Australia facing months of miserable autumn weather

26/02/2021

 (See Translation in Arabic Section)

Sydney - M E Times Int'l:  The defining feature of summer, particularly on the east coast, has been the rain, with La Nina lashing the continent.

Autumn begins on Monday, so you might be hoping for a change. Well, that’s not going to happen.

There could be glimpses of summer like weather in the upcoming season, but what’s more likely is more miserable and soggy conditions. That’s according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s (BOM) autumn weather outlook that’s just been released.

The La Nina climate driver has seen moisture pushed on to east coast states from the Pacific. That situation might not last for all that much longer though.

 “La Nina is past its peak with the tropical Pacific likely to return to ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) conditions during the autumn,” said BOM senior meteorologist Dr Andrew Watkins.

But it could take until May for La Nina to finally bid Australia adieu.

The upshot is above average rainfall across New South Wales, Queensland, parts of South Australia and eastern Tasmania in March and April and that lessening in May.

Most of Victoria, as well as Western Australia and the Northern Territory should see average rain.

A Hotter Autumn

It could be hotter this autumn with the mercury rising across Australia’s north, Tasmania, south west Western Australia around Perth and southern Victoria including Melbourne. That’s no change for WA which has seen runs of scorching temperatures this summer.

But parts of NSW close to Sydney and the ACT could actually see a slightly cooler than average autumn.

“La Nina can turn Australian climate on its head,” said Associate Professor David Holmes from the Monash University Climate Change Communications Hub.

“Of all the capital cities, Canberra has shown the strongest autumn daytime warming trend over the past 50 years and Hobart the weakest. However, the autumn outlook suggests Hobart is the capital city with the highest chance of warmer than normal days while Canberra has the highest odds of below average temperatures.

“Compared to averages for the past few decades, we’re seeing temperatures much closer to average in early 2021 because of La Nina – but this is a brief reprieve, and we can expect warming trends to continue into the future.

“Sixteen of the last 20 autumns have been warmer than average over Australia and this is largely a consequence of increasing greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.”

Autumn minimum temperatures are likely to be higher than average across most of Australia except for parts of southern WA and western and central SA.

Chances of warmer nights are greater than 80 per cent for the northern tropics, eastern Queensland, southern Victoria, and Tasmania.

The wet summer may not have led to many beach days but it’s been blessing in other ways.

The seasonal bushfire risk is below normal for northern Queensland and southern and eastern Victoria.

The only place where the bushfire risk has increased above the average is in some areas of central coastal Queensland.

All that water has also helped top up Australia’s water shortages. Most are in a healthier condition than this time last year with big increases in NSW.

Victoria to ease COVID restrictions from midnight

Melbourne: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has announced restrictions will ease from midnight tonight and revert to the settings in place before New Year's Eve as the state records two new cases of local transmission.

The two new cases are primary close contacts of pre-existing cases and were both quarantining during their infectious period.

“I can confirm that we will from 11:59pm tonight … return to our COVIDSafe summer settings,” Mr Andrews said.

“Not New Year’s Eve, but the settings that were in place at Christmas time before we had those cases come to Victoria from Sydney”.

Masks will only be required in high risk settings including public transport, ride share and taxi vehicles, large retail settings such as shopping centres, supermarkets, department stores and indoor markets.

Up to 30 people per day will be allowed to attend a home for private gatherings and there will be up to 100 allowed at outdoor gatherings.

Restrictions on the number of visits to aged care facilities and hospitals will be removed, however, the premier warned individual hospitals may have localised rules for certain sections.

Stadium capacity for AFL games will be capped at 50 per cent - which will allow 50,000 people to attend the MCG and just under 29,000 at Marvel Stadium.

Mr Andrews also announced 75 per cent of both public and private sectors will be able to return to the office from midnight - “in real terms from Monday”.

'Respect, protect, reflect': PM touts pro-women culture in the workplace

Canberra: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has touted three key themes, “respect, protect and reflect,” while delivering a speech at the International Women’s Day Breakfast.

The annual event seeks to address issues for women in the workforce and promote gender parity and combat financial disadvantages associated with being female.

"My hope is that we will live in a society where we can truly say that women are respected," Mr Morrison said.

“Because from the disrespect of women or failure to respect women all the other challenges flow.

“Violence, discrimination, depravation, abuse, assault, lack of recognition, not hearing – it all starts with the failure of respect for women.

