Australia news live: fire emergency in Queensland towns; new data on women’s pay gap in Victoria

Australia news live: fire emergency in Queensland towns; new data on women’s pay gap in Victoria | Australia news | The Guardian

In case you missed it: Microsoft is set to invest an additional $5bn in Australia over the next two years, as part of the first major announcement to come out of prime minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to the United States.

The investment will be used to expand hyperscale cloud computing capacity while collaborating with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to boost domestic protection from cyber threats.

Albanese confirmed the investment during an event at the Australian embassy in Washington, flanked by Microsoft’s vice-chair and president, Brad Smith, and Microsoft Australia and New Zealand Managing director Steven Worrall.

My colleagues Katharine Murphy and Daniel Hurst have the full story here:

Queenslanders in fire zones urged to pay attention to warnings

Turning to Queensland now, where Fire and Emergency Service chief Tony Johnston has spoken to ABC News Breakfast with an update on the bushfires across the state.

He said there were 59 fires burning across the state, at different warning levels. Firefighters’ main focus at the moment is on the Tara fires, where crews worked through the night to steer the fire away from buildings.

Johnston said he is aware of one home that has been affected but to what extent, he doesn’t know:
There’s been a number of structures that have been impacted but as you can appreciate, until the fire is actually contained, we won’t have a good picture of what’s actually been lost … When the crews can actually get in and ascertain the damage, we’ll have a full report.

Johnston said the work on the ground was hot, dry and dirty for crews, with fire behaviour “very erratic for this time of year”:
Fires are spotting 200 metres in front of the fires themselves.

Because of this, in some locations fire crews need to let the fires run until they can get to them safely:
We’re asking residents to pay attention to the messaging. The messaging is important to enact your plan and what you’re going to do. Today is not a day to go sight seeing to see what’s happening in a fire area.

NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Rob Rogers told Sunrise this morning that there are 54 fires burning across NSW, with 10 of these of concern:
A lot of them are not easily contained. Some of those fires have been burning for quite some time. There’s a number of challenging fronts that we’ve got and obviously, worsening weather tomorrow that will cause a lot of problems with these fires and potentially new ones.

Rogers said how the fires started was being investigated and “some are suspicious”:
I know investigators are looking into a number of those fires and working with [police]. We have to wait for these fires to get under control before we can get in and assess the damage and carry out these investigations.

Earlier NSW police appealed for public assistance as they investigate the cause of several bushfires along the state’s mid north coast.

According to a statement, officers were called to Belmore River, 15km east of Kempsey, on 17 October by reports of a bushfire. It had been brought under control after burning through nearly 3,000 hectares of bushland in the Hat Head national park.

Police say the circumstances surrounding the blaze are believed to be suspicious and detectives are keen to speak with the driver of a white Nissan Patrol with a broken taillight seen in the area about 3pm that day.

The NSW Teachers Federation says a wage agreement struck with the state government will help replenish teacher numbers as public schools confront a shortage of 3,000 casual teachers a day.

A survey released today by the NSW education department shows almost 10,000 lessons each day have inadequate teaching due to a 42% shortfall in the number of casual teachers available to cover classes.

NSW Teachers Federation acting president Henry Rajendra said this data “comes as no surprise”:

The teacher shortage in NSW public schools is a direct consequence of the former government’s wage cap that artificially suppressed teachers’ pay. The wage cap made the profession less attractive.

Worse still, and adding to the unattractiveness of the profession, is unmanageable teacher workloads due to the policies of the previous government. The situation was so bad that resignation rates outpaced retirements.

This week the starting salary for a NSW teacher will increase from $75,791 to $85,000 and the salary for a top-of-the-scale teacher will increase from $113,042 to $122,100. All teachers will move to a new higher paying step, including casual teachers.

Rajendra said this wage agreement struck with the state government was “critical to rebuilding the teaching workforce”.

Victoria widens outside school hours care for children with disabilities

About 1,000 Victorian students will soon have access to free high intensity outside school hours care for the first time, as part of a state government investment to young people with disabilities and their families.

The services, designed and staffed for students with disability, will be rolled out at 15 specialist schools from next year, joining five established as part of a pilot in 2018.

Victoria’s further 10 specialist schools will follow in 2025 and 2026.

Victoria’s premier, Jacinta Allan, said subsidised before- and after-school care was part of the state government’s work to transform special schools.
Disability inclusion is not about closing specialist schools. It aims to make all schools more inclusive by recognising the strengths and responding to the needs of every student who enters the school gate.

Some more breaking news out of Queensland this morning, where police have set up an exclusion zone after an incident at Strathpine, north of Brisbane.

