Australia news live: three people missing in NSW floods as mid and north coast see ‘more rain than we’ve ever seen before’

Three missing in NSW floods

Three people have been reported missing amid floods inundating the NSW hunter and mid-north coast. Acting NSW police commissioner Peter Thurtell is speaking live:

Sadly, as the premier has already indicated, one life has already been confirmed lost. And we have reports of three other people missing.

I know the message has already gone out, and the premier and the commissioner of the SES have just mentioned it, really, the danger of driving or walking through flood waters cannot be understated, and people need to avoid doing that.

Key events

Nationals consider Coalition split backdown

Tom McIlroy

The Liberals and Nationals have agreed to delay announcing their frontbench lineups after Sussan Ley and David Littleproud held crisis talks to reunite the coalition just two days after the dramatic split.

Ley instigated a meeting with Littleproud on Thursday morning in an attempt to broker a peace deal between the two parties.

Guardian Australia understands the Nationals are prepared to commit to shadow cabinet solidarity and give the Liberals more time to consider their four policy demands.

Asked if there was a chance the Coalition could reunite, Littleproud said: “Of course there is”

Petra Stock

Nature groups say Victorian budget for environmental survival ‘pitifully small’

Environment groups say nature and biodiversity has been short-changed by the Victorian budget.

Environment Victoria welcomed new money for efficient electric hot water and home insulation, but raised concerns about the lack of support for nature or threatened species.

The nature campaigner, Greg Foyster, said “If the government wants to invest in the great outdoors for the longer term, we need to see a massive increase in funding for parks and reserves, biodiversity programs and saving threatened species”.

The Parliamentary Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline recommended increasing funding for parks and reserves to 1% of gross state product. One percent doesn’t seem too much to ask to ensure the survival of all the animals, plants, wetlands, forests and special places in Victoria, but the current funding is pitifully small.

Energy and environment department funding was down overall in 2025-26 compared to the previous year. The budget also included a 19% cut to environment and biodiversity, and a reduction in funding for the management of public land and forests of 26%.

The Victorian National Parks Association said the budget also locked in previous cuts to Parks Victoria and fisheries officers, with few new initiatives for nature.

“Last year we saw Parks Victoria hit with severe staff cuts, arbitrary reviews and the sacking of an experienced CEO. That’s no way to treat the agency responsible for looking after the places millions of Victorians love and rely on,” said the VNPA’s Matt Ruchel.

Friends of the Earth Melbourne said it welcomed the continued focus on the energy transition, though it also called for greater acceleration away from coal and gas:

The government continues to encourage recreation in nature, but has not committed to funding for parks management to manage increases in recreational users. The parks system is already underfunded, and there have been staff losses across DEECA and Parks Victoria.

Caitlin Cassidy

Taree community bands together in face of devastating floods

Community members in Taree have banded together as flooding continues to inundate the NSW Hunter and mid-north coast.

Shirley Thatcher has been running a Facebook group updating residents on evacuation centres and emergency warnings. Her and her partner are in a safe area without current flooding and are “just staying at home while this crazy weather is going on”:

We’re lucky that we did a grocery shop last weekend, so have plenty of food … I’m just trying to keep everyone informed on what is happening in the area.”

Meanwhile, a car detailing service has been offering free emergency water extraction services to as many residents without insurance as they can reach until it’s no longer safe to continue, while other businesses have been offering free food and hot showers.

At St Joseph’s primary school in Taree, locals have been taking care of five horses that were rescued by boat after becoming stranded.

Miranda Saunders, the station manager for 2TLP 103.3 Ngarralinyi, broadcast to the Old Bar community for 15 hours on Tuesday from her kitchen to bring comfort to people who had lost power but still had battery-powered radios and similar devices. She told ABC News “if it wasn’t for community spirit there, thousands of people would still waiting to be rescued”.

Flooding in Taree, NSW. Photograph: Meg Rawson

Focus is on immediate flood assistance, Kristy McBain says

McBain is talking to how the government can can address damaging weather events. The federal emergency management minister is speaking live:

We came to government in 2022 saying that we have to work more on disaster mitigation and resilience, which is why we put in place the Disaster Ready Fund. And it’s really important that we are working with local communities on infrastructure and asset protection.

We’ve heard directly from local councils and insurance companies that there has to be money put in to mitigation, resilience and response efforts and that Disaster Ready Fund is absolutely doing that job now.

We know that we’ve got the review, which is the way in which the three levels of government need to react to these incidents together, and we’ll respond to that over the course of this term.

