Two missing in Blue Mountains house fire are children

Back to that house fire in the Blue Mountains we reported earlier:

AAP reports the two missing people are children, adding four people have been hospitalised after the fire ripped through a country home, causing the roof to collapse.

The two missing people are believed to be young children, firefighters told the Today Show. Police have established a crime scene.

“There are parts of the home that are still hot and smouldering and many parts of the home have collapsed,” RFS commissioner Trent Curtin told Today.

Firefighters are moving into the home with hose lines to gain access to the areas where they can search for the unaccounted for people.

The four hospitalised include a man in his thirties, a male in his late teens and two primary school aged boys.

SA premier ‘deeply saddened’ by booing at Anzac Day ceremonies

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said he was “deeply saddened” by the booing at Anzac Day ceremonies on Saturday. He told RN this morning:

When I thought about it a bit more as the … day rolled on, I couldn’t help but feel a bit angry about it as well, which I think is a human response to a tragic set of circumstances.

I don’t want to exaggerate it, but nor do I want to dismiss it. I think there was a couple of people that partook in the activity. And the reason for the anger is it’s just so self-indulgent.

Malinauskas said he believes those who participated in the booing made Anzac Day about themselves.

Any act of self-indulgence or any attempts to commandeer Anzac Day away from the cause that it actually represents, I think should be responded to with a full-hearted response by leaders around the country just about how outrageous it is.

Red and yellow flags at many NSW beaches set to come down as ‘traumatic’ summer season ends

It’s the last day of the patrol season for Surf Life Saving NSW, with the red and yellow flags set to come down at many of the state’s beaches at the end of the day.

Steven Pearce, the CEO of Surf Life Saving NSW, told RN Breakfast this morning it had been a traumatic summer for many patrolling the state’s beaches, pointing to a spate of shark attacks, the Bondi shooting and the number of drownings in recent months.

Pearce said:

It’s been probably one of the most tumultuous and traumatic summers we have seen because of the amount of shark attacks we’ve been involved with. Obviously, the response to the Bondi shooting and the drownings.

So the volunteers have done a great job and I think everyone’s looking forward to scaling back a little bit just over these autumn and winter months.

Marles said on RN earlier the additional Bushmasters would amount to a “major reinvestment” in Australia’s protected mobility fleet.

The heart of this spend is what we’re doing in Bendigo in the production of an additional 268 Bushmasters. And the vast majority of them are destined for the Australian army.

He said the commitment to keep making the vehicles in Bendigo reflected a real “vote of confidence” in their work.

Richard Marles says booing at Anzac Day services ‘disgraceful’

The defence minister, Richard Marles, said booing at Anzac Day dawn services was “disgraceful”, saying a welcome to country was simply a respectful thing to do.

Marles told RN Breakfast:

Anzac Day is a day on which we show respect. And to have booing in the face of that is profoundly disrespectful and in my mind goes against all that Anzac Day stands for …

Indigenous Australians deserve that respect … Indigenous Australians who served in our defence force deserve that respect. And that’s what we should be thinking about.

Marles said he didn’t agree with Angus Taylor when asked if welcomes to country were “overused”.

You know, Australians around the country in different contexts engage in welcome to countrys, and that’s a good thing.

Nationals MP says welcome to country is generally a ‘good part’ of ceremonies

Nationals MP Michael McCormack said he thinks welcome to county ceremonies are generally a “good part” of ceremonies after the opposition leader, Angus Taylor, said on Sunday he thought they were overused.

Taylor made the comments after booing incidents at some of Saturday’s Anzac Day dawn services. McCormack said he believed that booing seemed to be almost “orchestrated” and was unacceptable. But when he was asked if he agreed with Taylor’s view on welcome to country, McCormack told RN Breakfast:

I can, if you have several speakers and every one of them takes a lot of their speech time to do welcomes to country when it’s already been done. If you do it at the start, you do it appropriately, I think most people find that to be a good part of the ceremony, and then you get on with what the actual event is all about.

And I think that’s probably appropriate.