Queensland floods prompt 1,000 calls for help as heavy rain continues – as it happened

Scott Morrison confirms new sanctions against Russian oligarchs as China eases trade restrictions; Australia records at least 28 Covid deaths as mask mandates relaxed in NSW and Victoria; Queensland emergency services receive 1,000 calls for help amid floods. This blog is now closed

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Let's return briefly to Peter Dutton's comments a short time ago about China. (The defence minister urged China to use its special relationship" with Russia to urge it to pull back from war in Ukraine.)

It's true that the Chinese government has not clearly condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That's despite China's long-standing and repeated position that all countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected" (a position it raises to essentially urge other countries not to speak up about Taiwan, which is a self-governed democracy of 24 million people but which Beijing regards as its breakaway territory).

The current state of affairs is not what we would hope to see.