But I think it’s really important right now, when we’re in a disaster, to focus on what’s at hand, and right now what’s at hand is the safety of people across the mid-coast as well as the Hunter, and making sure that we are assisting people where they are right now.

Emergency management minister links floods to climate crisis

Climate change is bringing “more devastating events like this” to Australia, federal emergency management minister Kristy McBain says.

She is speaking live:

I don’t think that there is a question out there that climate change is having a significant impact on weather events right across the world. In Australia here, we’re not immune to that. We’re seeing more devastating events like this happen more frequently.

Rain will ease on Friday, emergency management agency spokesperson says

Heavy rainfall on the NSW mid-north coast will persist until Friday, a National Emergency Management Agency spokesperson says.

He is speaking live:

Heavy rainfall on the New South Wales mid-north coast today. It is remaining persistent and severe weather warnings are current. The activity will ease on Friday, which is promising. But I just want to reinforce that it remains persistent at the moment. There is areas that have had localised very heavy rain, and that will spread south along the Central Coast and southern New South Wales coast and further inland today.

There’s a cold front also that will spread across New South Wales early next week bringing some damaging winds.

Flood-hit residents to get up to 13 weeks of disaster allowance, federal minister says

People affected by flooding in Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog and the mid-coast council areas will have access to up to 13 weeks of disaster allowance.

The federal emergency management minister, Kristy McBain, is speaking live:

What we’ve seen over the last couple of days is some intense activity focused mainly on the mid-north coast and across the Hunter.

Today I’ve enacted the disaster recovery allowance to look initially at four local government areas. Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog and the Mid Coast Council area. That is to assist people who have been impacted with up to 13 weeks allowance of lieu of them being able to undertake their usual course of employment.

And back to the floods.

Drone footage shows flood waters around Smithtown, NSW along the Macleay River:

Natasha May

Mark Butler says Medicare urgent care clinics have reached milestone of 1.5m visits

Medicare urgent care clinics have now treated more than 1.5 million Australians, saving the health system an estimated $254m in avoided hospital visits, according to the government.

The clinics are designed to provide faster care to patients, who would otherwise would be waiting as a lower-priority presentation at emergency departments for problems such as fractures or eye injuries.

They also provide their fully bulk-billed care for issues that need to be seen to quickly but a GP isn’t available, often after hours or on weekends.

The health minister, Mark Butler, said on the occasion of the “new milestone” reaching with over 1.5 million visits:

In two short years, Medicare urgent care clinics have become a vital part of Australia’s health system and clocked up 1.5 million free visits.

They’re starting to take the pressure off hospitals and patients, delivering fully bulk billed care quickly and with no appointment needed.

By July next year, another 50 urgent care clinics will open their doors to patients, and four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare urgent care clinic.

You can read more about how the model functions here:

Queensland youth crime laws pass parliament after late-night session

Moving away from NSW flood news for a moment.

Children as young as 10 will face adult jail time for a range of new offences after Queensland passed its second tranche of controversial youth crime laws.

The “adult crime, adult time” laws now include 20 more offences after passing through during a late-night sitting in Queensland parliament on Wednesday. Young offenders can now face lengthy adult sentences for attempted murder, rape, sexual assault, torture and kidnapping.

It is the second wave of the laws that were central to the Liberal National government’s pitch to voters at the 2024 election.

Other states and territories have also cracked down on youth crime amid Queensland’s law changes. The Northern Territory is strengthening its bail laws after the fatal stabbing of a 71-year-old Darwin store owner allegedly at the hands of a teenager.

Victoria recently removed remand as a last resort for children, while NSW has made it harder for 14 to 18-year-olds to be released on serious charges while out on bail for similar offences.

– Australian Associated Press

Pacific Highway submerged as major arterial remains closed near Taree amid NSW floods – video

Lisa Cox

Summary of NSW floods press conference

Summarising that media conference with the NSW premier and emergency services just now: one man has died and authorities hold grave fears for three people reported missing in unprecedented flooding on the NSW mid-north coast.

The premier, Chris Minns, said the region had experienced a very difficult 48 hours and more heavy rain was expected.

NSW police and premier hold ‘grave fears’ for three people reported missing in floods

Acting NSW police commissioner Peter Thurtell confirms a 60-year-old woman in the Dorrigo area, a 25-year-old man in the Wauchope area, and a 49-year-old man have been reported missing.

The 25-year-old is believed to have driven into flood waters and a vehicle is reported missing. The 49-year-old is believed to have walked into flood waters.

“That’s all yet to be confirmed,” Thurtell says.

