BOM gets $70m to buy radars and rain gauges
The Morrison government has committed more than $70m to the Bureau of Meteorology to buy radars and rain gauges.
The Bureau of Meteorology will be able to buy new radars and rain gauges for the decades ahead after the Morrison government announced more than $70 million to “address gaps in weather monitoring infrastructure” in the key election battleground state of Queensland.
The budget committed $28m to the BOM over four years from July for installation of the equipment and $77.2m over the life of the installations to June 30, 2042. It follows revelations in The Australian that an area larger than Britain in the NSW, Queensland and South Australian outback was not serviced by weather radar coverage.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service was among groups calling for an expansion of Australia’s weather radar coverage, saying it would enhance its lifesaving operations.
There are 24 high-resolution Doppler radars across the country; the remaining stations are dedicated weather-watch radars or smaller, intermittent, wind-finding radars. The BOM says a radar costs about $5m to install and run for 15 years, but that may vary depending on location and type.
Economists urge RBA to follow US and spare the rates cut knife
After the US Federal Reserve kept rates on hold for the first time since July, JudoBank chief economic adviser Warren Hogan said it was ‘very much a cautionary tale for the RBA’.
Federal Labor on a collision course with miners over green push
The federal government has made a powerful enemy for itself in the west after the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA said it would fight Labor’s push for so-called nature-positive laws.