Australia news live: health warning as measles spreads in Melbourne; flash floods cut east-west rail link

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Coalition details plan to criminalise assisting people with links to Islamic State

Ted O’Brien, the shadow minister for foreign affairs, is speaking this morning about a new opposition plan to make it a criminal offence to help Australians with links to the Islamic State to return home.

The proposal comes as lawmakers wrangle over the future of 34 women and children stuck in Syria with links to dead or detained Islamic State fighters.

The Albanese government said the country will not assist in repatriation efforts, but those in the group have been issued passports and travel documents as is required by law.

O’Brien told RN Breakfast the plan would close a loophole in the law, saying it would bar the government from “outsourcing the repatriation of terror sympathisers back to Australia”.

He said the proposal should apply “across the board”. When pressed if a new law would include barring anyone from helping children come home to Australia, O’Brien said there would be no “automatic exemption” for kids.

The shadow minister also said the law could penalise non-governmental organisations like Save the Children if they were “assisting foreign fighters, families or sympathisers of terrorists”.

Victoria warns residents to be on alert for measles

Victorian health officials are warning of an increased risk of measles in the state, especially metropolitan Melbourne, after local transmission of the virus in the city among people with no recent travel or known public exposure.

Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against measles.

Victoria’s acting chief health officer has pointed to a long list of public exposure sites, saying anyone who visited one during the times listed should monitor for symptoms for up to 18 days. Measles usually starts with fever, cough, a runny nose, sore eyes and a general feeling of being unwell. That’s usually followed by a rash that often starts on the face before spreading around the body.

A spate of summer international travel and a decline in childhood vaccination rates has seen cases rise around the country. Read more here:

Good morning

Good morning, and happy Monday. Nick Visser here to get things started this week. Here’s what’s on deck:

Victoria is warning residents of an increased risk of measles in the state after local transmission of the virus in Melbourne among people with no recent travel or public exposure. Health officials have published a long list of exposure sites, warning people to monitor for symptoms.

Communities could be cut off and large parts of Australia disrupted by severe thunderstorms forecast to dump large amounts of rain. A weather system sitting over central Australia is expected to drag into the middle of the week, the Bureau of Meteorology warns.

The East West rail line, a major outback transport network, is currently closed after 24 hours of heavy rain and flooding caused track washaways of up to 100 metres in some places. The rail corridor connects South Australia with Western Australia and provides a rail link between WA with the eastern states.

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