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Crews are working to restore electricity for Queenslanders left without power after ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily lashed the state.

More than 4000 homes were without power in the Townsville city council area on Monday morning.

About 66,000 customers experienced a power outage at the peak of the wild weather.

Parts of Queensland remain at risk of heavy rain and flooding as Kirrily impacts the state’s western interior.

Seymour Gap received 256 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, while 244 millimetres fell at Kirby in the same period.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the ex-tropical cyclone is expected to “linger” in the area between Mount Isa and Longreach for the next few days.

“It is largely stationary within that area and is expected to stay that way for a couple of days at least,” a bureau spokesperson said.

“Beyond that, the movement is a bit uncertain, it may drift north or west at this point but it’s likely to continue having an impact through that inland Queensland area for most of the week.”

A severe thunderstorm warning is current across the Central Highlands, Capricornia coast, Warrego and Darling Downs regions.

Tanderra in the Central Highlands received 73 millimetres of rain in an hour on Monday morning.

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NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley said she personally “wouldn’t mind” seeing neo-Nazis named and shamed as the group boasted about refusing to pay the fines dealt out by police.

NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley.Credit: James Brickwood

Catley would not say when authorities became aware of the planned action in Sydney by the group on Australia Day but praised the actions of the police.

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“The truth is they may well be recruiting, but the reality is the police’s swift action ensured that they were not able to achieve their goal,” she said.

Under laws introduced after the Cronulla riots, police have the power to unmask people involved in large-scale public disorder.

When asked if these men should be named and shamed, Catley said: “I wouldn’t mind that but this is a matter for operational police and they will operate under the framework of the law.”

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Out of the men who were issued fines in North Sydney on Australia Day, 16 were from Sydney, 11 from regional NSW, 24 came on a bus from Victoria, five were from Queensland, six from South Australia and four from Tasmania.

“The police know exactly who they are and, let me tell you, they’ll be keeping their eyes on them,” Catley said.

The minister’s comments come after members of the neo-Nazi group boasted about their “propaganda triumph”.

“We’re sure this hurts the taxpayer generally more than it did us as individuals, as we will not be paying a single dollar of these fines,” one member said on Telegram.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham says the government has questions to answer on why it ignored earlier calls to pause aid to the United Nations agency for Palestinians in Gaza.

Speaking on Sky News Australia, Birmingham said the Coalition supported the government’s decision to pause aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after allegations that 12 of its staff may have been involved in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Not one dollar of Australian taxpayers’ money should be going to activities that could fund or support terrorism, could promote or exacerbate extremism. We must be very careful and cautious to ensure that Australian taxpayers’ dollars are supporting genuine humanitarian needs,” he said.

“The Albanese government has questions to answer as to why they ignored warnings from the Australian Jewish community and others that were provided last year about the involvement of UNRWA staff in the October 7 terrorist attacks.”

Childcare fees have grown faster than inflation and wages since rebates were introduced, which have been limited in placing downward pressure on prices.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s final report from the childcare inquiry, released today, found subsidies generally lowered out-of-pocket costs for families across income groups.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Education Minister Jason Clare (right) at a childcare centre last year.Credit: Paul Jeffers

But fees across all services “have grown faster than inflation and wages since the introduction of the Child Care Subsidy”.

The report says that historically when subsidies increased, out-of-pocket expenses declined initially but then tended to go back to higher levels.

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This is due to subsequent fee increases eroding some of the benefits for households over time.

The consumer watchdog found the design and implementation of the rebates had only “limited effectiveness” in placing downward pressure on fees and constraining the burden on taxpayers.

Since the Albanese government’s measures were introduced, the average reduction in out-of-pocket expenses for centre-based daycare was 11 per cent.

Households with the lowest incomes experienced the greatest drop in expenses, but still spent the largest proportion of their disposable income on childcare.

The childcare rebates started in July 2023, with subsidies helping more than 1 million families.

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The Guardian’s political editor Katharine Murphy has confirmed her departure from journalism to join Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s office.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paul Sakkal broke the story this morning, with Guardian editor Lenore Taylor confirming the news.

Murphy has now taken to X, formerly Twitter, writing that she is “deeply grateful to so many people for the opportunities [she’s] had and for the generosity that has been extended to [her] by mentors, colleagues and readers” in her 28 years in the press gallery.

Murphy called her involvement in the establishment of The Guardian’s Australian brand the “greatest privilege of [her] professional life”, but said it was time for a “new chapter”.

Deirdre O’Connor, the first woman appointed to the Federal Court of Australia, has died.

The University of Sydney-educated O’Connor was appointed to the court in July 1990 and retired in March 2002.

Deirdre O’Connor in 1986.Credit: Craig Golding/ Fairfax Media

She was also the first woman to be appointed president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (1990-94) and Australian Industrial Relations Commission (1994-1997) and chair of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (1986-1990).

O’Connor died on January 27, aged 82.

Australia’s pause to its $6 million humanitarian aid package to the United Nations agency for Palestinians in Gaza needs to be resolved as quickly as possible, says federal Early Childhood Minister Anne Aly, as the organisation investigates allegations that 12 of its staff may have been involved in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.

Aly – who is one of two Muslim ministers in the Albanese government – also welcomed the International Court of Justice ruling that there was a case to be heard about whether Palestinian rights were being denied in a war.

Early Childhood Education Minister Dr Anne Aly.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“I understand that there are a lot of people who thought it didn’t go far enough, but the fact is that the ICJ ruling really kind of reiterates what we’ve been saying all along, which is to really stress and put pressure on Israel to ensure that it abides by international rules of law,” she told ABC Radio National.

“It’s difficult to see the images coming out of Gaza and Palestine and not feel concern and not feel empathy and not feel that something needs to be done.”

Aly also expressed concern about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) no longer receiving funding from countries – including Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, Finland and Italy – as it is the main agency providing urgent assistance in Gaza since Israel launched a retaliatory war.

“I’d like [the pause in aid] to be as short as possible. I think it’s pretty clear that one of the most vital services for people in Gaza and in the West Bank is provided by UNRWA,” Aly said.

“Given that they are fairly serious allegations, I understand that UNRWA is currently investigating and I hope those investigations are swift and we can restore the funding as soon as those investigations are done.”