Nationals MP Sam Birrell says he is a “huge critic” of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan rollout and the Victorian floods are a “perverse impact” of the plan. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised financial support for flood-affected communities across Victoria at a press conference in Melbourne yesterday. “I’ve been a huge critic of the way the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been rolled out – this is just another one of those perverse impacts of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan,” Mr Birrell told Sky News Australia. “The Murray-Darling Basin Plan involves taking a lot of water away from irrigation to be held by the Commonwealth … to be used when and if people decide they want to use it for environmental works. “Storage like Eildon was built to hold irrigation water … if that’s sitting there waiting for environmental use … it sits there in Eildon, and then when we get a rain event like this, potentially that can cause Eildon to flood and spill. “I just think we’ve got to have a really good look at how these storages are managed into the future and whether … engineering solutions can be put together to make sure we can create what’s called a bit of air space so that those storages aren’t full so that if we do get a rain event like this, the water’s got somewhere to go and not potentially towards a place like Rochester.”

Nationals MP Sam Birrell says the government need to have “more broad thinking” about how to mitigate against floods in Victoria because of the “real challenge” they pose to residents in flood-affected towns. The Prime Minister has promised financial support for flood-affected communities across Victoria. Anthony Albanese made the announcement in Melbourne on Wednesday after visiting other storm-affected regions on the Gold Coast and Far North Queensland. “I think, as government and policymakers, we need to look at what ways of mitigating against these flood events for townships, particularly like Rochester,” Mr Birrell told Sky News Australia. “And things that we've probably previously considered you wouldn’t do for a one-in-100-year flooding event. “Well, these things are happening more often now, so we really got to have a bit more broad thinking about what we could do … to mitigate against these flood events.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has taken aim at X – formerly known as Twitter – saying Australians are at a higher risk of online hate since Elon Musk took over. Cyber safety expert and former police officer Susan McLean says online safety is a “huge issue”. “And for any school, anywhere in the world for that matter, it is often the number one non-academic issue that a school has to deal with on any given day,” she told Sky News Australia. “We need to hold social media platforms to account – if they’re not doing well enough, we need to call them out. “But we also, on the other hand, need to acknowledge and support them when they make good choices.”

Australian Antarctic Division Senior Researcher Dana Bergstrom has revealed that a heatwave in Antarctica in 2022 was a result of a joining up of tropical cyclones. In 2022, Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat event which broke records when the region recorded a new all-time high temperature of minus 9.4 degrees on March 18 near Concordia Station. “What we found was that heat poured in from the tropics into the Indian Ocean area,” Ms Bergstrom told Sky News Australia. “During the February – March time, there were 12 tropical storms, and five of them turned into tropical cyclones. “Few of them joined together and then got picked up by a jet stream and took this hot, warm, moist air from the tropics ... all the way to Antarctica.”

Broadcaster and wordsmith Kel Richards says people “don’t know” what actual wind turbines are like. Tasmanian windfarms recently got approval to run all year long, prompting outcry from communities of the areas the farms have been built on. “The people who live in the inner suburbs, who vote teal, they have no idea what’s going on, because they don’t know what these wind turbines are like,” he told Sky News host James Macpherson. “They’ve taken the occasional trip in the country, and they’ve seen one of those really nice old fashioned southern cross windmills – you know, the nice little ones, that have been there for 80-90 years, they’re quite quaint. “But these things are nothing like that, these are humongous – one blade is the length of a semitrailer, 260 feet, 80 meters, these things are absolutely massive.”

It's been revealed children as young as ten are reaching out to Victoria's Quitline to manage vaping addictions. It has prompted the launch of a new educational program alerting children about the dangers of vaping. The program released on Thursday will target Victorian schoolkids from years seven to ten. VicHealth says around 30 per cent of teenagers have used e-cigarettes but only half knew the product would be addictive and harmful. The Cancer Council says the long-term health consequences of vaping are still unknown.

At least one person is dead following a four vehicle crash in Melbourne, a motorcyclist has died in a peak hour crash in Brisbane, the TV industry saddened by the death of veteran cameraman Nick Beaney, the United Sates urges Australia to adopt nuclear energy, airlines and hotels accused of price gouging ahead of Taylor Swift's Australia tour, the U.S. will increase support for Ecuador amid ongoing gang violence, and Texas police arrest a third person involved in pregnant teen's murder. See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

Wordsmith Kel Richards claims Woolworths has launched a “war on Australia Day” after pulling its merchandise range from store shelves. The supermarket giant said declining product demand and ongoing debate around the significance of January 26 were some of the reasons to ditch Australia Day paraphernalia. “Woolworths and Big W celebrate the best of Australia every day, and we’re proud to support the farmers, producers, and suppliers who work with us,” a spokesperson said. The Woolworths Group's platform My Deal stocks Australia-themed products, however they are only available through third-party online retailers. Mr Richards criticised Woolworths for pulling the range entirely instead of just reducing stock.

Independent MP Allegra Spender has given her thoughts after Environmental Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed an offshore wind farm for the Victorian Port of Hastings due to climate concerns on surrounding wetlands. “Every single project whether it is a renewable energy project or another mining project needs to look at its environmental impact as well as the broader impact on the economy and climate,” Ms Spender told Sky News Australia. “I think it is acceptable – if there is wetlands and it was going to provide an unacceptable impact on the wetlands then it is appropriate that the Environmental Minister makes that decision. “But what I want to see out of the environmental rules at the same time is to make sure we are not looking at those same environmental laws and saying, ‘you know what, keep on approving coal mines, keep on approving gas mines. “We know that climate change has a huge impact on the environment.”