“I believe if we want to create a culture of respect for women it must draw from a deeper wellspring in our society and our community of respect.”

Qantas aims to resume international travel from October 2021

Sydney: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has told media his company is aiming to resume international flights from October of 2021 provided “everything goes right” with the vaccine rollout.

“We completely understand this is the government’s decision and the government has to look at a lot of data before they can make a decision about whether that occurs,” Mr Joyce said.

“Having seen how good the vaccine is performing around the globe...and we’re likely to have the full (Australian) population vaccinated by the end of October, that raises the question about why can’t we, at that stage, if everything goes right and the continuing good news continues, why can’t we open up.

“We have to make some planning assumptions because we need to give our people certainty about when its likely.

“Now it’s not likely before October, we think.

“That’s the date we picked, and we think there’s good logic to it.”

Mr Joyce added the airfares will likely be low for some time to encourage travel.

“We’ll be trying to stimulate the demand, trying to get people to come back into the air, trying to get people to travel internationally, trying to get foreign tourists to come into Australia and I think the airfares will be low for some time to encourage that travel,” he said.

Albanese serious about calling out ‘patriarchal power imbalance’ in Australia

Canberra: Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has touted the ALP’s gender equality policies while highlighting a “power imbalance” between men and women contributing to gender inequality in the Australian workforce.

Mr Albanese addressed the topic of gender imbalance while delivering a speech at the International Women’s Day Breakfast which seeks to promote gender parity for women in the workforce.

“The lack of gender equality in this country under the patriarchy which continues to exist is about the power imbalance which is there between men and women”.

“Unless we address that structural power imbalance then we are really kicking against the wind.

“We need real reform, real change, real structural change.”

The Opposition Leader said he had implemented significant structural changes to the Labor party which ensured 50 per cent of his shadow cabinet were women.

“What that means is that you have incredibly strong women as part of the team.”

Peter Dutton 'the pick' to replace Linda Reynolds as defence minister

Canberra: Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie says she doubts Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has the strength to hold her position against top male military figures and should step down from the role for the sake of her wellbeing.

“I have said in the past I am terribly concerned about her strength up against those men, especially the ones with the big military medals they’re wearing out there,” Ms Lambie told media.

“I’ve said that right from the start, I’m not sure whether she actually had the strength to take them on and I still don’t believe that.

“Those men can be extremely overpowering if you don’t know how to handle them, that’s the environment in there, that’s the way it is”.

Asked who would be a suitable replacement for Ms Reynolds, Ms Lambie pointed to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

“That’s probably the only one you could put in there.”

Registration opens for 2021 PM spelling bee

Canberra: Registration opens today for the 2021 Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee.

Students from year three to year eight around Australia can participate in a digital-only spelling bee through News Corp’s free classroom site.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is encouraging all students to sign up, describing it as a fun way to improve literacy skills.

“The 2021 spelling bee is a chance for all the kids of Australia to put themselves up to the test and have a bit of fun along the way,” he said.

Campbelltown Hospital redevelopment reaches new heights

Sydney: The Campbelltown Hospital redevelopment has reached a construction milestone, with the 12-storey clinical services building reaching its highest point.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard visited the new building and met with nursing graduates who are among 264 nursing and midwife graduates starting at hospitals across Sydney’s south-west next month.

“The new clinical services building will be the centrepiece of the hospital redevelopment and will boost bed capacity across the hospital by more than 50 per cent,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Mr Hazzard said the redevelopment would deliver a new maternity unit almost double in capacity and would expand cancer and mental health services.

Other features of the $632-million Stage 2 Campbelltown Hospital will include: state-of-the-art digital operating theatres and procedure rooms;  double the ICU bed capacity; a dental and oral health department and new and expanded surgical services including interventional radiology.

Queensland leaps closer to hosting Olympics

Brisbane: Queensland could host its first Olympic and Paralympic Games following a decision on Thursday by the International Olympic Committee to enter into exclusive negotiations for the 2032 event.

“The IOC announcement is a positive development but we still have a lot of work to do,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. 

 “Particular credit must go to the Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien who has campaigned heavily to bring the event to the Sunshine State.”

Mr O’Brien said Queensland was ready, willing and able to host the Games. He said Brisbane was well placed with more than 80 per cent of the venues existing or proposed to be delivered through temporary solutions.

Federal Sports Minister Richard Colbeck and Mr O’Brien will continue to lead the candidature process in partnership with the Queensland Government, the South East Queensland Council of Mayors, the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia.