Brisbane news live: Coles manager’s generous act amid Queensland floods; Dutton would deliver the same attitude as Trump, Michaelia Cash says

A supermarket manager climbed aboard a dinghy to retrieve essential supplies for flood evacuees in north Queensland.

Heavy rain is set to continue in north Queensland until at least Tuesday after more than one metre of rain fell during 48 hours in some parts of the flood-stricken region.

Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann was picked up from her Ingham home by the SES and ferried in a dinghy to her store on Sunday. There she managed to fill shopping trolleys full of supplies for the local evacuation centre.

Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann collecting supplies from the supermarket.

“Our teams are working hard to support each of our communities during the current weather event, and as part of that we worked collaboratively with the Premier’s office and SES yesterday to get our Coles Ingham duty manager Marcia Glindemann into the store on a boat,” a Coles spokesman said.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie praised Glindemann at a press conference a short time ago.

“The staff couldn’t access the supermarket, but we had a call in from the mayor of that Hinchinbrook area where they needed supplies ... for the evacuation centres. We immediately contacted Coles and Woolworths. They advised us where their manager and assistant manager lived. We got the SES to pick up the manager and assistant manager and deliver them from their homes across the water, to the supermarkets,” he said.

“This is their local community as well, their homes were potentially going to be flooded, their stores were going to be flooded, the streets are flooded, and yet they jumped in the dinghy, they went.”

Hundreds of people have fled to evacuation centres after record-breaking rain in northern Queensland, with the deluge set to continue for days.

Residents between Cairns and Mackay have been warned to stay on alert for rising water levels, with significant rainfall expected until at least Wednesday.

Floodwater is expected to continue rising in Ingham, where the river is centimetres shy of reaching the 1967 record of 15.2m that devastated the area.

Flooding has cut power and damaged roads throughout the north, with a major Bruce Highway link – the Ollera Creek Bridge near Townsville – collapsing into the water on Sunday afternoon.

Evacuation warnings are in place for regions across the far north with residents in Cardwell, Ingham and Townsville’s “black zone” spanning Cluden, Hermit Park, Idalia, Oonoonba, Railway Estate and Rosslea unable to return home.

Townsville councillor Andrew Robinson said floodwater in the black zone was expected to peak this morning, while more areas could be impacted in coming days.

There are more than 400 people currently in evacuation centres across Townsville, Ingham and Cardwell.

Nearly one metre of rain was recorded at Paluma Dam, Townsville, in the past 48 hours while Ingham has copped more than 400mm in the past day.

To put north Queensland’s floods into context, the Bureau of Meteorology says the region has received more than six months’ worth of rain in just three days.

NAB has become the first big bank to cut fixed-interest mortgage rates, following challenger Macquarie, as expectations of an impending Reserve Bank rate cut grow.

Rate tracking by comparison site Canstar shows NAB dropped fixed rates by up to 0.25 percentage points for owner-occupiers and up to 0.3 percentage points for investors today.

The move is likely to spur competition from other banks to start cutting rates as lenders try to entice customers to fixed mortgages, given the latest data shows more than 97 per cent of new loans were variable, Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said.

“We’d hope to see competition really ramp up in that space as we get towards a cash rate cut, and then potentially onto the next one,” Tindall said.

Macquarie was the first lender to cut fixed-rate mortgages in 2025, reducing its one- to three-year fixed-rate mortgages by up to 0.16 percentage points in January.

NAB’s cuts bring it into line with Westpac, offering the lowest one-year fixed rate among the big four banks at 6.09 per cent.

ANZ is still offering the lowest two- and three-year fixed rates, both at 5.74 per cent.

Last time the RBA cut rates, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, not one big bank passed it on to existing variable rate customers.

AAP

Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has assured north Queensland residents the region has at least six weeks’ worth of food, and delivery drops are planned for isolated communities amid the ongoing floods.

“Queenslanders will see through a lot of social media at the moment ... many pictures of reduced stock in supermarkets,” Bleijie told reporters at a press conference a short time ago.

“But I can assure you – as we have been assured – there is six weeks of food in north Queensland.

“We’ll ensure that the supermarkets get stocked up again.

“It may be that some people particularly in isolated communities are completely isolated and shut-off, but we will get the food to those people. We have mechanisms in place, delivery options available, and again if people are stuck and they have no food or drink at their home, they just need to sing out and we’ll ensure they get food and water, fresh water, to their homes.”

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A supermarket manager climbed aboard a dinghy to retrieve essential supplies for flood evacuees in north Queensland.

Heavy rain is set to continue in north Queensland until at least Tuesday after more than one metre of rain fell during 48 hours in some parts of the flood-stricken region.

Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann was picked up from her Ingham home by the SES and ferried in a dinghy to her store on Sunday. There she managed to fill shopping trolleys full of supplies for the local evacuation centre.

Coles duty manager Marcia Glindermann collecting supplies from the supermarket.