Republican candidate Chris Christie has announced he will suspend his 2024 presidential campaign. He made the announcement during a Town Hall event in New Hampshire in which he slammed support of Donald Trump by the country’s conservative base. “I’ve never believed that Donald Trump was a foregone conclusion as our nominee in this race and I knew that the case had to be made against him,” Mr Christie said. Mr Christie called out fellow Republicans for sitting on the “sidelines” and refusing to hold the former president accountable. “Our country is angry, it’s divided, it’s accomplishing little, and it is leading our citizens to be exhausted. “These people speak louder for the folks who attacked our Capitol on January 6 than they are willing to stand up and speak for the people of Israel who are in tunnels in Gaza. “That’s not leadership – that’s ambition and cowardice which has outstripped their otherwise good judgement. “I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win.”

Joe Biden has kicked off the year with more humiliating proof that his cognitive decline is worse than ever. Sky News All Stars Joe Siracusa and James Macpherson take a look at Joe Biden’s trainwreck start to 2024 and ask whether he’ll be able to handle a mammoth election year.

Reports of child sexual abuse cases are on the rise in England and Wales. A record 107,000 offences were reported in 2022. A concerning majority of those offences against children were committed by other children. Reporting child sex abuse has multiplied five times in the past 10 years. The number of offences reported in 2022 saw a seven per cent rise from the previous year. Around 32 per cent of offences were committed online and 80 per cent of victims knew their abuser. Warning – this video contains distressing content. If you or anyone you know needs help: Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800

We’re all very aware of the left’s obsession with gender, but these lefties losing it take it to the extreme. From violent threats to classroom indoctrination, gender obsessed lefties will stop at nothing to transform children into activists just like themselves. Sky News host Rita Panahi exposes gender bending lefties losing it.

Places of power such as Hollywood and DC are “crawling with predators and paedophiles”, claims Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren. Ms Lahren's remarks come after new documents relating to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were released on Monday. “paedophile and predators protect one another,” Ms Lahren told Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan. “That’s why it’s taken so long for us to get this information. “That’s why so many have protected, not only Epstein but have protected the logs, that have protected these document dumps from coming out. “We get redacted versions, we get sensationalism with names being thrown around. “Will we ever really get to the bottom of it? Will we ever really get to the bottom of what happened to Jeffrey Epstein? A lot of us are not confident we ever will.” There is no suggestion that any of the associated individuals who are named in the documents have committed crimes or wrongdoing.

Australia's inflation rate has fallen to four point three per cent, its lowest level in two years. The reading is lower than markets had anticipated, however, economists warn the likelihood of an interest rate cut before June is looking unlikely. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned, despite the new figures, the fight to control inflation is not over. Ahead of the May budget, Mr Chalmers is under pressure to address cost of living concerns. He has warned that despite the low yearly inflation figures, Australia is “a long way from prevailing” in the inflationary battle.

Sky News host James Macpherson says a wind farm in Tasmania that risks killing the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot demonstrates the “conundrum” of trying to “save the environment” by “destroying” it. A planned 100-turbine wind farm on a remote Tasmanian island is facing a legal challenge from a community group. In November, the Robbins Island project was permitted to operate year-round after previous rules forcing it to shut down for five months each year during the migration of the critically endangered orange-bellied parrot were overturned. “These 100 wind turbines were originally approved with the conditions that five months of the year they sit idle, which is what wind turbines do most of the year anyway,” Mr Macpherson said. “Well, the project organisers said that just makes it financially unviable, so what the government have said now is ‘ok, you can still operate 12 months of the year, but you will pay a $100,000 fine for every wedge-tailed eagle and orange-bellied parrot that you kill’. “Someone is going to have to walk around Robbins Island counting the number of birds, calculating the fine. “Doesn’t this demonstrate the conundrum you’ve got when you’re trying to save the environment by destroying the environment – and that’s the problem that the environmental movement trying to reach net zero has.”

France has decided to drop its carbon targets and prioritise nuclear energy. France is talking about building up to 14 new nuclear power stations. Sky News host James Macpherson said the new energy bill seems “eminently sensible”. “What they're saying is if we have renewables well, that’s nice, that’s a good thing, but we're not saying we have to have this percentage of renewables,” he said. “Let's go nuclear - it's clean, it's efficient, it's reliable, it's going to solve a lot of problems that we’ve been talking about and if we have some solar and wind in the mix, well great, but we're not going to have a renewable target.”

A Sydney council has decided to spend $6,000 to remove a park bench after spending two years arguing about the position of the bench. The bench, donated by a local resident, was positioned on a nature strip in St Ives. Since the seat was installed, the council has carried out multiple traffic and safety studies, commissioned a private consultant to undertake a risk assessment and brought in a mediator to chair a community meeting. One local councillor described the position of the park bench as a "moral issue". The decision to remove the bench was based on a majority vote of Ku-ring-gai councillors during a fractious hour-long council meeting debate.

James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York, is facing backlash after its students were told to stay home so thousands of migrants could be sheltered in the school instead. Around 2,000 migrants, who had been sheltered in a tent shelter in New York, were transferred to the nearby school due to high wind concerns. Sky News host Liz Storer said, “This really speaks to you how jam-packed full New York already is”. “I mean, it was less than three months ago we were talking about how the Mayor of New York was literally begging for mercy saying, we’ve run out of room,” she said. “And the fact that kids are now being bumped out of their own schools in favour of housing thousands of migrants goes to show they have run out of room.”

Sky News host Liz Storer says “the war on our farmers” continues as supermarkets bump up produce costs to consumers as the farmers see none of the extra profits. “I would term [this] the war on our farmers,” Ms Storer said. “They haven’t been paid properly for their produce for years. “Headlines have been across any number of media outlets for years. “The story keeps coming up.”