Police are pouring resources into Australia’s flood-ravaged towns to prevent a breakdown in law and order after two men were arrested for alleged looting, Australian Associated Press reports.
NSW police deputy commissioner,Peter Thurtell, said extra officers were on the beat in NSW’s mid-north coast and Hunter regions after the men, both aged 20, were arrested for allegedly stealing property amid flood clean up.
“If we find anyone taking advantage of this community we’ll throw the book at them,” Thurtell said in a statement yesterday.
“The impact of this weather event has been unimaginable and to think they now have to be concerned about hanging on to whatever property they have left is a disgrace.
“Stealing from people vulnerable during hard times like these is un-Australian.”
For more on the flood recovery we have the latest:
Coalition policies ‘buried’ by ‘campaign headquarters’, Liberal senators say
Andrew Hastiehas blamed the poor handling of policy issues for the Liberal debacle.
Since the election,Liberal partycandidates have placed a certain proportion of blame for the Coalition’s loss on certain mysterious failures from campaign headquarters that saw their policies disappear into a black hole.
This narrative arose again on Four Corners last night, with MPAndrew Hastie, and senatorsSarah HendersonandJonathon Duniamall suggesting that something was going wrong from that quarter.
Hastie, who had previously spoken about the lack of defence policy, said “there was a level of frustration” with the increasing delays to the policy, which “hasn’t been explained yet”.
Henderson said she was “very proud of the education policy that we delivered” but it was “buried” and “we only had the opportunity to announce a few measures”. Asked who buried it, she said:
Meanwhile, Duniam suggested someone, though it’s not clear exactly who, should perhaps consider falling on their sword:
Current and formerLiberal partyMPs and senators have said the party’s focus on culture war has seen their inner-city constituencies abandon them and contributed to their election loss in what one called “fairy floss politics”.
Speaking to ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night, former NSW Liberal presidentJason Falinski, former senatorGeorge Brandisand NSW senatorMaria Kovaciccriticised their party’s focus on small, hard-right constituencies and culture wars.
The party alienated women, especially those who wanted to work from home, offended public servants, multicultural communities, people in the inner cities, students and “other minority groups as well”, Brandis said:
People who felt the party needed to lean harder into the culture wars were “nuts”, Brandis said:
Falinski said that “fairy floss politics” – that is, “high-calorie, low-nutrition politics” such as copying Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, concept – was “not healthy for us”.
Kovacic said:
Coalition wanted to erase Aboriginal people from national memory: Dodson
Pat Dodsonhas also decried what he called the “new assimilation” policies pushed by the Coalition during the election campaign, saying it is another way of trying to erase Aboriginal people from national memory.
Speaking to 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said:
Labor should return to ‘treaty-making process’, Pat Dodson says
Yaruwu elder and former Labor senatorPat Dodsonhas urged the Albanese government to “go back to the treaty-making process” in order to continue the project of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, arguing the “resounding victory” of Labor at the election gave them a new opportunity.
Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 on Monday night, Dodson said he was “very confident” Albanese could lead that process, but it would require going back to the Uluru statement from the heart.
Dodson said:
Truth-telling needed to be a two-way street, Dodson said, and it needed to result in a “national narrative” that was not simply “Captain Cook came here and no one was here”.
Dodson continued:
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’mMartin Farrerwith the top overnight stories and then it’ll beLuca Ittimaniwith the main action.
Current and formerLiberal partyMPs and senators have said the party’s focus on culture war and a failure to properly develop and present policies cost the party the election. Speaking on Four Corner last night, former NSW Liberal presidentJason Falinskisaid “high-calorie, low-nutrition politics” – so-called “fairy floss politics” – had proved costly. More details coming up.
We have an exclusive story this morning from the veteran-led organisation on the frontline of disaster recovery calling for federal government support tohelp establish a 10,000-strong volunteerarmy. It comes as police are pouring resources into flood-ravaged towns in NSW to prevent a breakdown in law and order after two men were arrested for alleged looting. More coming up.
In another exclusive, one of the architects of the Indigenous voice to parliament,Megan Davis, who says Aboriginal Australians increasinglyfeel the government is not listeningto their views on laws and policy design, warns against closed-shop public consultations in the wake of the referendum defeat.