Australia news live: Kevin Rudd to speak on US-Australia alliance; summer’s ‘tragic’ swimming death toll

Emily Wind here, I’ll be with you on the live blog for most of today – thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us.

As always, you can reach out with any tips, feedback or questions via email: emily.wind@theguardian.com. Let’s go.

Catie McLeod

Call for focus on four areas to prevent drownings

Continuing from our last post: Royal Life Saving Australia says it is “alarmed” that drowning deaths have increased again and called for long-term investments into drowning prevention measures.

The RLSA’s chief executive, Dr Justin Scarr, said this summer was “tragic in so many ways” and “too many” families and communities had been affected by drowning.

Scarr said thousands of children missed swimming lessons due to the pandemic, and that increased migration, especially from countries where it wasn’t common to learn how to swim, meant many people couldn’t swim or know what to do in an emergency.

RLSA is calling for policymakers to focus on four areas to help prevent drownings:

• Nationally coordinated investments to boost the swimming and lifesaving skills of children and young people, especially those aged 10-14 years who can’t yet swim 50 metres and float for two minutes.

• Large-scale programs supporting refugee and migrant communities, delivered at local pools in partnership with community groups, to build water safety skills and aid in community cohesion.

• Expansion of local water safety planning and coordination, as outlined in the Australian Water Safety Strategy.

• A strategic infrastructure investment plan to build and refurbish community swimming pools and learn-to-swim centres, to meet the changing needs of communities in growing cities and regional areas.

Scarr said investment in community swimming pools has “always been a key part of Australia’s approach to water safety and drowning prevention.”

More is needed to meet the medium-term impacts of ageing pools, changing demographics, and growth in our outer metropolitan suburbs and regional areas.

Summer’s ‘tragic’ swimming death toll

Catie McLeod

More than 100 people died by drowning this summer, according to the nation’s peak body for water safety, in what the organisation has called a “tragic” season.

There were 104 drowning deaths, up 5% from last summer and 14% on the five-year average, according to data released today by Royal Life Saving Australia (RLSA).

Nearly one-third (32%) of all of the deaths were people aged 55 years and over. Ten children under 14 drowned, RLSA says, while men remained overrepresented, making up 81% of all deaths.

NSW recorded the highest number of drowning deaths at 33, followed by Victoria and Queensland with 22 deaths each, and Western Australia with 15 deaths.

Approximately one third of the deaths occurred at beaches and another third in rivers, with river drowning deaths increasing by 29% compared with the previous year. There were 11 drowning deaths in swimming pools, double that of the previous summer.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of drowning deaths occurred in regional areas. The RLSA says regional communities experience higher drowning rates due to greater exposure to natural waters and reduced access to safe places to swim.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred intensifies to category two storm

Ben Smee

Tropical Cyclone Alfred has intensified into a category two system as it moves further south off the Queensland coast.

The subtropical excursion taken by the storm is forecast to take a sharp right turn today, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting Alfred to start moving towards heavily populated parts of the coast after a week slowly progressing parallel to the coast down through the Coral Sea.

Alfred is currently about 560km east of Brisbane. Landfall is expected on Thursday or Friday, and people in two states – from K’gari to Grafton – are being asked to stay alert.

The BoM’s latest track map has now been updated and shows the cyclone potentially reaching the coast just north of Brisbane. That situation is among the most potentially damaging – forecasters expect the most intense rainfall to the south of the system, and Brisbane is uniquely vulnerable due to its larger population and its propensity to flood.

The BoM’s update this morning says:

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is currently moving south-east, but it is expected to slow and turn west towards the Queensland coast later today.

Alfred’s intensity may fluctuate between category one and two over the next few days, but it is forecast to cross the south-east Queensland coast at category two strength late on Thursday or early Friday morning.

Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Emily Wind will be your news guide.

The recent interest rate cut has not helped Anthony Albanese recover any ground in our latest Essential poll, with the prime minister’s approval rating down. More than half of Australians believe last month’s cash rate cut won’t help them much and was a sign the Labor government’s economic plan is not working. But voters still think Albanese is better placed than Peter Dutton to deliver cost-of-living relief, higher wages and safeguard Medicare.

Cyclone Alfred is tracking towards the south-east Queensland coast and could make landfall on Thursday. Surging tides are already reported to be gushing right over narrower and uninhabited parts of the low-lying Bribie Island and we sent a reporter to speak to people preparing for the onslaught.

As the contours of geopolitics continue to change every day, Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, will address a webinar held by the Australian National University this morning on the subject of the US-Australian alliance. It’s certainly an interesting time to be a diplomat in DC. We’ll bring you more on what Rudd says later this morning.

More than 100 people died by drowning this summer – significantly more than in the average summer – according to the nation’s peak body for water safety, in what the organisation has called a “tragic” season. More on this coming up.