Transport NSW has advised that there will be ‘significant service gaps’ experienced on Sydney trains on Friday afternoon. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/EPA
Transport NSW has advised that there will be ‘significant service gaps’ experienced on Sydney trains on Friday afternoon. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/EPA
Major delays across Sydney rail network amid urgent repairs
Major delays on Sydney’s train network will continue into afternoon peak time after urgent signal repairs at Ashfield earlier today.
Transport NSW has advised that “significant service gaps” are being experienced on the following lines:
T1 North Shore & Western Line
T2 Inner West & Leppington Line
T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line
T9 Northern Line, Blue Mountains Line, Central Coast & Newcastle Line.
Buses will continue to replace some trains between Hornsby and Berowra on the T1 North Shore Line and Campbelltown and Macarthur on the T8 Airport & South Line, Transport NSW said in a statement this afternoon.
Due to “an operational issue” at Lidcombe, buses are also replacing trains between Olympic Park and Lidcombe on the T7 Olympic Park Line.
Transport for NSW advised passengers to consider alternative transport options and allow plenty of extra travel time.
Former opposition leader Bill Shorten says Donald Trump is leading the free world “as if it’s a reality TV show” and his administration’s tariff regime won’t “help anyone”.
The New South Wales attorney general, Michael Daley, has defended the Minns government’s controversial hate speech laws, amid mounting calls for an inquiry into the NSW government’s response to the caravan “con-job” and related incidents.
Muslim groups criticise Chris Minns’ response to Dural caravan plot
The Alliance of Australian Muslims (AAM)and the Australian National Imams Council (Anic)have criticised the NSW premier, Chris Minns, for his response to the spate of arson and graffiti attacks which culminated with an explosives-laden caravan being found on Sydney’s outskirts.
The AAM and Anic said Minns’ response, which included referring to the incidents as “terrorism”, left Australian Muslims “exposed to suggestions” that they may have been involved, and increased Islamophobia in the community.
This week, federal and NSW police said the caravan “con job” and 14 other antisemitic incidents across the city over the past few months were orchestrated by organised crime figures for their benefit, and were not driven by antisemitic ideology.
The AAM and Anic statement read:
It is now apparent that not only was the event not linked to terrorism, but the Premier was made aware of this at an early stage. Despite this, the NSW Premier and his Government pushed to hurriedly pass significant laws that provide protection only to some Australians based on race.
Most concerningly, the labelling of the incident as terrorism caused alarm and panic in the community and also received widespread media coverage. In turn, it left many people across the State feeling vulnerable and unsafe. The Premier’s response to the incident also left the Australian Muslim community exposed to suggestions that an Australian Arab or Australian Muslim may have been involved.
The statement continued:
In short, the Premier’s characterisation of, and response to, the incident caused panic and fear, increased Islamophobia and had the effect of undermining social cohesion in our society.
The statement follows mounting calls for an inquiry into whether Minns and his police minister misled MPs and the public before controversial hate speech and religious worship bills were rushed through state parliament on the back of the incidents. You can read more about those here:
Lismore art gallery reinstalling art works as flood waters recede
When the severe weather of Cyclone Alfred began to threaten NSW northern rivers towns, Lismore Regional Gallery uninstalled and evacuated its art works to protect them against damage from flooding and other weather hazards.
The gallery announced this afternoon that it will remain closed for this weekend, but with the receding flood waters, its team has been working to carefully reinstall the exhibitions and equipment.
The gallery hopes to reopen next Friday 21 March, at the latest.
Major delays across Sydney rail network amid urgent repairs
Major delays on Sydney’s train network will continue into afternoon peak time after urgent signal repairs at Ashfield earlier today.
Transport NSW has advised that “significant service gaps” are being experienced on the following lines:
T1 North Shore & Western Line
T2 Inner West & Leppington Line
T3 Liverpool & Inner West Line
T9 Northern Line, Blue Mountains Line, Central Coast & Newcastle Line.
Buses will continue to replace some trains between Hornsby and Berowra on the T1 North Shore Line and Campbelltown and Macarthur on the T8 Airport & South Line, Transport NSW said in a statement this afternoon.