I don’t want to pre-empt any results of anything, but obviously, as we said, we hold grave fears for all three individuals.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, also said “we’ve got grave fears” for the three people:

The grim reality is that the community on the mid-north coast will have to brace for potentially more bad news in the day ahead. It’s not what we want to hear, but unfortunately this disaster was major.

Three missing in NSW floods

Three people have been reported missing amid floods inundating the NSW hunter and mid-north coast. Acting NSW police commissioner Peter Thurtell is speaking live:

Sadly, as the premier has already indicated, one life has already been confirmed lost. And we have reports of three other people missing.

I know the message has already gone out, and the premier and the commissioner of the SES have just mentioned it, really, the danger of driving or walking through flood waters cannot be understated, and people need to avoid doing that.

State emergency services minister on rain levels: ‘These aren’t the records that you want to break’

The emergency services minister, Jihad Dib, says the state government is “throwing every single thing we’ve got” at the response to the rains and floods inundating NSW’s Hunter and mid-north coast regions. He is speaking live:

Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased gentleman. As you’ve just heard, we’ve got an incredibly volatile situation.

I said a few days ago that this will break some records, and these aren’t the records that you want to break, but we’ve seen more rain and more flooding in the mid and the north coast area than we’ve ever seen before.

We’ve seen an impact that’s affecting tens of thousands of people. But we’ve also seen the way that our emergency services have responded.

Around 2,500 personnel are on the ground, including SES, police, ambulance, fire and rescue, surf lifesavers and marine rescue, Dib says.

We are throwing every single thing that we’ve got at this incident.

SES commissioner says flood-affected zones are still an ‘active environment’ for rescues

Wassing says affected commuties have not seen this level of flooding in living memory. The NSW SES commissioner says new flood rescues requests have continued to come in this morning:

We continue to have flood rescue calls come in. We have worked through nearly all of the flood rescues from the previous 24 hours, but again already this morning we’ve had another 33 flood rescue requests this morning. That shows that this continues to be a very active environment for us.

I do acknowledge for the communities that we are dealing, within many communities, record floods. So, in the living memory of those local communities, they have not seen this level of flooding.

Flooding in Port Macquarie, New South Wales. Photograph: Lindsay Moller/EPA

SES commission urges people to be ‘situationally aware’ and listen to emergency warnings

The NSW SES commissioner, Mike Wassing, says there are 140 flood warnings active in affected Hunter and mid-north coast regions, with 34 of those being emergency warnings.

He urges people in affected areas to listen to warnings, but to also be “situationally aware”. Wassing is speaking live:

When we say emergency warnings, they are around evacuations through to either, in some cases … moving to higher ground or isolating areas.

I will continue to stress the importance of heeding the warnings and that this is about us trying to help the communities prepare well in advance to any potential flood waters.

We still have a very active situation in the context of the rainfall of 100mm through to embedded storms [storms embedded within other cloud layers]. The embedded storms will continue to see flash flooding.

The flash flooding is a high risk [for] anyone that is travelling on the roads, and again you need to be situationally aware and not just rely on the warnings. We will continue to put the warnings out, but you cannot just rely on the warnings. If you live in areas that you feel that you’re unsafe or have concerns, that is a very good time to actually relocate, in many cases.

Chris Minns gives update on NSW floods response

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, is speaking live alongside the minister for emergency services, Jihad Dib, and the NSW SES commissioner, Mike Wassing, about flooding in the Hunter and mid-north coast.

The premier says:

This natural disaster has been terrible for this community. It’s affected a wide number of people. It’s affected tens of thousands of houses and, as a result, we are bracing for more bad news.

Minns says another 100mm of rain is forcasted over the next 24 hours, with falls reach as high as 200mm and 300mm in isolated areas.

Again [this] is not what we need, given the huge amount of rainfall that’s fallen in the last 48 hours.

Rivers around Taree and Kempsey are stable or slightly receding, “however there is more rainfall in the mountains and we can’t guarantee that it will not peak again,” the premier says.

Lisa Cox

Coffs Harbour resident warns of potential significant flooding after months of saturated conditions

Mark Graham is a resident of Coffs Harbour where there has been intense rainfall overnight that is expected to continue today. He told Guardian Australia:

I’m in the very middle of Coffs Harbour and we have had persistent torrential rainfall for many, many hours through the night.

This is on top of months of saturated conditions, so all this heavy rainfall is immediately running off. If it doesn’t ease up we will have really significant flooding problems.

Graham said the forecasts predicting the heavy rain would continue today and potentially into tomorrow were “a real worry”. He said: