Australian news and politics recap May 23: Libs set to agree ‘in principle’ to Nationals’ Coalition demands

To say the seat of Bradfield is down to the wire is a bit of an understatement.

There are currently four - that’s right, four - votes separating incumbent Liberal MP Gisele Kapterian and Teal candidate Nicolette Boele on a two-party-preferred basis.

Here’s Aaron Patrick’s piece on why the Liberals could lose that seat because of an “inside job”.

The Liberal Party are expected to sign off “in principle” to the key policy demands of the Nationals after a party room meeting this afternoon amid peace talks between the pair.

New Liberal leader Sussan Ley spoke with her party at a 1pm meeting on Friday about polices around nuclear energy, supermarket divestiture laws, $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund and rural telecommunications obligations.

Ms Ley is now expected to brief colleagues on “what the path forward is” and meet with the Nationals to discuss the Coalition agreement.

It comes after Mr Littleproud withdrew from the 38-year partnership on Tuesday before reunification talks were struck 48 hours later.

The Liberal Party is about to meet, where MPs are expected to give the greenlight for an agreement with the Nationals to salvage the Coalition.

The Liberals are set to agree to an offer from the Nationals’ to water down the nuclear energy policy to agree at minimum to lifting of the moratorium, rather than forging ahead with the original plan to build seven reactors.

The Liberals are likely to hold the line on divestiture powers, but there is no resistance to the Nationals’ two other demands: a $20bn regional future fund and universal service obligations for regional mobile and internet connections.

The issue of cabinet solidarity has been neutralised, with some Nationals MPs revealing they had no knowledge of David Littleproud’s request to Sussan Ley.

“The Premier has announced, of course, some of the support that is there,” Mr Albanese said.

“Can I say that on top of the 16 local government areas in which we have announced disaster assistance, I can announce that we’re extending this to three additional local government areas: Armidale, Muswellbrook and Walcha.

“That support will be made available as soon as possible.

“In addition to that, the disaster recovery allowance that we have indicated in four local government areas - Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Mid Coast and Dungog - that provides for up to 13 weeks pay for people who are employees unable to work or people who are sole traders, self-employed to that will be made available from 2 pm on Monday. This coming Monday.”

“Please listen to the advice and follow it,” Mr Albanese said.

“Because tragically, we have seen four people lose their lives, three of which are associated with driving through flood waters.

“If it’s flooded, forget it. We keep saying it. You can’t tell what is underneath the water as you make these assessments, and it is just not worth people taking risks at this point in time.

“This is a dangerous circumstance and even when the rain stops falling from the sky, sometimes the waters keep rising for a period of time.

“That is the case in the mid-north coast.”

“The Federal Government, State Government, Local Government, as well as the whole of the people of NSW and indeed the people of Australia, are with you at this time,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“Tragically, we’re seeing more extreme weather events. They’re occurring more frequently and they’re more intense.

“This flood area that goes all the way from the North Coast of NSW, right down really to the Victorian border, but particularly with intensity from the Kempsey area down to the bottom of the Central Coast, is having a real impact on people and communities.

“Can I give a shout-out to the SES and the wonderful volunteers?

“These people are heroes.

“They are helping their neighbours, they’re helping their community, but they’re also helping people from other parts of NSW.

“We had the privilege of saying thank you to the volunteers at the Maitland SES headquarters just a while ago, and there I met people from my local hood, someone from Leichhardt was there helping out.”

“I want to announce with the Prime Minister that assistance will begin to flow soon,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said alongside Anthony Albanese.

“Today, I can announce in conjunction with the Commonwealth Government that personal hardship assistance grants of $180 per individual or $900 per family, will be available as soon as possible.

“It’s not today, but I wanted to announce that that funding is on the way for communities that are subject to an evacuation order, again jointly funded by the state and the Commonwealth Government, $1 million community recovery grants for local councils, $1 million for each of the local councils that are affected by emergency orders will flow soon.

“Thank the Commonwealth for that.”

“It’s also important to note that there have terribly been four fatalities so far, and the community will rightly be devastated by that,” Mr Minns said.

“I have to report the SES and emergency services, including the VRE, Polair NSW Police, completed 678 flood rescues, including 177 flood rescues in the last 24 hours.

“An amazing, heroic logistical effort where in very difficult circumstances, many volunteers put themselves in harm’s way to rescue a complete stranger.

“Over the coming days and weeks, we will hear scores of stories of locals being plucked out of impossible, desperate situations.

“So, of course, we mourn the people that have passed. But I do think it’s important to say without the SES, without the volunteers, we would have had hundreds of deaths.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are giving an update on the NSW floods.

“The weather that has brought such devastation and an enormous anxiety to the local community is moving south, which is good news,” Mr Minns said on Friday.

“However, we need to report that there are still 39 emergency warnings still in place. Many of them are evacuation orders, and we’re asking people to look at the app rather than the sky, to make a determination about whether it’s safe to go home or to use local roads.

“It’s still incredibly important that the community listens to emergency service workers, to local police, to the SES, to anyone who’s an official who has the latest information, they may be aware of a set of circumstances that aren’t immediately apparent.

“That’s how we’re going to keep people alive during this difficult period.”

The formal distribution of preferences in the Sydney seat of Bradfield has sliced independent Nicolette Boele’s lead over Liberal contender Gisele Kapterian down to just five votes.

As the distributions are carried out, minor discrepancies are often found, which have cut Ms Boele’s lead from 29 votes earlier this morning, now down to five.

If this distribution process results in a margin of less than 100 votes, there will automatically be a recount, which could take another few weeks.