Due to “an operational issue” at Lidcombe, buses are also replacing trains between Olympic Park and Lidcombe on the T7 Olympic Park Line.
Transport for NSW advised passengers to consider alternative transport options and allow plenty of extra travel time.
A man has been charged for allegedly running a holiday rental scam after NSW police searched a property on the state’s mid north coast on Thursday.
Police began to investigate on Monday after being told 31 people had allegedly lost more than $500,000 in a holiday rental scam, they said in a statement this afternoon.
A 51-year-old man was arrested after officers executed a search warrant in Anna Bay, north of Newcastle, yesterday. He was charged with 31 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and one count of contravening an AVO.
Researchers accuse US of ‘blatant foreign interference’ in Australian universities
The Trump administration has been accused of “blatant foreign interference” in Australia’s universities after researchers who receive US funding were asked to confirm they aligned with American interests, including only recognising two genders.
The questionnaire, sent to university researchersover the past fortnight, seeks a response within 48 hours to more than 30 questions to support “program determinations”, according to a copy of the questionnaire seen by Guardian Australia.
The questions relate to the priorities of the Trump government, including whether the organisation receives funding from China, whether there are DEI elements, and whether the project is taking “appropriate measures” to defend against “gender ideology” in line with Trump’s executive order on gender.
The questionnaires were distributed by various federal agencies on behalf of an executive memo from the office of the president, requiring them to identify all funding was consistent with “policies and requirements”.
Extreme fire conditions across south-eastern Australia
Extreme fire danger conditions will sweep across South Australia on Saturday, and Victoria and New South Wales will also battle high fire danger as the heatwave in the south-east peaks over the weekend.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said on Friday afternoon that those extreme fire dangers will trigger fire weather warnings as we go into tomorrow, and will promote “very, very dangerous conditions for any fires that are ongoing in the landscape, or any fresh fires that do develop”.
The danger is expected to ease in SA and Victoria on Sunday but increase across parts of eastern New South Wales.
Saturday temperatures in the south-east are going to be tough: Adelaide can expect 39C, 36C in Melbourne, and 32C in Sydney (though Sydney will hit 36C on Sunday).
Saturday evening through to Sunday morning is likely to be very windy, especially for Tasmania, but also possibly parts of southern Victoria and south-east South Australia.
Severe Weather Update: Heat and elevated fire dangers for SE Aus ahead of a weekend cold front
Thanks for joining me on the blog today. My colleague, Stephanie Convery, will take you through the rest of the day’s news. I hope you have a great weekend.
Prime minister not a fan of Married At First Sight
Triple M also asked Albanese if he had any questions for contestants on the controversial Channel Nine show Married At First Sight, some of whom were also at the radio station that day.
Albanese replied “no I don’t”, saying he never “voluntarily” watched the reality show, but that his partner, Jodie Haydon, enjoys it.
He said:
I think what you’ve got to do, though, I do think you’ve got to watch it all the way through to get the characters and the way that it changes and the plots. I was concerned, I did watch the episode where the guy, you know, engaged in behaviour that’s pretty unacceptable.
Anthony Albanese says a “spiced up” new version of the Buy Australian campaign is on the way, in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, recommending people buy locally made chocolates, whiskey and honey instead of American products.
In an interview with Perth’s Triple M radio, the prime minister rubbished suggestions that Australia should engage in reciprocal tariffs on the US – calling the idea “economic self-harm”, despite his former cabinet minister Bill Shorten advocating that idea this morning.
Because that would hurt consumers here. But what we will do is continue to put forward our case.
Asked what Australia should do instead, the PM said people should buy local products:
We have great products and as part of the budget in a couple of weeks’ time, you’ll see a spiced up Made in Australia plan. We want to make more things here.
Albanese suggested Haigh’s chocolates, “Australian whiskey rather than bourbon and stuff that’s made in the US”, and Australian honey – “it’s better than the syrup and stuff that comes out of the US anyway”.