According to a statement, police made an emergency declaration under the Public Safety Preservation Act.

Just after 1.30am this morning, police attended a Strathpine address in relation to a disturbance. Upon arrival, police say they began negotiations with a man, who was at the residence alone. An emergency situation was declared just after 4am.

The emergency declaration was made with boundaries encompassing Gertrude, Peter, Rowland and Cavendish streets.

Members of the public are warned to avoid the area and those within the exclusion zone are asked to remain indoors “until further notice”.

Traffic diversions are in place and police said there was no more information at this time.

A Queensland police spokesperson told Guardian Australia there was no ongoing danger to the public, and as of 7.50am AEDT the exclusion zone was still in place.

The Queensland government has announced it will invest in a windfarm in Moah Creek as part of a $500m pipeline of solar and wind projects across central Queensland.

The windfarm, west of Rockhampton, is the first project in a partnership between publicly owned generator CleanCo and Central Queensland Power.

It will power up to 200,000 homes and employ 400 workers during its construction.

It is expected to provide a boost of $600m to the Queensland economy and will transition to public ownership in mid-2025.

The state’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, said the 2.3GW pipeline of large-scale projects will “protect jobs in the nation’s industrial and manufacturing heartland by delivering the transition to renewable energy”.

The government also expects the suite of renewable energy projects to put downward pressure on household electricity bills.

Here’s an update on the bushfires in Queensland, as of this morning:

Residents of Tara and Kogan are being told to leave immediately due to a large, fast-moving fire burning near Chinchila Tara Road.

The Queensland Fire and Emergency Service said the fire was expected to impact Bennett School Road very soon, and residents should leave now as it would soon be too dangerous to drive.

Nearby, residents of Tara and Wieambilla are being told to prepare to leave, as the same fire burns closer to properties between Blackburns Road, Wieambilla Road, Bennett School Road and Upper Humbug Road.

Meanwhile, residents of Millmerran Woods are being told it is not safe to return due to a fire near Primrose Drive. It is travelling towards Waratah Drive.

If you left the area, it is not safe to return.

Firefighters are working to contain the fire.

The same warning was given to the nearby communities in Cypress Gardens and Millmerran Downs.

Pay gap between First Nations women and non-Indigenous men 21%

Indigenous heritage, cultural diversity, disability and gender identity are leading to significantly bigger pay gaps for women, a landmark report by Victoria’s Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector has found.

Analysing workforce and survey data from almost 300 organisations, the report found:

The pay gap between First Nations women and non-Indigenous men was the largest, with a 21% gap. Culturally and racially marginalised women are paid on average 19% less than men. Women with disabilities experienced large pay gaps of 19% when compared with men without disabilities.

Lesbian women hold managerial positions at a similar rate to both straight and gay men and have higher salaries than women in all other sexuality groups.

Transwomen and other trans, non-binary or gender-diverse people reported far higher rates of experiencing sexual harassment (16% and 15% respectively) than transgender men (8%) and cisgender women (6%) and men (4%).

Niki Vincent, the Public Sector Gender Equality Commissioner, said:

For too long, gender equality initiatives have excluded those that do not fit the default mould of the straight, white, able-bodied woman – this is no longer acceptable.

This report shows that compounding forms of discrimination have notable impacts on career progression, pay inequality, and the experience of sexual harassment and discrimination at work. An intersectional approach to gender equality is no longer a nice to have, it’s a must have – without it, our work will continue to reproduce some of the very patterns of inequality we seek to address.

And happy Tuesday! Welcome back to another day on Guardian Australia’s live news blog. I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage today.

Making news this morning, prime minister Anthony Albanese is wrapping up his first full-day visit to the United States. He will be visiting the country for four days, undertaking talks around the Indo-Pacific and Aukus deal.

Along the east coast of Australia, fires are continuing to spread. In Queensland, residents of Tara and Kogan are being told to leave immediately, while residents in Millmerran Woods, Cypress Gardens and Millmerran Downs have been warned it is too late to leave. While there are no total fire bans in place across NSW today, the majority of the state is forecast to experience high fire danger.

Also making news this morning: Indigenous heritage, cultural diversity, disability and gender identity are leading to significantly bigger pay gaps for women, a landmark report by Victoria’s Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector has found.

And the Queensland government has announced it will invest in a windfarm in Moah Creek as part of a $500m pipeline of solar and wind projects.

We will have all the details on these stories shortly on the blog.

As always, if you see anything that needs attention, you can send me an email: emily.wind.casual@theguardian.com.