“Our teams are working hard to support each of our communities during the current weather event, and as part of that we worked collaboratively with the Premier’s office and SES yesterday to get our Coles Ingham duty manager Marcia Glindemann into the store on a boat,” a Coles spokesman said.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie praised Glindemann at a press conference a short time ago.

“The staff couldn’t access the supermarket, but we had a call in from the mayor of that Hinchinbrook area where they needed supplies ... for the evacuation centres. We immediately contacted Coles and Woolworths. They advised us where their manager and assistant manager lived. We got the SES to pick up the manager and assistant manager and deliver them from their homes across the water, to the supermarkets,” he said.

“This is their local community as well, their homes were potentially going to be flooded, their stores were going to be flooded, the streets are flooded, and yet they jumped in the dinghy, they went.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been briefed on the extreme weather events taking place around Australia, after one person died in floodwaters in north Queensland over the weekend.

The PM said national aerial assets and the Australian Defence Force had been deployed to assist with evacuation and rescue efforts.

Both state and federal emergency funding has been activated for residents, as regional centres including Townsville and Ingham continue to be threatened by floodwaters.

Albanese also acknowledged the ongoing heatwave stretching from Western Australia to Tasmania, including active bushfires still raging in Victoria, before thanking emergency service workers across the country for their efforts.

Young Australians can expect further cost of living policy announcements in the lead-up to the federal election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed.

In an interview with youth publication The Daily Aus, Albanese promised more help was on its way, but wouldn’t go into details.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media on Friday.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“I’m not going to make announcements now. But I will say that one of the things that we’ve done is not just talk about what we have done this term, but we’ve already foreshadowed our action in the second term,” Albanese said.

“So we’ll cut student debt by a further 20 per cent because we want to address these issues. We think that it is unfair. And we’ll also change where it kicks in and the amount that has to be paid back as a measure as well.”

The PM said he believes intergenerational inequality is the biggest issue facing young people, citing buying a home and the influence of technology as reasons for the phenomenon.

Elaborating on the housing crisis, Albanese said there was no short-term fix, and that increases to supply were being held up by state and local government planning and delays in passing the Build to Rent legislation, which only got through the Parliament in December last year with support from the Greens.

Turning to soccer for a moment, and at last, the beleaguered Ange Postecoglou has been able to enjoy some blessed respite from Tottenham’s travails as he hailed what felt like one of their most important wins of the season.

The Spurs were desperate to end a winless run of seven Premier League matches and the 2-0 victory at Brentford on Sunday, which featured more grit than glamour from the Australian’s mercurial outfit, was just the ticket for Postecoglou at the start of a potentially critical week in his reign.

He recognised the huge relief among Spurs’ fans too and appreciated their show of support at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium as they cheered him after the win.

It moved Spurs up one place to 14th in the Premier League and gave them a real boost as they prepare for Thursday’s second leg of the League Cup semi-final at Anfield, where they’ll be protecting a 1-0 lead against soaraway leaders Liverpool.

A place in a Wembley final from the man who’s perhaps made himself hostage to fortune by having declared that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club could be a job-saver - well, at least a temporary job protector - for Postecoglou.

The world can change a lot in seven years, says one of the men vying to be the next president of the International Olympic Committee.

Sebastian Coe, a gold-medal-winning Olympic runner and former British MP who now heads World Athletics, says the organisers of Brisbane’s 2032 Games should be mindful of this.

World Athletics boss Lord Sebastian Coe.Credit: Getty Images

In an interview with sports commentator Bruce McAvaney for the ABC at the weekend, Coe commented on the struggle to build momentum for the Brisbane Games amid the debate about stadiums.

“This is not a criticism of Brisbane,” Coe said.

“I’m effectively an honorary Australian, but I think we have to be really clear. The world changes every 10 minutes. You and I know that, the world knows that. I think it’s possibly not the best way to deliver or to choose a venue 12, 13 years out because you don’t know strategically where the world is going to shift.

“You don’t know what burgeoning markets are going to be open to you. I think you need a little bit more flexibility in that.”

If he succeeds outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach, and serves a full term, Coe will oversee the Brisbane event, Australia’s third Olympic Games.

“I’m far too long in the tooth to get involved in the local complexities,” he said.

“It is for local communities, it’s for organising committees, for the International Olympic Committee to decide what works best and what is going to leave the best-possible legacy, because legacy is important here.

“You don’t want a Games just to be three weeks of outstanding sport and then in a couple of years’ time people forgetting the impact or not being able to observe the impact that that has had.”

On Donald Trump, Coe said he would be surprised if the US president did not support the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, despite the recent fires.

“As we all know, there have been some terrible, devastating fires in that Los Angeles area, but the venues that will be used in 2028 haven’t been damaged,” he said.

“I sat through a press conference the other day where the president did actually say that he was 100 per cent behind the Games, 100 per cent behind California. And that can only bode well.”

Coe – the only man to have won 1500-metre Olympic gold twice – is among seven candidates vying for the IOC presidency. IOC members will cast their votes in Greece on March 20.