The prime minister flagged a ‘spiced up Made in Australia’ plan Photograph: Flavio Brancaleone/AAP
Sydney local health district psychiatry trainees raised concerns about supervision
The chair of the estimates, Greens MLC DrAmanda Cohn, asks about the impacts of the resignations and transfer of staff specialist psychiatrists into VMO roles or locum roles, on junior doctors who are training to become specialist psychiatrists:
What work have you done to ensure that their training can actually continue and that they’re safely supervised?
NSW Health chief psychiatrist, DrMurray Wright, said the provision of supervision for junior doctors is being maintained as part of safe care.
Cohn asks:
In areas where staff specialists psychiatrists who are primarily responsible for supervision of a registrar have resigned – they’re left or been re-engaged as a VMO or a locum, so they’re now on a, for example, a part-time arrangement or an ad hoc arrangement.
Is it your view that it’s sufficient for registrars to be supervised by a different person each shift or each week, and how are you actually ensuring that they have a long term relationship with a senior staff member?
Wright went on to say that VMOs were still able to provide supervision: “psychiatrists who … have returned as a VMO to help support our system, there should be no disruption in the continuity of supervision.”
Wright acknowledges:
There were concerns raised in Sydney LHD a couple of weeks ago, and the service general manager sat down with representatives of trainees and went through what the concerns were and dealt with them one by one. That’s the response – it’s at a local level.
Cohn tries to press Wright about details about how the concerns were resolved. Wright responds: “my understanding is they dealt with them to the satisfaction of everybody.”
In response to Cohn’s question, Jackson said “of course” she was concerned about trainee psychiatrists, as well as staff specialists leaving the state.
Psychiatrists take up visiting medical officer roles as they await commission decision
Following on from our last post:
Deputy opposition leader in the NSW legislative council, Sarah Mitchell, then asked Jackson if there were any new numbers from the past month she could provide since the premier provided figures to the lower house, indicating 52 psychiatrists had resignations finalised by 10 February.
Jackson said there was a 443 headcount of psychiatrists funded by New South Wales Health to work across the district:
At its peak, we had received 206 indications of an intention to resign. We now have 62 resignations processed and finalised.
We have 38 resignations withdrawn. We have 72 staff who’ve agreed to transition to VMO [visiting medical officer] roles. They are people that continue to provide care in the public system, yes, in a different contractual arrangement with NSW Health, but nonetheless, in terms of a head count of people who are providing care in the public system, VMOs are playing that role.
And we have 109 resignations deferred.
Asked about how much higher the pay is for a VMO, Jackson says:
When we engage someone as a VMO, that is done at a district by district level, and the conditions and the wages of those VMOs vary district by district.
To say ‘what is the cost of employing VMOs across NSW health districts’, and then present that figure as though that cost is associated with this current industrial campaign – that would be inaccurate because, for example, Far West [local health district] previously was entirely VMO based psychiatry.
Pearce says:
We have made these arrangements on a temporary basis, which is why there is a large number of our staff specialist psychiatrists who’ve deferred their resignations. A number of those people have taken up the VMO option whilst they await the outcome of the industrial relations commission [IRC] process.
NSW Coalition accuses mental health minister of being unprepared for budget estimates
The NSW mental health minister, Rose Jackson, has been accused by the state opposition of coming to budget estimates unprepared, as she’s unable to say how many psychiatrists are now employed full-time in the state.
NSW budget estimates are taking place today across Jackson’s portfolio including mental health and northern NSW after the session last week was postponed due to the minister’s responsibilities amid ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Liberal MLC Natasha Maclaren-Jones asked Jackson how many full-time staff specialist psychiatrists held permanent positions in the state at the end of December compared to how many are employed now, weeks after the mass resignations of the specialist doctors began.
While neither Jackson nor the NSW Health secretary, Susan Pearce, gave any current numbers, Jackson said she is “constantly being updated on … do we have enough people in the system, whether they are self specialists, whether they’re [visiting medical officers], or whether they are locums.”
Maclaren-Jones said:
Do you think it’s acceptable that you come to budget estimates and you’re not fully prepared?
I would expect that you would know how many full-time specialist positions are currently, either today or yesterday, when you were last updated and coming to budget estimates, I would expect that you would have that information.
NSW Liberal MLC Natasha Maclaren-Jones. Photograph: Getty Images
