as a broad trough draws in deep tropical moisture across the state.
Sydney’s new airport motorway to open this week
Penry Buckley
Sydney’s M12 motorway, the “driveway” to the new Western Sydney airport, will open this Saturday, the federal and NSW governments have announced.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the federal transport minister, Catherine King, will cut the ribbon on the 16km stretch of road in Sydney’s west this morning, following four years of construction and a combined $2.1bn joint state and federal spend.
The road will open to local traffic in the early hours of 14 March, although an intersection directly linking it to the M7 motorway at Cecil Hills won’t be completed until mid-year. Western Sydney airport says it is scheduled to begin passenger flights in October.
Unlike the under-construction M6 motorway and western harbour tunnel, also owned by the state, the M12 will be toll-free, although motorway connections onto the city are owned by private toll operator Transurban. A metro line linking the heavy rail network is not expected to open until late 2027, although the government has announced a free bus service in the interim.
The government says the M12 project has required 2.6 million cubic metres of earthworks, equivalent to moving the volume of 1,064 Olympic pools, and has seen more than 18,500 trees planted. The motorway expected to take 25,000 vehicles a day off local roads. Minns says:
Communities in Western Sydney deserve this world-class infrastructure which will ease pressure on local roads, cut travel times and improve connectivity with the rest of Sydney’s road network.
From Saturday, thousands of motorists will have the chance to use this new motorway for the very first time to more quickly and easily get to where they need to go.
Wong says dependents of Australian officials told to leave UAE
Imogen Dewey
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said in a post late last night that families of Australian officials have been told to leave the United Arab Emirates as war in the Middle East spreads.
“The Australian Government has directed the departure of dependants of Australian officials posted to the UAE, due to the deteriorating security situation,” she wrote in a post on X on Sunday night:
Our travel advice has been updated to reflect that direction. We continue to advise Australians not to travel to the UAE.
She said that more than 1,700 Australians have so far returned on direct flights from the UAE and that the government was “contacting registered Australians directly when we know seats are available”.
If you can secure a seat, please consider taking it.
Welcome
Good morning, and welcome to Guardian Australia’s live news blog.
In case you missed it yesterday, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, confirmed the Australian government is considering offering military support to assist Gulf nations facing strikes from Iran, but will not participate in any ground troop deployment.
Closer to home, age verification requirements for porn sites are now in effect. And in the Northern Territory, two major rivers are flooding, with homes inundated, roads cut, supermarket shelves bare and hundreds of people evacuated – we’ll have more on that soon.
Nick Visser will be here shortly to take you through the day’s events as they happen, before federal parliament returns tomorrow.