Australia news live: heatwave to hit Sydney as Victoria fights bushfires; Albanese to spruik childcare savings
Australia news live: heatwave to hit Sydney as Victoria fights bushfires; Albanese to spruik childcare savings
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There are two major bushfire warnings in Victoria this morning. Last night at 9pm the CFA issued a “leave immediately” warning for the Grampians, Mirranatwa and Victoria Valley, over a bushfire at Victoria Valley’s Bullawin Rd that was out of control and moving north-east.
And just before 6am the CFA issued a “take shelter” warning – meaning it is too late to leave safely – for Dimboola, Wail, over a bushfire at Little Desert National Park that is not yet under control and moving east. Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories and then it’ll be Rafqa Touma to guide you through the news day.
Anthony Albanese will be out and about today to spruik his government’s childcare subsidy changes after federal education department figures showed that families have saved an extra $2,768 on average since the extra payments kicked in last year. More coming up.
And on the subject of the cost of living more generally, we have a special investigation today into how the inequality of Australia’s dental care system is forcing people to skip regular checkups and leading to record numbers are turning up to hospitals for dental procedures. The share of costs that the patient pays for dental care is nine times higher than GP visits, and half of the federal money earmarked for dentistry goes to subsidising the uptake of private health insurance.
Most of New South Wales including Sydney and some of its western suburbs can expect temperatures in the high 30s or low 40s today as the state takes the brunt of the front that sent temperatures in parts of South Australia and across Victoria into the 40s yesterday. A cool change has brought relief to the south-east and that cooler air is expected to move north as the day goes on.
